Latest News in the Struggle for Land in Brazil
Featured image: Actions by federal bodies in Acrelândia. Source: Ascom/PFAC
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 18.
Porto Dias Faces Land Grabbing, Armed Groups, and the Criminalization of the Peasants’ Struggle
The Porto Dias Settlement Project, in Acrelândia, has been at the center of a land dispute for more than a decade. In October 2024, during Operation Usurpare, six criminals were accused of being members of the League of Poor Peasants (LCP) in an attempt to link the land struggle to criminal activity. Between 2024 and 2025, two more operations were carried out, resulting in the arrest of 10 people.
However, the land struggle continued, and this year the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) increased the number of families registered in the camps from 95 to 240. The old State is already planning new actions, since “sporadic actions have failed to disrupt the occupations and dismantle them.”
National Mobilization Denounces Escalation of Reactionary Violence in Rural Areas
From August 10 to 14, more than 70 organizations participated in the National Week of Action Against Violence in Rural Areas across different regions. On August 14, representatives of communities whose lands are under threat presented the National Council of Justice (CNJ) with reports of murders, attempted murders, threats, blockades, land theft, and the deprivation of water, food, and medicine.
This escalation of violence against peasants by the old State and big landlords has been widely denounced. The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) reported 26 murders in 2025, double the number in 2024. So did the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI), which recently published a document on the increased violence against indigenous peasants. The LCP has supported the strengthening of peasants’ self-defense in the face of armed attacks.
Former Commander of the Rondônia Military Police, Braguin, Is Now Running for Federal Congress
The former commander of the Rondônia Military Police, Régis Braguin, continues to publicly attack the LCP in an attempt to criminalize the struggle for land. After his candidacy for federal deputy was announced, he released a propaganda video in which he “shot” at the Comando Vermelho, the Primeiro Comando da Capital, and the LCP, “equating the peasant organization with groups linked to drug trafficking,” according to a report by AND.
Braguin is known for leading campaigns that directly attacked LCP camps, causing a fourfold increase in police killings in Rondônia in 2025 (reaching 35), including that of Raimundo Nonato, in an attack on the Valdiro Chagas Area. In an interview last May, after he was no longer commander of the Military Police, he claimed to have special “hunting” units targeting groups he alleged were associated with the LCP and defended BOPE’s “counter-guerrilla” actions, including the murder of comrade Flecha in Rondônia.
