“Everything is Controlled by the LCP” – Latifundium Continue to Criminalize the Peasant Struggle in Rondônia, Brazil
In Rondônia, Brazil, a media campaign orchestrated by newspapers serving the latifundium has intensified, aiming to criminalize the peasant struggle and the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP), as reported by A Nova Democracia (AND). Newspapers such as Tudo Rondônia, Notícias Tudo Aqui, and Folha de Vilhena have spread claims, accusing the LCP of causing a “biblical disaster” by being responsible for the devastation of 15,000 hectares of forest. This narrative echoes a pattern in which peasants are blamed, while data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the MapBiomas system contradicts these claims, indicating that over 70% of deforestation in the Amazon is a result of the expansion of latifundium.
Sensationalist articles that characterize peasants as “bandits” and their actions as “armed attacks” reinforce a war rhetoric and justify violent repression against the struggles of poor and landless peasants. The peasants led by the LCP are accused of engaging in “shootouts,” “ambushes,”, etc. In contrast, the State repression and actions of latifundium have resulted in the death or disappearance of peasants, which are systematically ignored or even applauded, yet is well-documented with ample evidence, as reported for years by AND.
In 2024 alone, 48 agrarian conflicts were recorded in Rondônia, with 20 resulting in injuries or fatalities, clearly indicating that the true violence is directed against the peasants, not the other way around. This violence against the peasants has clear perpetrators: the Military Police and other groups of goons hired by big landlords.
The latifundium try to present itself as victim, while opposing agrarian reforms that could benefit the landless peasants. In this way, the latifundium seeks to delegitimize the peasant struggle and the LCP which organizes the peasantry.
AND points out that “the defamation campaign against the LCP is not new.” Whenever peasants make progress in the struggle for land, the same spectres are used. Ironically, the latifundium reveals their terror of an undeniable truth: the growing organization of peasants in their fight for land. Consequently, their campaign of criminalization against these individuals becomes increasingly aggressive.
