Brazil: the Latifundium’s terror against the Revolutionary Area Gedeon José Duque continues
We share an unofficial translation of an article found in Resistência Camponesa.
The combined operation between the Military Police of Rondônia and the goons led by Gesulino Cesar Travagine Castro continues to commit crimes at daylight, with the guarantee of impunity, even posting their crimes on social media. The actions of the Military Police and the goons have expanded to neighboring areas, although there is no reintegration of possession operation issued by the judiciary of Rondônia against these areas.
On April 9, the Military Police arrested a local merchant, whose whereabouts remain unknown. Another peasant from the Gedeon area has been missing since the operation began. He was last seen leaving the Gonzalo area and heading towards the Gedeon José Duque Area, in the same line where two pickups with goons were seen.
On the 10th, goons carried out a raid and invaded the homes of peasants in the Gonzalo Area, threatening and assaulting several residents, even grabbing an elderly couple by the neck and threatening to kill them if they did not leave their lands immediately. Also on the 10th, the Military Police invaded a part of the Revolutionary Area Valdiro Chagas under the pretext of searching for peasants who had supposedly left the Gedeon Area and were being hidden by other residents of the neighboring area.
Since the 9th, machines and tractors have been clearing the reserve forest located within the Gedeon Area, while groups of goons acting in bands continue to destroy the belongings of families and hunt them down, including a group of women and children who remain surrounded by the goons. While Gesulino’s armed gang does the dirty work, the Military Police fly over the Gedeon Area with helicopters, and the Civil and Military Police of Machadinho d’Oeste and Cujubim continue to operate on the ground in coordination with the goons who are in groups in the forest.
So far, no authority from the so-called Executive, Legislative, and Judicial powers of Rondônia has explained anything about this case. Meanwhile, Gesulino continues to post his crimes on his social media, such as Instagram. On the last day of the month, a video was posted in which he destroyed the entrance to the AR Gedeon, setting fire to the surveillance structure of the area and the banners placed by the League of Poor Peasants. In another video, Gesulino boasts about the speed of constructing a fence in the part of the Gedeon Area that he invaded. The video was recently deleted, but residents saved the posts.
The peasants also identified one of the goons who shot a peasant from the Gedeon Area on the 31st, named Diógenes, who is said to be one of Gesulino’s managers. The vehicle used in the attack was seen with the Military Police during the arrest of the local merchant and continues to circulate in the area. So far, no arrests of the perpetrators of this crime have been made.
Peasants in the region report that the seizure of weapons and ammunition from members of the “Invasão Zero” group, carried out by the Military Police on April 9, was merely a masquerade, while covering for the goons in the forest. In the face of a fleet of more than 15 pickups with big landlords and armed goons, the result of the police action was the seizure of only 6 firearms and a few dozen rounds of ammunition.
