April 17th marks the 29th anniversary of the Eldorado de Carajás Massacre
In Brasil de Fato (BdF), we have already shown the social and political context that led to the emergence of major popular movements fighting for land reform, such as the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST), created in 1984.
We also deal almost daily with collective experiences in settlements and encampments across Brazil that lead the way to sustainable solutions for the future. It’s a production model that generates decent work and healthy food while recovers biodiversity and preserves natural resources.
Agroecology, agroforestry systems, organic production, restoring forests and springs – all of this involves people, communities and families, and generates income. This is what we want to deal with on a daily basis.
If capitalism has stopped providing material answers for the majority of the population by denying basic elements for a dignified life, we need to talk about solutions to humanity’s dilemmas. And the popular land reform proposed for Brazil is an example of this.
This popular project for the country – which is lacking these days as seen in the third term of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) – is bearing fruit in neighboring countries, such as Venezuela, where the MST is going to use its technology to produce agroforestry on 180,000 hectares.
But this fight, which produces such beautiful practical results, is unfortunately also marked by the systematic massacre of landless families. Anyone who dares to challenge Brazil’s archaic land ownership structure and occupy a piece of land receives violence in return, from the state and from agribusiness.
Today, April 17th, we remember the 29th anniversary of the Eldorado de Carajás massacre. In Curva do S, 19 settlers were murdered by the Brazilian state. A sad milestone in Brazilian history that has been eternalized in the official calendar as the Day of Struggle for Agrarian Reform, but which is far from being an exception.
Let’s remember Colniza (MT), Pau D’Arco (PA), the deaths in the Olga Benário settlement in Tremembé (SP) this year. From 1985 to 2019, the Pastoral Land Commission counted 50 massacres in the countryside in Brazil.
Since the massacre in Eldorado, MST has promoted actions across the country to remember the victims of violence in the countryside with more struggle.
This year’s International Day of Struggles in Defense of Agrarian Reform was also marked by violence. On Tuesday (April 15), a man attacked an MST peasant march in Recife (PE) with his car. Two people were run over. A 67-year-old camper is hospitalized in critical condition.
In BdF, we hope to live to report on the struggle for land reform as synonymous with life, no longer with violence and death.
As our columnist Leonardo Boff, a reference in Liberation Theology, says, “the living Earth generates all living beings and us”. He also gives us “reasons for hopeful pessimism”: “Chaos is not only destructive, but also generative, because a new order is maturing in it”.
It’s symbolic that this year April 17th coincided with Easter week. The story of Jesus, the son of poor peasants and a pilgrim in the struggle for social justice, was decisive in the formation of land struggle movements as massive as the MST.
There will be no future without land to provide work and food for so many people. If we mantain the logic of agribusiness, soy will take over Brazil. It is great for GDP figures and exports, but bad for those who are alive and need to buy food to keep going. It is bad, too, for those who prefer to eat without poison, for those who don’t like drinking pesticides, for those who don’t want to breathe smoke and for those who think it’s better to provide income for thousands of families than profit for a single farmer.
We are vigilant, and we will not stop denouncing. We will not forget those who lost their lives trying to plant a future. We will not forgive those responsible for the violence that marks our people and our history. And you can help us continue in this struggle by supporting the work of Brasil de Fato.
Long live the fight for land reform, long live BdF!
Rodrigo Chagas,
Editorial Coordinator at BdF‘s Portuguese service.
