LCP Denies that the Peasants Killed by the Military Police are Members of the Organization and Denounce the “Destruction of Evidence”

Featured image source: A Nova Democracia (AND)

The League of the Poor Peasants (LCP) has issued a statement denying any connection to two peasants executed by the Rondônia Military Police (PM-RO) in front of the Tiago Campin dos Santos 2 Area. The LCP accuses the police and an armed group known as “Jed gang” of being behind the killings.

According to the LCP, the two peasants who were executed, Bruno Alessandro Eller and Gislei Goularte Gonçalves, were not members of the organization and were victims of a “Destruction of Evidence” (referring to the elimination of individuals who could compromise a group or organization). The LCP maintains that the murdered peasants belonged to the “Jed gang” and acted as police informants in a scheme orchestrated by the superintendent of INCRA-RO, Flávio.

The LCP also accuses Colonel Braguin, former commander-general of the PM-RO, and the superintendent of Incra-RO, Flávio, of being involved in a scheme to murder peasants and defend big landlords. The organization states that the goal of this scheme is to expel peasant families from their lands, those who have been working and living in the camp since 2020 have already suffered severe repression.

The LCP also refers to a People’s Tribunal Against Big Landlord Crimes in Rondônia, held last March, where crimes committed by big landlords and acts of repression in the State were denounced. The LCP maintains that the complaints filed with the tribunal have triggered a crisis in the scheme of peasant murders and the defense of large estates. Following the People’s Tribunal’s decision, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office and the Federal Police launched an investigation into the militias and the murders of peasant leaders in Rondônia, issuing search and seizure warrants in several municipalities across the state.

Finally, the LCP reported that Gesulino César Travagine de Castro, a goon leader and collaborator of Colonel Braguim and Senator Marcos Rogério, was arrested after more than a year on the run. Gesulino was sentenced to 35 years in prison for the murder of six people in 2012 and for leading a private militia specializing in gunmen, land theft, and money laundering. The LCP emphasized that the arrest took place “right under the noses of the Guaxebão police.”

The statement concludes by reaffirming support for the Tiago Campin dos Santos Area and the peasant struggle for land, with the slogans: “Land to those who live and work on it!”, “Death to latifundium!”, “Long live the Tiago Campin dos Santos Area!”, “Long live the Agrarian Revolution!”, and “Long live the LCP!”