Police and Latifundium Attack Peasants in Southern Bahia, Brazil

We share an unofficial translation of an article by A Nova Democracia.

Amid attacks by big landlord groups against Indigenous people and peasants in Bahia (BA), the Civil Police and Military Police of the state, with the approval of the government of Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT), launched an operation today (March 20) against Indigenous people struggling for their land. As a result of the operation, Pataxó and Pataxó HãHãHãe Indigenous individuals were arrested and shot in southern Bahia, according to a report from the Teia dos Povos do Ceará.

The operation is set to execute 12 arrest warrants and 7 search and seizure warrants in Prado, a city in southern Bahia. According to the repressive institution, the offensive will target Indigenous people who are allegedly armed in the reclaiming of ancestral territories.

It is noteworthy that the operation aims to attack the Indigenous people despite the ongoing crimes committed by big landlords in the region. On March 10, young Pataxó Indigenous man Vítor Braz was murdered by a paramilitary group in the service of big landlords in the Barra Velha territory, while the house of the chief of the Indigenous Land (IL) Comexatibá in Prado was set on fire.

The Teia dos Povos do Ceará organization reported that the police are working together with paramilitaries “searching leaderships,” using “cars and helicopters.” “We, from the Teia dos Povos do Ceará, repudiate all violent actions against Indigenous peoples,” stated the organization, which also said that the ongoing genocide against Indigenous peoples “continues in various ways,” “now being perpetrated violently and explicitly by the government of Bahia, led by Jerônimo Rodrigues (PT).”

Big landlords pursue peasants in an offensive

While the police target the Indigenous people, since last week, big landlords organized in the União Agro Bahia (Unagro) group have been attacking peasants from the Landless Workers Movement (MST) who occupied latifundiums in the state.

Unagro is calling for an attack tomorrow (March 21) on an unproductive land occupied by the MST, whose alleged owner is a big landlord from Feira de Santana. According to the statement, the idea is to do something “peaceful,” but this is not usually the practice of Brazilian big landlords or their hired goons. In a recent interview with the Bolsonaro-supporting magazine Oeste, the vice president of Unagro stated on the mobilizations in a tone of attack. “We will fight them,” said the reactionary. “With an increasing number of producers, to guarantee our rights to private property.”

The group organizes via WhatsApp and sets meeting points to later attack the occupations – the same methods used by the paramilitary group “Invasão Zero.” This group is also active in Bahia, where, in January 2023, big landlords organized in this group murdered Indigenous woman Nega Pataxó during an attack on the IL Catarina-Paraguaçu in the municipality of Potiraguá (BA).

Another significant attack organized by this group occurred in Jaqueira, in the interior of Pernambuco, but the assault was repelled by the peasants, who set fire to barricades and defended their own land with sickles, stones, and other objects thrown at the invaders. At the end of the confrontation, the leader of “Invasão Zero” and two other henchmen were shot.

The increasing confrontations in various parts of Brazil are an expression of the development of the war between far-right big landlords and the poor in the countryside occurring in rural Brazil. The conflicts have escalated as more combative sectors of the peasantry and Indigenous peoples have organized armed self-defense groups to protect their lands and respond to the aggressions of big landlords. This is the case with the League of Poor Peasants (LCP), which between 2023 and 2024 made at least two calls reinforcing the need for the formation of self-defense groups.

This may be the case for the Indigenous people in southern Bahia, if they are indeed armed – the suspicion of it being a false report exists, as it is a common practice among big landlords and police to justify repression against the poor.