Brazil: LCP Honors the Five Peasant Activists Murdered in Rondônia and Affirms Their Blood Will Be Avenged
Featured image: Peasants from the Tiago Campin dos Santos area blocking BR-364 during the Battles in the North in 2021. Source: AND
On August 19, the National Commission of the League of Poor Peasants (LCP) published a tribute to Gedeon, Rafael, Amarildo, the only 17-years-old Amaral, and Kevin, who were murdered during the 2021 ‘Battles of the North’ in Rondônia, Brazil. The statement was released five years after the August 13 attack on the Ademar Ferreira Area, in Nova Mutum Paraná, in the rural zone of Porto Velho.
LCP reports that, Amarildo Aparecido Rodrigues, Amaral José Stocco Rodrigues, and Kevin Fernando Holanda de Souza were murdered while working by agents of the National Public Security Force and Military Police. Amarildo and Amaral had obtained plots of land and begun cultivating them, while Kevin, described by the organization as a young man from a poor family, worked on neighboring properties to support his mother and sisters.
The murders connect to “Operation Nova Mutum”, a large-scale security operation targeting the Ademar Ferreira and Tiago Campin dos Santos areas, in which thousands of repressive forces, drones and helicopters were deployed to banish families occupying the land. The peasants resisted the operation by blocking roads and destroying bridges used by the police forces, and many families later returned to their lands after being expelled.
In the same offensive of the old State, Gedeon José Duque and Rafael Gasparini Tedesco, identified by the LCP as militants of the organization, were also executed and subsequently portrayed as criminals in an attempt to justify their deaths and discredit them. A Nova Democracia (AND) points out, in New Brazil Bulletin No. 34, that this is a recurring tactic to cover up State violence and attack the memory of leaders recognized by the masses.
In its tribute, the LCP calls for those responsible for the killings to be punished and reaffirms its commitment to crush the latifundium. “Blood does not drown the revolution, but rather waters it!,” the LCP states, Concluding the tribute with the slogans: “Conquer the land, destroy the latifundium! Long live the Agrarian Revolution!”
This promise of the LCP presents itself also in a video shared by AND also in their latest bulletin, which shows the peasant’s self defense force in the Tiago Campin dos Santos, in Nova Mutum Paraná (RO), defeated an armed attack by goons working for big landlords on the night of November 26, 2025.
