Brazil: Public Hearing in Conceição do Araguaia Defending Lands Conquered by the LCP
We hereby share an unofficial translation of a report published by A Nova Democracia on a victory in the struggle for land in Pará.
A public hearing regarding the dispute over the lands of the former latifundiums Jacutinga and Talismã, which, along with the Capivara latifundium, formed the Gabriel Pimenta Revolutionary Area, took place on August 19 in Conceição do Araguaia. The lands were defended after a historic occupation led by the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP) in 2007.
For the hearing, the masses were supported by the Union of Rural Workers of the municipality of Conceição do Araguaia, as well as by the lawyer representing the peasants. The National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) was present, along with a representative from the company Alpha, which claims to be the legal owner of the lands.
The lands were taken from the then-supposed owner, João da Cruz, who claims to have favored the occupation in negotiations with Incra for “agrarian reform.” The company Alpha later appeared in 2009, initiating a legal process claiming ownership of the land when the peasants had already plowed and cultivated the land for nearly two years.
These areas have also been the subject of recent greed from the large pro-imperialist mining company Horizonte Minerals, which took on a project in the municipality for the exploitation of nickel reserves. Faced with the resistance of the local peasants and market issues, the project went bankrupt, even in the advanced installation phase, leaving many workers unemployed and small and medium landowners, who invested their resources based on the new venture, in misery.
The LCP in southern Pará and Tocantins, after its first founding congress in 2005, carried out the historic occupation that formed the Gabriel Pimenta Revolutionary Area, starting with the organization of three camps on the respective latifundiums. This occupation, prepared over months of hard work in mobilizing the peasant masses, under the leadership of the historical leader and founder of the LCP in the region, Luiz Lopes, who was murdered by the latifundium in 2009, succeeded in delivering land to hundreds of poor peasant families. With the occupation of Gabriel Pimenta, the LCP firmly planted the flag of the Agrarian Revolution in southern Pará and Tocantins, which is strengthened by new occupations, such as that of the Forkilha latifundium in Santa Maria das Barreiras, which mobilized over 1,500 families and resisted the brutal repression of the Operation Peace in the Countryside by the government of Luiz Inácio/Ana Júlia Carepa (PT).
In the current hearing, the company Alpha failed to provide documentation proving its legal ownership. Regardless of the legal status, the defense of the peasants argues that the true owners of the land are those who occupy it, dedicating their daily effort and sweat to live and work on it, supporting their families with dignity. Therefore, the peasants’ claim in this hearing was for the end of the legal process against the infamous Alpha and the regularization of the lands for the occupants who have lived and worked there for decades.
As part of the defense and support for the peasants, a video documentary about the hearing was produced by Sandoval Amparo, a professor at UEPA and a filmdirector, with the support of academic and people’s organizations.
