Brazil: Peasants expel the Military Police from the School in Barro Branco

Since the Fierce Battle of Barro Branco on September 28, 2024, the police had been stationed in the municipal school, but the protests of the peasants have managed to expel the Military Police, as A Nova Democracia reports.

After the activation of the “agrarian conflict protocol”, the police stayed at the school to, according to them, “protect the population”. But what the peasants have experienced is harassment by the Military Police. After protecting the latifundium and the paramilitary horde “Invasão Zero” in the Battle of Barro Branco, the police was interrogating children on daily basis to make them snitch on their parents, they seized a peasant’s motorcycle and checked the community’s cars. However, the Military Police allowed the big landlords of the Agropecuaria Mata Sul to calmly walk in the area and threatening peasants without being disturbed.

Military Police in the school. Source: AND

The most tense situation occurred in December last year, when an unregistered car with four men claiming to be “Federal Police” drove through the middle of the area, stopped the neighbors, pointed large-caliber weapons at them, asked them who were the most active in the struggle and threatened to enter the Menino Jonatas Camp and “shoot everyone inside.”

The gunmen even approached a 13-year-old boy and his father in front of the school where police were camped. The hooded men pointed guns at the peasants, took photographs of them and made numerous threats, all in broad daylight and less than 20 meters from where the Military Police vehicle was parked.

In the face of all these attacks, the neighbors protested the presence of the police, “they are here to protect the bandits and not to protect the community”, one of the peasants said. A week later, the same car returned to the area. When the villagers gathered to drive out the gunmen, they fled but before stopping again in front of the Military Police at the school, they beat a peasant with a gun to the head and stole his flashlight.

After this latest attack, the protesting peasants went to the school to demand the departure of the police. The police officers fearing the revolt of the masses, locked themselves up inside the school and refused to talk to the peasants without the presence of more agents.

The combative action by the masses unmasked the actions of the police, who days after the protest withdrew from the school. The withdrawal of the police meant a victory for the masses, who reclaim the community school for themselves, just weeks before the pupils holidays end.