In September 1995, a camp of over 2,000 families formed along the PA-275
highway in Curionópolis, Pará, targeting the unproductive 42,448-hectareMacaxeira Farm. Five months later, with no solution, the families
decided to occupy the farm. The government promised to settle the
campers and send them food. Two weeks later, the food had not arrived,
and the landless workers decided to walk to Belém. On April 16, 1996,
near Eldorado de Carajás, they decided to block the road to demand food
for the march.
In the capital, the governor, the secretary of security, the state
superintendent of INCRA in Marabá, and the president of the Pará Land
Institute met and decided that the landless workers should be removed
from the highway "by any means necessary." At 4 p.m. on April 17, 155
police officers from the Paraupebas and Marabá battalions arrived
throwing tear gas canisters. The workers responded with rocks and
sticks. Amâncio Rodrigues da Silva was shot in the foot, fell, and was
executed with a shot to the head. The scene outraged the landless
workers, who retaliated with whatever they had. The police fired their
machine guns. Twelve workers were shot in the head and chest; seven were
killed with cutting instruments taken from them. The operation left 19
dead, 69 injured, and at least seven missing. According to reports, 13
were executed after surrendering. The state's crime shocked the world,
and April 17 became the International Day of Struggle for Land and the
National Day of Struggle for Agrarian Reform. Twenty-nine years after
the Eldorado dos Carajás massacre, rural violence continues to escalate.
According to rural conflict data from the Pastoral Land Commission
(Cedoc-CPT), in 2024 alone, there were 1,768 land conflicts and 1,680
reported cases of violence. It is also important to highlight the role
of pesticide contamination in the increase in reported violence. Last
year, there was a spike in incidents of this type of violation, rising
from 32 in 2023 to 276 in 2024, a 762% increase. The majority of these
incidents were recorded in Maranhão (228), where traditional communities
are facing severe consequences due to aerial pesticide spraying.
In 2023, the Ruralist Caucus, or Parliamentary Agricultural Front (FPA),
totaled 300 representatives in the National Congress, with Πof them
from the PL. But agribusiness also has its paramilitary side. The
Invasão Zero movement brings together farmers from several states across
the country and has organized to fight armed land occupations, often in
collaboration with local police, the judiciary, mayors, governors, and
others.
In 2024, violent attacks, acknowledged and/or confirmed by "Invasão
Zero," were identified in at least seven states. Coordinated attacks by
groups of farmers, following the "Invasão Zero" operating patterns,
occurred in four states. One case that stands out is the murder of Maria
Fátima Muniz de Andrade (Nega Pataxó) in January of last year, committed
by a farmer linked to the "Invasão Zero" group, during a Pataxó Hã Hã
Hãe Indigenous land reclamation.
Violence in rural areas is linked not only to the expansion and
organization of agribusiness, but also to the impunity and support this
sector of Brazilian capitalism receives from the state. Examples of this
include tax exemptions, such as the Kandir Law, which exempts
agribusiness commodity exports (soybeans, corn, coffee) from ICMS (Tax
on Goods and Services), the widespread liberalization of pesticide use,
and the stagnation of agrarian reform, whose budget for 2024 was the
smallest of all Workers' Party administrations to date. The Lula-Alckmin
administration is no different, maintaining the pact and conciliation
with agribusiness, contributing to the continued power of this parasitic
sector in Brazil and solidifying the state as an accomplice to rural
violence.
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