Brazil: Big Landlords use drones with pesticides to poison peasants in Maranhão

Recently A Nova Democracia reported, that during the year 2024, 228 communities in 35 municipalities in the state of Maranhão recorded pesticide contamination, with almost all of these cases (94%) due to drone attacks.

Aerial dumping of pesticides by big landlords is nothing new. In 2021, in the municipality of Buriti, residents of the Araçá village reported that they suffered from “showers” of pesticides dropped by planes, with victims including children. The episode occurred sponsored by the administration of the governor at the time, Flávio Dino. Today he is minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).

Today’s Governor Carlos Brandão (PSB), the successor to Flávio Dino, remains in the same line. During an event with large landlords in Açailândia – the state’s soybean hub –, he declared “rural producers from other states that, here in Maranhão, they can plant and harvest with support from the State Government”.

Reports from workers in the same region and other municipalities are assertive regarding the meaning of the drone attacks: their objective is to lose production and kill animals, all to force residents to leave the land.

Once those who live and work on the land are expelled, and the natural resources it contains, and any chance of production or subsistence in that place are destroyed, the latifundium, with the consent and support of the state government, can finally cover the lands.