Brazil: People’s Court in Rondônia Condemned the Crimes of Latifundium
The People’s Court Against Latifundium Crimes condemned the collusion between land grabbers and the police, that, over decades, resulted in the deaths of indigenous people, peasants, and a lawyer, A Nova Democracia (AND) reports. The People’s Court was called by the Brazilian Association of People’s Lawyers (ABRAPO), and was presided over by retired judge Jorge Moreno of the state of Maranhão, with the support of the Committee for Solidarity and Struggle for Land (COMSOLUTE), the Brazilian Center for Solidarity with the Peoples (CEBRASPO), the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), and other organizations.
Colonels of the Rondônia Military Police and troops under their command, whether on the ground or from helicopters, who fired sniper rifles (with explosive ammunition) on peasant encampments in Rondônia, will be held accountable. The final document will also condemn the spraying of pesticides by drone on grain crops.
The decision was taken during the People’s Court which took place on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th of March, at the headquarters of the Union of Education Workers in the State of Rondônia. Currently under review, the court’s ruling will be released within a maximum of two weeks. The entire ruling is based on survivor testimonies.
For almost five decades, land conflicts have resulted in deaths and injuries among indigenous people, squatters, riverside dwellers, and rubber workers. Entire communities have been expelled from their lands, while leaders of all of them have suffered persecution from land grabbers and ranchers. Many have been murdered in ambushes, armed expeditions, and other attacks that have continued to multiply massacres to this day. While these conflicts took place, the Brazilian State failed to settle peasant families which migrated to Rondônia, encouraged by projects initiated in 1970. Because of this failure, there are approximately 16 million hectares of unclaimed land.
Several crimes such as murders, harassment of the peasants, blackouts to silence them, as well as the denial of the right to attend school for children in rural areas, were condemned. Among them, the execution of two peasants in 2022, Elias Camilo de Lima, and his wife, Ilma Rodrigues dos Santos, was proved and condemned, as the military police attempted to cover it up and present that as a crime that occurred far away from the camp Thiago Campin dos Santos.
The auditorium demanded the freedom of the people’s lawyer Lenir Correia Coelho, detained since last year, accused of being part of a “criminal organization”. Comrade Flecha, murdered in January of this year, was commemorated.
The full report can be read here:
A Nova Democracia (AND) is the source of all the images used in this article.
