BRAZIL – Minas Gerais: Powerful Political Event celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the Santa Elina Battle
We hereby publish an unofficial translation of an article published by A Nova Democracia.
More than a hundred activists of dozens of movements and organizations, gathered in the auditoium of the Alice Monteiro of the Faculty of Law of the UFMG during the 27th of August, in order to celebrate the historic Battle of Santa Elina, that occurred in the Corumbiara municipality in Rôndonia on the 9th of August 1995.
The political event started with a opening speech by the president of the Brazilian Association of People’s Lawyers – Gabriel Pimenta (ABRAPO), remembering the historical date of the 9th August 1995, on which hundreds of peasants resisted furiously with arms against the storm of armed gangs of guaxebas (Goons) and policemen, paid by the latifundium on the Santa Elina farm.
After his speech, representatives of the Committee of Defense of the Victims of Santa Elina (CODEVISE), Helena Greco Institute of Human and Civil Rights was invited on the panel. these are organizations that together with the Committee of Support for the AND newspaper, with the aid of the Academic Directorate of the Faculty of Law of the UFMG, made the call for the event. The Miners Committee of Solidarity to the Palestinian People and a representative of the LPS- Struggle for Socialism, who have been warmly greeting the heroic resistance of the peasants of Santa Elina, were also part of the panel guests.
With emotional speeches, the representatives of CODEVISE reported on the paramilitary invasion of the former camp on the Santa Elina farm, and about the combative and heroic self-defense of the peasants, that made it possible that this attack did not result in an even bigger amount of bloodshed against the approximately 600 residing families.
The representative of the Helena Greco Institute told about his travel to the Santa Elina farm and how he met the peasants after the bloody battle. The same way the Comrade Pepê of the LPS also told about his visit to Rôndonia and the solidarity movement that took place in the time of the peasants battle in 1995.
The representative of the MEPR reiterated the importance of the cities supporting of the struggle for land in the countryside and also spoke about the historic comrade Renato Nathan, who dedicated himself to teach peasants and support them in their struggles.
The representative of the Support Committee of AND of BH, spoke about the importance of the months leading up to 1995, in which democrats and revolutionaries made a break with the national- reformism, upholding the memory of professor Fausto Arruda, who went to live that same year in Rôndonia in order to mobilize, politicize, and organize the struggle of these peasants and who also made a break with opportunism and marched on a new path of struggle for land in the country.
The speeches of Red Unity, the Sabotage Collective and the Students Body of the School Machado de Assis ended with intense cheers for the peasants who, for 30 years have resisted and are destroying the Latifundium, conquering land for those who live and work on it and regaining all the land of the former Santa Elina Farm.
The event concluded with the singing of the hymn of the LCP, “Conquistar a Terra” and the recording of a video in support of the heroic Palestinian resistance.
All pictures are published by AND
