LCP: Beloved Comrade Paulo João, one of the Founders of the LCP in Northeast, Passes Away

Hereby we share an unofficial translation of a statement by the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP).

It is with great sadness that we inform that on the night of October 18, 2025, the great people’s fighter, militant, and one of the founders of the League of the Poor Peasants-NE, Comrade Paulo João da Silva, passed away at the age of 72, after nearly 5 months of hospitalization due to a heart attack. During this period, his health condition worsened, a situation aggravated by the poor conditions of public health care in the state, until Paulo João finally rested after having resisted and fought, just as he did throughout his life. Comrade Paulo João leaves behind family, friends, and fellow comrades of struggle, to whom we extend our fraternal solidarity and support.

Comrade Paulo João, in addition to being a prominent activist of the League of the Poor Peasants of the Northeast, was also one of its founders in the Pernambuco region. He played a key role in the struggle for the liberation of peasant leader José Ricardo, in the Peoples Division of the Santa Luzia Farm, and in the 1st Congress of the League of the Poor Peasants in the Northeast. Paulo João fought tooth and nail against the goons of the Catende Sugar Mill, the attempts at criminalization by the Pernambuco Military Police, and the opportunism of the MST and FETAPE leadership with the deceitful “collective management” of the Harmonia Cooperative in Catende.

The history of Comrade Paulo João and the LCP in this region is intertwined and grows together. The comrade actively participated in the uprising organized by the League demanding the liberation of Comrade José Ricardo; in April 2008, after much struggle, José Ricardo was released and presented the LCP flag to the peasants of Pernambuco. Paulo João once again played a key role in the political work and persuasion for the peasants of the Santa Luzia Farm, where he lived, to raise the flag of the newly arrived but very combative movement. On July 13, 2008, all the masses in the area decided for the League of the Poor Peasants and the Peoples Division of that farm.

The first Peoples Division in the Northeast, whose landmarks still stand today and serve as an example for all peasants in Pernambuco, a tremendous pride for the LCP, celebrated on November 30, 2008, with a grand Peoples Division Festival, distributing 48 plots to dozens of families from the Santa Luzia Farm, who took the path of the Agrarian Revolution. Still in 2008, Paulo João participated in the organization of the massive 1st Congress of the LCP in the Northeast, held in Catende with around 1,000 peasants and receiving delegations from Ceará, Alagoas, Recife, Lagoa dos Gatos, and other places. At the Congress, a review was made of the year of introduction of the movement in the Northeast, in addition to a beautiful tribute to Comrade José Ricardo, victim of a tragic motorcycle accident on August 10 of that year.

With his contagious enthusiasm and always with a firm defense of the LCP and the Agrarian Revolution, Comrade Paulo João was present in all these moments of the construction of the League of the Poor Peasants in the Northeast, especially in the Pernambuco forest zone, taking the lead, supporting, directing, and organizing our brave and fearless poor peasantry. He took upon himself the duty of the Agrarian Revolution, always receiving his fellow fighters, both old and new, as part of his own family. He will always be remembered as one of the historical militant founders of the LCP’s work in the Northeast.

ETERNAL HONOR AND GLORY TO COMRADE PAULO JOÃO!

COMRADE PAULO JOÃO, PRESENT IN THE STRUGGLE!

LONG LIVE THE AGRARIAN REVOLUTION!

League of the Poor Peasants – Northeast