Radio Mundo Real

On October 16 rural worker Gabriel Vicente received three gun shots in the Palmeirante region, state of Tocantins. The people accused of the crime are one rancher and two gunmen, who remain free.

According to information published by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) and non governmental organization Reporter Brasil, nearly thirty families of the area have been demanding a plot of land, which is currently occupied by Paulo de Freitas, who is being accused of the murder of the rural landless peasant.

The organizations involved claim that the assault against the rural worker could have been avoided. They say that reports were filed several times over arms possession by the ranchers and his employees, but the police failed to act.

Also, in 2007 the CPT reported a series of violent evictions in the conflictive area, but there was no favorable response for the landless families.

The National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) denied responsibility in an article saying that they did not know about the danger that the families who are disputing the lands were going through.
CPT’s latest report says 54% of land conflicts happen in the northeast of the country, although in the recent years there has been an increase in the violent cases in the south of Brazil.

At any rate, the level of violence in the Brazilian countryside is outrageous. Ironically these incidents go hand in hand with the growing increase of criminalization of the organizations fighting for land.

“The conservative media is carrying out a campaign to discredit and criminalize the social movements”, said the Minister of the President’s General Secretariat, Luiz Dulci, in an interview published by the Rural Landless Peasant Movement (MST).

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