Armed Goons Attack the Vida Nova Camp, Brazil
We share a denouncing note by the Pastoral Land Commission of Minas Gerais (CPT-MG):
The Pastoral Land Commission of Minas Gerais (CPT-MG) publicly denounces the brutal and cowardly violence against peasant families at the Vida Nova Camp, in Jordânia, in the Jequitinhonha Valley, Minas Gerais. The murderous latifundium, allied with the connivance of the State, seeks to crush the just struggle for the land with terror and blood!
On February 9, 2025, armed goons, at the behest of land thieves, led by criminal Afraninho do Estrela, destroyed fences and invaded the camp area with a tractor, installing a container as an affront to peasant resistance. Without any legal documentation, they acted with the certainty of impunity, backed by the inertia of the public power. And on February 14, 2025, this offensive intensified: more than 20 goons attacked the camp with gunfire and beatings. The State, complicit and omission, did nothing to prevent this massacre!
This is not an isolated case! For more than 16 years, these families have resisted bravely and against the relentless persecution of big landlors and the institutionalized violence of the State that protects the interests of oppressors. But history teaches us: where there is exploitation of the land, there will be struggle of the peasant class!
Faced with this scenario of war against rural workers, the Pastoral Land Commission of Minas Gerais demands:
1. The immediate arrest and punishment of the criminals responsible for the attack on February 14, 2025!
2. The permanent presence of protection forces to prevent new attacks against peasant families!
3. The accountability of the State for its criminal negligence and connivance with the latifundium!
4. The mobilization of all popular and revolutionary forces to strengthen the struggle for land and dignity!
Land is not a commodity, it is the life and right of the people! We will not be silent, we will not back down, we will not accept being massacred by those who profit from the sweat and blood of the working class! The united people will win!
LAND, JUSTICE AND FREEDOM!
Pastoral Land Commission of Minas Gerais Belo Horizonte – MG,
February 18, 2025.
