Brazil: Hundreds of Peasants Demand Land in Alagoas
Featured image: Big demonstration between União dos Palmares and Branquinha, Alagoas.
On Wednesday 24th of September hundreds of peasants protested in the state of Alagoas, demanding that the land of the Laginha latifundium, owned by the Lyra Group, be distributed among landless peasants or those with little land. The march started from the municipality of União dos Palmares and continued to Branquinha. More than 3,500 peasant families have lived and worked on these lands since 2013. The Lyra Group, owner of the latifundium, went bankrupt in 2014 and has a long history of crimes against the Brazilian people of Alagoas. The people of Alagoas faced conditions of serfdom under the Lyra Group.
A Nova Democracia (AND) reports that the mobilization gathered numerous peasant and people’s organizations, among them: the People’s Struggle Movement (MPL), the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the National Struggle Front (FNL), the Landless Workers’ Liberation Movement (MLST), the Labor and Struggle Movement (MTL), and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST).
Alagoas has a history of fierce struggle by the peasantry for their right to land. The League of the Poor Peasants (LCP) led the struggle of hundreds of peasant families in Messias. They established the Revolutionary Area Renato Nathan, and struggled against the eviction from this area. You can get more information on this subject in the following articles:
Among these mobilizations, hundreds of peasants participated in a march at the end of January, demanding land to live and work on:
A similar march took place on September 14, when 2,000 peasants blocked the regional highway with the demand that these same lands be reallocated to them:
The Instagram account of the MST Alagoas is the source of all the pictures used in this article.
