Brazil – AND: Flávio Bolsonaro Threatens LCP
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by A Nova Democracia (AND) on October 6.
Flávio Bolsonaro says that “LCP is a terrorist organization” and claims that it “will come to an end one day”
Flávio’s campaign has released a video titled “LCP Should Be Classified as a Terrorist Organization” and echoes the rhetoric of their patriarch Jair Bolsonaro, who had previously promised to “contain this terrorism” in Rondônia but was defeated by the massive peasant resistance in 2020–21. In a conversation with Flávio, Fernando Máximo, the senator-elect from Rondônia, links the LCP to “organized crime,” accuses it of carrying rifles and killing police officers, and demands that it be treated as “terrorists.”
“This will come to an end one day – you can be sure of that!” threatened the foolish Flávio Bolsonaro (PL), a candidate for president of the old State, after hearing his far-right henchman Fernando Máximo argue that the League of Poor Peasants (LCP) should be classified as “terrorist.” The video, sent to TV Celular on September 23, was released as campaign propaganda for the PL and “Rachadinha’s” campaign, under the title “LCP Must Be Classified as a Terrorist Organization.” The channel was recently launched by the Bolsonaro clan.
In the video, the obtuse Fernando Máximo accuses the LCP of being part of “organized crime involving terrorists invading lands,” of carrying “high-caliber 7.62 and 5.56 rifles,” and of killing “even police officers.” “We have to be strict; we have to treat them as terrorists, yes!” he demands hysterically. Trying to formulate a line of reasoning, which is a difficult task for his kind, Flávio Bolsonaro asks: “Well, if they’re poor, how do they buy rifles?” Then he insinuates: “Someone’s financing them, right?”
Máximo recites the old refrain about the “producer” who “worked, bought the land, produces food, and creates jobs.” This convenient portrayal obscures the land grabbing carried out by the big landlords of Rondônia and AMACRO, a region teeming with thieves of federal land. In the same breath, he attacks the meager expansion of indigenous lands and environmental reserves as obstacles to the agro-exporting latifundium’s insatiable appetite for land. Hysterically, he blurts out: “And then there’s the League of the Poor Peasants to invade. It has to be classified as a terrorist organization too!”
Standing alongside Fernando Máximo, Flávio Bolsonaro threatens the LCP, stating that it “will come to an end one day.” His campaign posted the video under the title “The LCP should be classified as a terrorist organization.” (Source: TV Celular)
The slave-catcher had already announced his “strategy”
Flávio is following in the footsteps of the patriarch Jair Bolsonaro, who, when he ran the old big landlord-bureaucratic State, launched a campaign against the LCP and used the label of “terrorism” to justify the repression of the struggle for land. In October 2020, he posted images of clashes between peasants and police in Rondônia and taunted: “I have my opinion, what is yours?”
On May 1, 2021, at the opening of ExpoZebu in Uberaba, he displayed a photograph of graffiti bearing the slogan “Long Live the Agrarian Revolution!” on a latifundium whose headquarters had been destroyed. He announced that he had met with Governor Colonel Marcos Rocha and the Minister of Justice to devise a strategy aimed at “containing this terrorism in the state of Rondônia.” He also expressed his fear that the struggle would begin in the countryside and spread to the cities. In the presence of the big landlords, big landlords, the slave-catcher presented his credentials as a servant of the latifundium.
In its response on May 12, 2021, the National Commission of the LCP refuted the accusation: “The land-stealing big landlords are the terrorists.” It denounced that these big landlords employ gangs of goons and the old State’s own repressive forces to terrorize the masses, murder peasants, and perpetuate land theft. It recalled the massacres of Corumbiara, Eldorado dos Carajás, and Pau D’Arco as manifestations of this bloodthirsty domination.
At the head of the federal government, the slave-catcher sent the National Force to reinforce State troops. Attacks on peasant areas followed one after another. The label of “terrorism” provided the political justification for unleashing repressive forces against those who were claiming land to live and work on.
More than 1 million R$ per day, and the eviction was defeated
In October 2021, the genocidal Jair Bolsonaro launched the Operation “Nova Mutum,” which deployed more than 3,000 officers against approximately 800 families. The Military Police, the National Guard, and other troops advanced with helicopters, drones, and patrol cars. According to information released at the time, the operation cost more than 1 million R$ per day [translators note: around 200,305 USD]. To expel those who lived and farmed the land, the old State opened its coffers in the service of big landlords. Even so, the peasants resisted and defeated the police siege.
The massive peasant resistance in Rondônia prevented the eviction from taking hold. The families blocked access roads, maintained their organization, and received solidarity both within and outside the country. Most were never even removed from their plots; the evicted families remained mobilized and demanded to return. Supreme Court rulings suspended the evictions, but the troops initially refused to retreat. By October 27, 2021, the evicted peasants were already back in the Tiago Campin dos Santos Area. Despite its overwhelming superiority in manpower and equipment, the operation failed in the face of mass resistance, which continues to this day in the Tiago Campin dos Santos Area.
The failure of the operation does not erase the crimes committed during the offensive. The LCP denounced the execution of Amarildo Aparecido Rodrigues, 49 years old, his son Amaral, 17 years old, and Kevin Fernando Holanda de Souza, 21 years old, on August 13, 2021, during a raid by BOPE [translator’s note: Special Operations Police Battallion] and the National Guard. According to the organization, the father and son were working in the fields; Kevin was riding his motorcycle. On October 29, murderous BOPE police officers killed Gedeon José Duque, an LCP leader and beloved leader of the masses, and Rafael Gasparini Tedesco, a dedicated LCP activist. The League denounced that both were also executed.
Five years later, the families continue to live and farm on the lands that “Nova Mutum” tried to take from them. In a statement issued on August 19, 2026, in honor of the five murdered activists, the LCP demanded punishment for the perpetrators and those who ordered the killings and reaffirmed that the destruction of the latifundium and the conquest of the land will be “the greatest, but not the only, of our acts of vengeance.”
New Terms in the Service of Big Landlords
Fernando Máximo and another lackey of the latifundium, the Bolsonaro fan Bruno Scheid – both members of the PL – were elected senators in Rondônia on October 4. On the same day, Marcos Rogério (PL) and his running mate, Police Chief Rodrigo Camargo (Podemos), won the state governorship. Both have a long history of attacking the LCP peasant organization. The promise to crush the struggle for land comes hand in hand with new terms in the Senate and control of the Rondônia state government.
Scheid, who will occupy Rondônia’s other Senate seat, has also targeted the peasants. In a video released on June 15, 2026, speaking to big landlords, he asked how he would go about “stepping on a bum’s neck.” The remark came after he blamed the LCP for an incident on his family’s farm in 2018. In other recordings, he called the organization a “criminal faction” that “carries rifles in Rondônia” and called for its members to be jailed. This lackey of the latifundium will now have an eight-year term to further cement his role as a lackey of the Bolsonaro clan and attempt to turn his threats into measures against the struggle for land.
The demonization campaign also included re-elected federal and state representatives. Outside of Rondônia, Marcos Pollon returned to the Chamber of Deputies representing Mato Grosso do Sul, Eduardo Riedel retained the state governorship, Cleitinho was elected in Minas Gerais, and Luciano Zucco won in Rio Grande do Sul. The track records of these elected officials include accusations against movements of the struggle for land, especially the LCP, support for violent police evictions and acting in the interests of the latifundium.
“Zero Tolerance” Against the LCP
Marcos Rogério brings to the state executive branch the services he had been providing to latifundium while in the Senate. On June 23, 2021, while opposing the suspension of evictions during the pandemic, he called the LCP “chaos in the countryside” and declared: “This is an act of terrorism in the countryside.” Two days earlier, he had introduced Bill 2,250/2021 to amend the “Anti-Terrorism Law” and extend its scope to include property occupations. His justification specifically names the LCP. The senator sought to give legal form to the persecution demanded by big landlords.
The vice governor-elect also made clear the treatment he intends to reserve for peasants. At the Legislative Assembly session on March 14, 2023, Camargo called the land rights movements “far-left terrorists” and demanded “zero tolerance” against the LCP and the MST. He defended the operations of police units in rural areas and proposed legislative amendments to support a “property defense” association that Aprosoja, a latifundium lobby, and the Rondônia Federation of Agriculture and Livestock could create. The stated purpose was to ensure “property protection” for big landlords. The police chief proposed using public funds to finance the protection of the latifundium’s private interests (!).
Camargo also proposed excluding participants in protests from state benefits, civil service exams, appointed positions, and contracts with the government. The initiative became Law 5,560/2023, which was declared unconstitutional by the Rondônia Court of Justice on May 19, 2025. Even though it was struck down in court, the collective punishment bill has now gained an advocate in the office of the lieutenant governor. This lackey of the latifundium will have a new position from which to try to punish those who fight for land.
Their pose as “guardians of order” coexists with far less presentable connections. Marcos Rogério appears in a photograph with the goon leader Gesulino Cesar Travagine Castro, who was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2023 as the mastermind behind the 2012 massacre of six people in Buritis. State Representative Alex Redano, who was reelected, is also named among the politicians linked to Gesulino. Those who spew accusations of “terrorism” against the peasant organization appear in the inner circle of a man convicted of the massacre. Their zeal for “order” reveals the parasitic class they serve.
LCP Responds to the Bolsonaro Hordes
In its August 2026 statement marking the 31st anniversary of the Heroic Peasant Resistance of Santa Elina, the National Commission of the League of the Poor Peasants denounced the convergence of attacks by big landlords, the far right, and the old State against the Agrarian Revolution. It identified the pro-Bolsonaro propaganda campaigns, police repression, and backroom deals involving public lands as the main fronts of this offensive. In responding to the new demonization campaign, it stated that “their lackeys repeatedly fail to do their ‘job.’”
In June 2025, when commenting on the “Invasão Zero” forum, the League had already characterized the collusion between big landlords, congressmen, and police officers as “clear and indisputable proof that the ongoing Agrarian Revolution is advancing.” It recalled that the organized masses had repelled attacks by paramilitary gangs and that, in the face of resistance, these gangs resorted to calling in police reinforcements. It described them as “brave enough to kill but too cowardly to die.”
The defeat of “Invasão Zero” in Barro Branco, in Jaqueira (PE), demonstrated this resistance in practice. On September 28, 2024, the land occupiers prevented the advance of the gang that intended to destroy their homes and expel them from the land. In a joint statement on October 1 of that year, the LCP National Commission and the LCP of the Northeast denounced the financing of the paramilitaries by the big landlords, their political backing, and the support of police forces. “This Bolsonarist paramilitary horde is taking its cowardly war to the countryside, it’s a war they’re going to get!” they declared.
In response to the promises to crush the struggle for land, the LCP counters with the organization and resistance of the masses, who have already defeated successive offensives by the reactionary forces. The patriarch failed in Rondônia; his son is reviving the threat while other servants of the latifundium win new terms in office. The League reaffirms that the peasant struggle “has never stopped for a single moment” and “marches forward steadfastly and unyieldingly,” despite the attacks by reactionary forces, which “cannot stop the Agrarian Revolution!” The Agrarian Revolution offers no respite to the big landlords: it heralds their destruction, piece by piece.
