Landless Murdered in Paraná

So far two have been confirmed dead and about six wounded.

On the afternoon of Thursday ( April 7), two teams of Paraná Military Police, accompanied by security guards from the Araupel company attacked the Dom Tomas Balduino encampment in the Iguaçu Falls region in the center of the state.
So far two people have been confirmed dead and about six wounded—the exact number has not been confirmed—as the military police has been, at that time, preventing members of the MST from approaching the scene.
 

History

The encampment, located in an area belonging to the Araupel company, is organized with 2500 families, about seven thousand people.

The landless workers living on the site have been suffering constant threats from the security forces and company gunmen, threats that come with the connivance of the government and the Secretary of State for Public Security.

Land conflicts in the state

This scenario reflects part of the climate of tension which has its roots in the struggle for access to land and against land grabbing in the region. The conflict is related to the emergence of two MST encampments in the South Central region of Paraná that have been built in areas where Araupel, an exporter of pine and eucalyptus, is operating.

The first encampment, Heirs to the Land, is located in the municipality of Rio Bonito do Iguana. The occupation took place on May 1, 2014 and now houses more than a thousand families. There they have approximately 1.5 thousand hectares for food production.

The second camp, Dom Tomas Balduino, whose occupation began in June 2014, has 1,500 families and is in the Iguana. Falls region. Unlike the other occupation, it has 12 acres of open area, with only 9 - about 30 hectares - used for planting.

After being requested, the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) reported not being able to take a stand on the case since it is an encampment, not a settlement. Already the National Agrarian Ombudsman said it has no information about the case, but that it is verifying the incident.

Read MST Communique: Our Demands

Read Interview with Joaquin Pinheiro - background on the assassinations