Brazil: Attacks Against the Area Valdiro Chagas; Peasants Denounce Violations and Threats After BOPE Operation
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by A Nova Democracia on the old State and Latifundium ongoing aggression against the peasant Area Valdiro Chagas.
While Bolsonaro’s supporting colonels and the commander of the Military Police of Rondônia (MP-RO) pose on “social media”, fueling a campaign of demonization against the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP), the reality in the Area Valdiro Chagas continues to be one of constant terror caused by police and paramilitaries.
Peasants denounce that since the illegal operation by the Special Operations Battalion (Bope) launched on August 8, goons have been conducting illegal “raids” on the roads, as retaliation against the peasant residents of the area. Reports indicate physical aggressions, such as slaps to the face and threats, in a clear attempt to humiliate and intimidate the community.
“The guaxebas [paramilitaries] set fire to several points in the settlement, scattering the cattle and threatening the people here. They stop people in the middle of the road and threaten them, slapping them. The situation is terrible,” said a peasant. The statements let clear that the aggressions are not limited by the police presence. Goons linked to latifundium continue to operate with total freedom, setting fire to crops and destroying local production. One of the videos sent to the AND newsroom shows fields in flames, dense smoke covering the horizon, a crime against the environment and the economy that, once again, remains unanswered by the “authorities”.
The psychological impact affects particularly the children in the area. “The children are afraid to go to school; they are crying,” reported a peasant. The right to education, already precarious in the region, has now become another victim of repression.
As if physical violence and the destruction of crops were not enough, peasants denounce arbitrary economic punishments. A peasant woman recorded a video in front of a police station, stating that she lost the social assistance she was receiving because the address she provided, was allegedly on “someone else’s land”, and then was deemed as irregular by the responsible agency.
The cancellation of the social assistance, arbitrary and without any legal backing, left her child without milk to eat. By removing the few social protection mechanisms for local peasants, the State endorses the criminalization of peasants and deepens the war policy against the poor people of the countryside.
