Latest News in the Struggle for Land in Brazil
Featured image: Peasants marching during the People’s Tribunal in October 2025. Source: AND.
We hereby share some updates on the struggle for land and the ongoing Agrarian Revolution in Brazil, based on the latest “New Brazil Bulletin,” published by A Nova Democracia (AND) on August 25.
Barro Branco Stands Firm Against Attacks by Private Security
On August 22, two security guards from Agropecuária Mata Sul were caught destroying crops and tearing down fences at the Barro Branco sugar mill in Jaqueira, Pernambuco. Peasant families denounce a pattern of harassment, claiming that the company has already used “drones to surveil the community” and has “issued death threats against leaders of the land struggle.”
The region, which is part of the former Usina Frei Caneca, has endured years of “fraudulent auctions, destruction of vegetable gardens, contamination of water sources, shootings, and eviction attempts.” This situation deepened in September 2024, when the area repelled an incursion by more than 50 goons linked to the paramilitary group “Invasion Zero” and Agropecuária Mata Sul. The group arrived in “14 pickup trucks, accompanied by bulldozers,” destroying two farms before being stopped by the resistance.
In October 2025, a People’s Court was organized to turn these allegations into a political trial. The tribunal sentenced those responsible at Usina Frei Caneca to 22 years and Agropecuária Mata Sul to 103 years and six months for crimes including “land grabbing, auction fraud, environmental crimes, the formation of private militias, attempted murder, and labor violations.”
Despite the violence, families have reclaimed water sources and established the Menino Jonatas Camp. The text argues that it is in this “concrete battleground—against gun violence, paramilitary gangs, land grabbing, and the protection provided by the old State”—that the masses are effectively fighting “the extreme right and fascism.” Finally, Barro Branco serves as proof that the force capable of defeating reaction stems from “organization and the struggle for the Agrarian Revolution.”
Goons Attack Guarani-Kaiowá Peasants
The Guarani-Kaiowá indigenous peasants of the Aratikuty Land Reclamation in Dourados were violently attacked twice in the span of a few days. On August 17, military police and goons set homes on fire and destroyed water tanks, injuring children and the elderly. Two days later, the Military Police carried out an eviction without a court order, using tear gas and gunfire to destroy the peasant’s structures.
The repression extended to the popular press, highlighting with two trucks belonging to big landlords chasing after an AND correspondent—the fourth threat the newspaper has faced in the region. On the political front, pro-Bolsonaro Congressman Marcos Pollon legitimized the violence by calling the families “terrorists” and accusing them of using “guerrilla tactics” without presenting any evidence.
AND states that “The choice of words is no accident: agents of the repressive forces, candidates, and spokespeople for big landlords use the same counterinsurgency terminology against the LCP, classifying peasant areas as ‘guerrilla bases’ and the struggle for land as ‘irregular warfare’ or ‘hybrid warfare.’ By labeling entire communities as internal enemies, they seek to dehumanize the masses, justify military operations, and pave the way for further deaths. The offensive against Aratikuty thus reveals itself as part of the same reactionary war waged by the big landlords and the old State against peasants, indigenous peoples, and Quilombolas.”
