Brazil: Popular Assembly in Tiago dos Santos, Rondônia

Featured image: Popular Assembly in the Tiago dos Santos area. Source: AND.

A Nova Demcracia (AND) has reported that on October 23 hundreds of peasants came together in the Tiago dos Santos area in Rondônia, following a call by the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP) for a popular assembly. The event was also attended by a solidarity delegation including representatives from the Central Student Directory (DCE) of the Federal University of Rondônia (Unir), the Brazilian Association of People’s Lawyers – Gabriel Pimenta (Abrapo), the Committee to Support the Struggle for Land (CALT), and the Support Committee of AND.

Representatives of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) were also present, of whom answers on the regularization of plots were demanded. This came after a series of mobilization led by the LCP who had taken their demands to Incra in September together with Abrapo.

The assembly was carried out despite intimidation and sabotage by the Military Police in the area, led by their former general-commander Régis Braguin. He passed by armed police and four patrol cars intimidating the peasant families. A peasant reported that his tractor was damaged and his keys and tools stolen after the patrol cars had passed.

The hundreds of families who upheld the mobilization despite this, exposed and denounced the attacks by the State, including a tribute Gedeon, Rafael, Amarildo, Amaral, and Kevin who fell in battle in 2021, Rodrigo and Raniel who were murdered in 2023 and Flecha, who was killed in January of this year during a police operation.

The peasants also showed the delegations examples of what they are fighting for, giving them a tour of nearby farms.