Land Pastoral Commission (CPT) is publishing its annual
report with data about rural violence and conflicts. The report
has statistics, data, lists of peasants and rural workers
assassinated and threatened to death, list of land occupations,
rural slavery's cases, different popular alternative experiences
on ecological agriculture and texts evaluting the situation of
Brazilian rural area.
The numbers of Brazilian rural violence are:
- 54 peasants and rural workers were killed in 1991;
- 383 conflicts related to land's struggle;
- 242.196 persons were involved on conflicts related to lands
struggles;
- 7.032.722 hectares of land were involved on these conflicts
(this number does not include 6 million hectares of indigenous
people's territory of Roraima State;
- 43 conflicts related to rural workers' rights.
1. The number of assassinations related to rural areas' conflicts
has decreased in 1991. What does it mean? This fact does not mean
the reduction of violence's level or the improvement of life
conditions in Brazilian rural areas. Actually, the violence has
changed to new forms especially with the intensification of
actions of intimidation, done always to demobilize the rural poor
people's struggles and organizations. Also, we had this last year
the death under torture of a 80 year old peasant, killed because
of a land conflict and a 8 year old boy, killed because of an
incident related to work rights.
The number of slave works almost doubled and the number
of people involved was almost 3 times more than 1990. We had 27
cases of slavery work and 4883 rural workers involved, including
women, men and children (some of them were around 6 years old).
The absence of financial support to the small farmers has
taken out any perspective for staying on the land, which
intensifided rural exodus of thousands of families, who went to
live on the city's slums, increasing poverty and social problems.
2. Which State or region had the highest level of violence in
1991? In general terms, North region had the highest level of
violence, having Para State as the most violent area again. Out
of 17 assassinations occured in North region, 14 cases happened
at Para' State.
Northeast region had a high level of violence against rural
workers with 23 cases, most of them happened at Maranhao State
(13 cases) and Bahia State (7 cases). Also, it calls our
attention to the high number of people threatened to death at
Paraiba State (51 cases).
Parana State, at South region, had a strong movement of
large land owners, who organized private armies with the State
police's support to intimidate and fight landless farmers'
movements. This attitude against landless farmers' movements was
openly published but nothing has been done by the authorities.
Actually, Parana State was responsable for the highest level of
wounded people, with 77 cases in consequence of land conflicts.
South region had a total number of 88 people hurt in violent
land conflicts during 1991.
3. What is new on human rights in the rural area? Is the justice
department acting? Brazilian rural area was again a place where
fundamental human rights are violated. It is possible to see it
just taking a look to the numbers of rural workers and peasants
submitted to slavery or killed, illegal arrests, doubtful
landless' farmers expulsion from occupied land, destruction of
houses, expulsion of families from their lands, etc.
The workers to face this situation of human rights'
violation got organized and forced public authorities to stand up
for justice. This is the reason why Federal Justice's Department
sets up an investigation committee to find out the causes and
roots of Bico do Papagaio region's violence (Para State
especially). Federal Congress created a Parliamentarian Inquiry
Committee to investigate rural violence on Brazilian rural area.
In spite of violence, it is important to pay attention to
the rural workers' struggle for their rights to excercise their
citizenship. Even the "untouchble" Justice system was richted by
the workers' struggle and forced to judge 7 cases of
assassination related to rural violence. Five of them were
condemned. In spite of the small number it is a victory to the
workers' struggle for justice.
4. We are getting close to United Nations' Conference on
Environment and Development - UNCED's begining. What we can say
about the rural poor's reality and ecology? The concern with
environment's destruction is a recent discussion among Brazilian
popular movements, but we start to discover during these years
that peasants, rural workers, small farmers living along Amazon
rivers, Indians have important experiences related to
environment's protection. These experiences must be known and
respected because they show us that rural population has its own
culture in relation to the land and the environment. Then, these
experiences should not be forgot when ecological projects are
planned.
Poor people are taking concrete steps to guarantee their
survival without damaging nature or even recuperate the
environment:
- The poor rural population is going to show their priorities to
UNCED's participants and try to demonstrate that there is no
salvation to our planet if preservation's projects will not take
into account the people who live on and for land.
- The comunities of Amazon region have been developed their own
projects of rivers' and lakes' preservation against predatory
fishing.
- The Indians' struggle for the demarcation of their territories
is one of the best struggle to save Amazon's forest and people.
- The rubber tappers' struggle for the extractivist reservations
is also a way to live on the Amazon region without destruing the
forest.
- Small farmers started an association to develop alternative
tecnologies to produce Amazon region's typical products like
chestnut, for example, preserving the environment.
- The Movement for Survival on Transamazonic area mobilized
thousands of people to reivindicate better life conditions to
local comunities.
- Other important experiences have been developed all over the
country like small farmers replanting trees in areas of destroyed
Rainforest of Espirito Santo State, ecological agriculture's
initiatives of small farmers at southern part of Brazil.
5. The mass media tried to show that we did not have popular
movements for land this last year in Brazil. Is it correct? We
had a very important number of land occupations, in spite of
difficult situation small farmers are going through to survive.
There were 77 land occupations around the country, involving
13.844 families of landless farmers. This data represents a
significantly increasing number of land occupations, because we
had only 50 cases with less than 8 thousands families involved in
1990. Also, we had the largest number of families involved since
1987 this year.
The land's struggle represents Brazilian peasants' cry
against the unjust situation they are living. They have no land
or government support, so they cannot exercise their citizen's
rights. Unfortunately, the Brazilian Government is deaf to the
people's cry. It is our conclusion looking to its practices in
spite of its speech. The government annunced several times that
it would start its Land Reform program, but nothing happened.
President Collor signed only 8 disappropriation's process in
1991. First of all, the number is totally insignificant compared
what is needed. Second, 3 areas out of 8 were disappropriated by
the former Federal Government and they had lost its validity.
Third, one disappropriation has been contested by Federal Supreme
Court and the farmers did not get their properties' legal
documents yet.
The Federal Government is doing nothing to implement a true
Land Reform in Brazil.
It is important to remember here that Landless Farmers
Movement (MST) and Land Pastoral Commission (CPT) received "The
Right Livelihood Award" last year for their support to the
landless farmers's struggle for Land Reform in Brazil, which is
an international recognition that Land Reform is fundamental to
stablish a true democracy in our country.
Land Pastoral Commission - CPT
Goiania/GO - Brazil, April 25th/1992.