Brazil: AND Editorial – Bolsonarist latifundium increase its war in the countryside
We hereby publish an unofficial translation of the last Editorial published by A Nova Democracia (AND).
The terrorist attack by big landlords and their armed groups in Douradina, Mato Grosso do Sul, which left more than 10 Guarani-kaiowás wounded in three different retaken lands, demands a harsh and firm response. The paramilitary gangs moved forward against the retaken lands, torched the surrounding areas, shot with rifles wounding the Guarani-kaiowás, even in the head; to finish their task, they tortured and beaten the masses, including an elder. It was an operation of siege and annihilation against unarmed masses, which struggle, by the way, to retake part of the Indigenous Land (TI) of Lagoa Panambi, marked since 2011.
Despite the existence of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, the truth is there is no guarantees for the masses which struggle for their territory, therefore, are just a bureaucratic ornament with no validity at all to deceive the innocent people, just for keeping the image. What can be expected from the government? The attempt of massacre in Douradina occurred after the sudden and unexplainable withdrawal of the National Force, which was in the area; the Missionary Indigenous Council (Conselho Indigenista Missionário – CIMI) suspects that this was a coordinated action among big landlords and federal troops in order to annihilate the masses. Right before their withdrawal from the area, the federal troops were already denounced by Guarani-kaiowás as collaborators of the goons, as the federal troops protect them as well they forbade the indigenous people to carry out their daily activities.
The situation is not expressed just by this case. 2023, first year of this third Luiz Inácio government, was the year with more quantity of agrarian conflicts since 1985 (end of the military regime) and which was higher than the bloody years of struggle for land, such as 1995 (when occurred the Massacre of Corumbiara, in Rondônia) and 1996 (Eldorado dos Carajás, in Pará). Behind this increase it is the armed action of the Bolsonarist far right, which conformed and armed to the teeth thousands of paramilitary groups commanded or hired by big landlords, under the appearance of companies of rural security, according to the research of the dossier Armed Oligarchies, of “One sight to the ruralists”. It is a truly de-centralized army of far right, mobilized by specific ‘movements of big rural producers’, the cynically called ‘Movement for Peace in the Countryside’, big landlords land grabbers and leeches, and from those movements, some of them have Bolsonaro itself as an honorific president. Is the far right who is at the first frontline of the terror by latifundium at the countryside, it is a war promoted by the dominating Bolsonarism in this area.
The president of the republic, tied to the “agribusiness” like an obedient dog, has not said anything about the attempted general annihilation of Guarani-kaiowás other than the laconic declaration that he will invite a commission of indigenous leaders to deal with the demarcation and approval of territories claimed. More than that, it will only be words, as he has bowed so much to the reaction that he believes that, if he wants to remain in government, he will have to remain completely tied. This is also why, in a recent survey, the government’s popularity only drops, now only to 35%, alarming marketers: the drop in approval is due to when the government started it claimed to be “left-wing”, but, in everything, it is right-wing – and, thus, paved the way for the Bolsonarist right to retake the presidency in 2026. On no issue we should not expect anything, therefore, from the institutional path, since, which it always propagandizes “the achievements…”, with harmful consequences on the indigenous issue, they only serve, in practice, to “flourish” and give legitimacy to a continued genocide.
It i a civil rural war, imposed by Bolsonarism to the poor people of the countryside. Unfortunately, just one side has an army, which acts thanks to the coward convenience or omission, where not active repression, by the different governments and institutional powers, all of them conformed by big landlords which are not moved and cannot me moved by the masses’ drama. There is no sense to continue asking to the big landlords, who are at the posts of the State, to be less cruel, less big landlords. This is their class nature. The people’s masses of countryside: peasants, indigenous and remains of quilombolas need to increase their organization, active self-defense before the criminal big landlords, robbers of Union’s lands and parasites of the Nation, to guarantee their freedom, land and territories, as powerful waves of new democracy revolution.
