Brazil: Struggle for land’s leader murdered in Paraná

We hereby share a resume of an article published by A Nova Democracia (AND).

AND reported yesterday that “On the night of December 19, 2024, the important leader from Faxinal, Iracema Correia dos Santos, 64 years old, was shot dead (…) in her own home located in Faxinal do Bom Retiro, municipality of Pinhão, Paraná.” She was a people’s leader, particularly a leader involved in the struggle for land in Faxinal.

She joined the ranks of the poor peasantry and landless peasantry in 2005, joining the Articulação dos Povos Faxinalenses (APF) and worked together with several collectives, struggling for some goals such as the construction of a municipal school within their community, a demand that was ignored by the local authorities.

Her death, according to the Civil Police “investigation”, allegedly points to a robbery. But what does not seem to be taken into consideration by the police is that, as pointed out in a note released by the APF and the Center for the Defense of the Rights of Traditional Peoples and Communities (NUPOVOS/IFPR), 18 years ago Dona Iracema suffered threats and intimidation due to land disputes. It must also be considered that her name was among those recorded in the Countryside Conflicts Notebook of the Pastoral Land Commission (Comissão Pastoral da Terra – CPT).

Related to that, AND reports on a “growing development of the contradiction that occurs between land grabbers, big landlords and large companies, on the one hand, and the people of Faxinal and poor peasants, landless or with small land, on the other.”

According to a note of condolence released by local and national scholars, “families in the region have been struggling for the right to their lands for decades and have been living with violence and constant murders.” What has been also disregarded by the local authorities and the police, is that Iracema faced constant harassment from the thugs of the Zattar timber company, which, AND reports that “since it was established in the region in 1950, gave rise to conflicts that persist to this day, where peasants suffer from speculations in lands which are disputed with the timber company.”