7,000 Indigenous Peasants Protest Against Latifundium and the Old State in Brazil

Featured image: Mass march in Brasília. Source: A Nova Democracia.

On April 7, 7,000 indigenous peasants took to the streets of Brazil’s capital, Brasília, to protest against attacks by goons of the latifundium, against the genocidal policy toward indigenous peoples, and over the question of land, which A Nova Democracia (AND) explains is the “central axis of the aforementioned issues.”

The “nearly 7,000 indigenous people representing more than 200 indigenous communities” flooded the Ministry Esplanade, where State institutions and the headquarters of “big bourgeois businesses” are concentrated. The demonstration ended at the Tierra Libre Camp.

The protesters “denounced the genocidal role of the old State in collusion with latifundium, and the complicity of the current government.” AND reports that there were moments of heightened tension when the march approached the Parliament building, where the military police and the legislative police set up a blockade to prevent the protesters from passing.

The demonstrators burned three large plastic skulls, “as a political representation of the death of the old State.” The activists threw incendiary objects at the burning skulls and prevented the firefighters from extinguishing the flames.

The struggle of Palestine was also highlighted, “uniting the struggle of Brazil’s indigenous peoples with the heroic resistance against Nazi-Zionism and US imperialism.” The protesters rejected attempts to manipulate the demonstration and use it for electoral interests. Furthermore, indigenous leaders denounced “the invasion of foreign missionaries,” the “extreme impoverishment in villages and urban centers,” and the “unpunished actions of groups of goons such as ‘Invasão Zero.’”