Brazil's Landless Workers Movement under Attack

On this Friday, MST (Landless Workers' Movement) was target of the Brazilian security agency. A violent action by the police, code name “Castra”, spanned three States, Paraná, São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. The main target of the operation was to arrest and criminalize leaders of the movement in Central Paraná State. The camps are named “Dom Tomás Balduíno” and “Herdeiros da Luta pela Terra” (Land Struggle Heirs).

On November 4th at approximately 9:25 am 10 vehicles full of heavily armed police arrived at the gates of the Landless Workers Movement's (MST) Escola Nacional Florestan Fernandes (ENFF) school in Guararema, São Paulo State, Brazil. Soon after arriving to the locked gate, they menaced the guard booth and then jumped over the reception windows forcibly to enter the peaceful school with assault weapons drawn. Once inside they pointed their weapons at people who peacefully approached them, shot at least two live rounds into the air and tackled a man to the ground. After they took two people in to custody they withdrew from the school. The same day police raided the homes of MST members in two other states. The coordination of these attacks suggests that these operations are national in scope, and that this assault was carried out with direction from the federal level of the Brazilian security forces.

According to the reports, police officers arrived at around 9:25 am, without any search or arrest warrant and jumped over the reception window, taking shots into the air. The shards of collected bullets prove that none of them were rubber, but lethal.

In Mato Grosso do Sul, three police vehicles with Paraná plates broke into CEPEGE, “Geral Garcia” Research Center and Professional School, in Sidrolândia. The police operation was searching for MST activists from Paraná that allegedly were there. The police remained there until approximately 9AM, when they left with no arrests. During the operation, police prohibited the use of mobile phones. Activists that were in CEPEGE at the moment were performing cleaning and maintenance tasks.

In a note, MST denounced “surge in the repression of the struggle for land, dominated by the interests of agribusiness allied to the violence of a State of Exception”.

“We remind the public that we have always acted in an organized and peaceful manner for the advancement of Land Reform. We reclaim the land for its social function and that it is destined to settling the 10.000 families that are currently camped in Paraná State,” MST statement said.

The students of ENFF have condemned this assault. “As former and current international students and professors of the ENFF School coming from nearly 40 countries, we denounce the actions of the Brazilian police force as a violent attack on human rights and political freedoms in Brazil.  We denounce this political violence against peaceful students at the ENFF international school and condemn the repression and criminalization of social movements such as the MST,” they said in an statement.

Leaked transcript of the conversation between Planning Minister Romero Jucá and Oil Executive Sergio Machado makes it amply clear that the army has been monitoring the MST for over a year. These attacks are an acceleration of US imperial control over Brazilian politics with the government of Temer.

Joaquin Pinero, a member of the MST directorate in Rio de Janeiro in an interview to the Real News said that, “this type of repression and false allegations of social movement leaders has become rampant in Brazil since the Temer Government took office. MST has been organizing a national general strike that will take place on November 11th.”

Meanwhile more than 600 people are participating in a solidarity activity in the Florestan Fernandes National School in Guararema, Sao Paulo. This past Friday, Nov. 4, the school was raided in a turbulent operation of the Civil Police against the MST. Former President Lula, legislators, unions, people's movements and people from 36 countries were all present in the meeting. Live streaming of the same can be seen here.