Brazil: Tabloid Press Accuse LCP of Staging Ambush
We hereby share an unofficial translation of the first part of an article from A Nova Democracia (AND) published on the 15th of April.
The “tabloid press” in Rondônia accuses the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP) of carrying out “an armed attack” that resulted in the death of a civilian police officer and left four other people injured in Nova Mutum Paraná on April 14. The attack, which, according to Police Chief Leisaloma Carvalho, involved “ten people armed with rifles,” took place on the grounds of the former NorBrasil latifundium, linked to Antônio Martins, the big landlord “Galo Velho,” accused of perpetrating violence against peasants through hired police and engaging in land grabbing, where a fierce battle for land has been raging for years.
According to websites funded by the Rondônia-based latifundium—dubbed by the peasant movement as “Rondônia’s trash media”—the retired civil police officer was acting as an escort for NorBrasil “employees.” On April 14, the group got out of a pickup truck to have lunch and, upon returning, was “surprised by armed men hiding behind the residence” on the latifundium. In the attack, the police officer was killed and the other individuals—who, according to the big landlord, were employees performing other “services”—were wounded.
In a released audio recording, one of the individuals “working” on the latifundium says he was attacked again and calls out for help from another person, apparently a “colleague” of his, who could assist in the conflict: “Help me, man! I got attacked again, I don’t know where the hell my colleagues are! We were all inside the house, we got to the doorstep and there were bullets, bro, bullets, bullets, bro, and I ran. I’m heading to… I need the backup car, bro!”
Troops from the 9th Battalion of the PM-RO (Military Police of Rondônia), under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Wesley, were called in by the plantation’s employees. However, upon arriving at the scene, they found only the attacked pickup truck, already completely charred. The case remains under investigation by the Civil Police. The police only stated that they found a box of ammunition for large-caliber weapons.
To date, the LCP has not commented on the charges. On other occasions, in response to accusations of “terrorism” and “criminal organization,” the movement has stated that “the LCP is not a criminal organization, much less a terrorist one; it is a class-conscious and militant organization of Brazil’s poor peasants. We defend and fight for the Agrarian Revolution to definitively eradicate backwardness, misery, hunger, and the brutal, centuries-old exploitation of our people—especially peasants, Indigenous peoples, and Quilombolas! To put an end to the injustices perpetrated by a handful of billionaire owners of everything—parasites of the nation—against the vast majority who have nothing! We fight and hand over the land to poor peasants who have no land or very little land. And we will not give up the armed self-defense of the masses in the face of your centuries-old reactionary violence and the privileges you hold by controlling the police force of the old State.”
The full article can be read here:
