Brazil: The Defense Committee of the Victims of Santa Elina (CODEVISE) and the Struggle for Compensation
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by Resistencia Camponesa.
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Heroic Peasant Resistance of Santa Elina, the website Resistência Camponesa will make a series of celebratory publications for the date. There will be historical texts, photographs, and videos, that highlight this heroic chapter in our people’s long-standing struggle for land, among them.
On August 6, 2001, CODEVISE – Defense Committee of the Victims of Santa Elina was founded in Corumbiara. Victims of the massacre residing in Palmares and Corumbiara, along with teachers, lawyers, students, and supporters, participated with the aim of organizing the struggle around three main banners: 1) Adequate medical treatment for the victims; 2) Punishment of the responsible for the massacre; and 3) Struggle for compensation for all affected.
Since its founding to the present day, CODEVISE counts with the support from the League of the Poor Peasants of Rondônia, the Workers’ League, People’s Aid, Brazilian Center for Solidarity with Peoples, People’s Lawyers, and other organizations and supporters.
At the 4th Congress of the LCP in Corumbiara, on the 10th anniversary of the resistance of Santa Elina, CODEVISE, along with the families, decided to travel to Brasilia, thus forming a commission to raise resources from the entire state.
In June 2006, the Justice and Peace Commission presented to CODEVISE and the families a proposal from the Lula government: they had to prove that they were on the latifundium and that they were victims of torture. A true absurdity! It was the government’s responsibility to search through the various lists of processes and the medical and police reports that had been made and submitted numerous times. The government even proposed to compensate only 19 families, those who had relatives murdered and others it considered to have “serious injuries.” That was even a greater absurdity that the peasants did not accept.
In 2007, about 70 comrades went to Brasilia and set up a camp in front of the National Congress to demand a new meeting with the Lula government.
