New attacks against peasants by the latifundium in Pará and Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
New attacks against peasants by big landlords were reported.
The latifundium poisoned land in Pará
Indigenous peasants in the region of São Domingos do Araguaia, in southeastern Pará, have denounced that their lands have been attacked by big landlords in the region, to the Committee in Support of A Nova Democracia. Due to the large historical presence of goons at the service of the latifundium, the peasants have preferred to remain anonymous.
All their plantations have been poisoned by the big landlords because, as the indigenous peasants themselves say, “to accelerate the production of monocultures, such as soybeans, by clearing the pastures, the product is thrown into the air. Thus, the wind carries the poison to all those who live in its surroundings, without respecting territorial limits.” While the State government of Pará seeks to show a picture of “sustainable” at COP-30 – while, additionally, more and more mining imperialist projects are approved in the region – the reality is that peasants cannot cultivate the land because of the practices of the big landlords. For this reason, they declare that indigenous peoples are wise and that “they do not need interpreters for COP-30. We say: The flora and the Originary Peoples are not for sale!”
Immigrants and indigenous subjected to servitude by the latifundium
Dozens of immigrants and indigenous people subjected to servitude by the latifundium were rescued across the state of Rio Grande do Sul in late January and early February. The vast majority worked in the grape harvest and practically all are immigrants or indigenous, as the newspaper A Nova Democracia reports.
It all exploded when ten people went to social assistance denouncing that they had been fired without being paid after a month of work. They had been promised 150 reais a day for the harvest, but they ended up living in a shed and had to buy basic hygiene items from the latifundium, such as toilet paper. In this operation, 31 people have been rescued in several areas.
AND highlights that “Work in slavery conditions” is another way of calling feudal servitude, still very alive in Rio Grande do Sul. According to recent studies, since 2020 “Work in slavery conditions” has quadrupled since 2020, the year in which more than 200 workers were rescued in the city of Rio Grande do Sul, Bento Gonçalves.
“However, the number of rescued workers does not represent even a fraction of the actual number of peasants subjected to servitude in the State. Outside the country, the crisis in Argentina, which is only one of the general crisis that plagues all of Latin America, leads Argentines, especially young people from the interior, to seek work in Brazil, where they are subjected to the most brutal servitude and misery at the hands of the latifundium” highlights the newspaper.
