Brazil: Military Police and Goons Destroy Peasant Occupation and Chase AND Journalist
Featured image: Aratikuty peasant occupation attacked in Mato Grosso do Sul (MS). Source: AND.
On Wednesday, August 19, Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous peasants from the Aratikuty occupation, in Dourados (MS), were attacked during an extrajudicial eviction carried out without a court order by the Military Police of Mato Grosso do Sul, following orders from the big landlord governor Eduardo Riedel, A Nova Democracia (AND) reports. The repressive forces destroyed structures built in the occupation, launched tear gas bombs, and fired shots at the indigenous peasants, while shacks were set on fire. An AND journalist was chased by two goon vehicles at the entrance of the peasant occupation. When the journalist approached to the area, the fire had already started.
AND reports that the attack by the military police and the siege carried out by the goons complemented each other. The military police destroyed structures, threw bombs and shot, while the goons set shacks on fire and controlled the entrance accesses to the peasant occupation. They attempted to prevent the arrival of supporters of the Guarani-Kaiowá, as well as the arrival of journalists who could report about what was happening there. This is the fourth time that AND journalists have been threatened and harassed while they cover the struggle of the indigenous peasants in Dourados and surrounding areas.
A reactionary member of the Parliament at the service of latifundium, attempted to justify the coward action by the military police and the goons, calling the peasants “terrorists” and stating that they use “guerrilla warfare tactics”, similarly to what it is said in the criminalization by the latifundium against the League of the Poor Peasants and their struggle for land in other regions of the country, such as Rondônia.
The reports by the Cimi (Indigenist Missionary Council) on the violence in the struggle for land, frequently mention the attacks on Aratikuty. In 2023, the Cimi recorded “attacks to the community”, “death threats” and the indigenous peasants denounced that goons with fire weapons constantly attacked the peasant occupations. In 2024 the situation was not better, since a constant threat against Aratikuty and new armed attacks were recorded.
AND explains that this new offensive against Aratikuty “occurs amidst the advance of Guarani-Kaiowá land recoveries in Mato Grosso do Sul, impulsed by the stagnation of land demarcations and the confinement conditions imposed on thousands of indigenous people”. AND reminds that the LCP “has called the rural populations to organize their own self-defense against the armed actions of the latifundium. In a statement published on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the Corumbiara Resistance, the organization cited the attacks against the Guarani-Kaiowá in Mato Grosso do Sul and called on peasants, occupiers, indigenous people, and Quilombola people to organize self-defense to respond ‘in the same proportion and caliber’ to the attacks by goon gangs who collaborate with the repressive forces of the old State.”
