Brazil: big landlords unleash terror against peasants in Mato Grosso do Sul

Featured image: injured peasant after the attack on the peasant camp of Guarani-Kaiowa indigenous people. Source: A Nova Democracia (AND).

We have recently reported on how the indigenous peasants in the interior of the Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) state in Brazil, were resisting harassment and siege by latifundium, with the invaluable collaboration by the National Force from the old Brazilian State. Here the indigenous peasants of the Guarani-Kaiowa peoples had set their own self-defense system in order to protect their camp, built on retaken lands from the latifundium. Today AND reports that between 4^th and 5^th of August, 10 indigenous peasants have been injured, three of them severely, after a series of attacks by the latifundium against the camp. The National Force, initially sent to the area by Luiz Inácio da Silva, displayed its complicity by leaving the place despite there was a clear risk of an attack and massacre by the latifundium against the peasants, and despite that the harassment actions by these goons were increasing. After the National Force abandoned the lands, the attack started.

AND has shared a video of the assault. The latifundium’s goons, among other crimes, have set fire to the camp:

The goons have shot and severely injured two indigenous peasants who were protecting the barricades of the camp, being injured at the head and throat. After the attack, the National Force came back after receive criticism.

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The latifundium had not enough with these crimes and also attacked another peasant camp at the capital of the state, Dourados. In this case it attacked a camp lead by the Landless Rural Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – MST). This camp gathers almost 300 peasant families. Workers from the camp had visited and displayed their support to the peasant camp of the Guarani-Kaiowa indigenous people. In this case, 10 vans of the goons surrounded and set fire to the camp and this put at risk the life of the peasants, among them children.

After the attack, the goons prevented the arrival of the fire-fighters. Moreover MST reports that they have also faced control and harassment as the Brazilian repressive forces who have identified them and made pictures of vehicles and identity documents, as well threatened the workers of the camp. So we can clearly see an scenario of a sharpening of the struggle for the land and collaboration between the old Brazilian State and the latifundium’s goon in order to frighten and repress the Brazilian peasant movement. But AND also reports that “Without waiting an official response to guarantee the defense of their lands, the indigenous people is preparing the area, calling to gather support and they promise to defend the retaken lands ‘until the last drop of blood’.”