Brazil's war of the landless
By Dara MacNeil
Towards the end of March, a right-wing Catholic sect
called on Brazil's landowners to begin ``armed reaction''
to the campaign for land organised by the country's
poor.
The campaign for land, which centres on the occupation
of large estates and unused land, is organised by the
Movement of the Landless (Movimiento de los Sin Tierra
- MST).
Tradition, Family & Property (TFP) issued their call in
a 64 page booklet, of which 10,000 copies were printed
and distributed nationwide.
The booklet recommended a series of measures that large
landowners could implement in order to protect their
vast estates from the poor: barbed wire, hired guns and
the threat of violence would be enough to ward off even
the most determined of the landless, Tradition, Family
& Property said.
This ``right to resist'' was made imperative given the
authorities' failure to control the activities of the
millions in Brazil without land, it added.
The Catholic ultra-rightists characterised Movimiento
de los Sin Tierra as a ``subversive'' organisation.
In many respects, they are correct. MST's stated aim is
to procure land for Brazil's many millions of landless
poor. In doing so, they are subverting a social order
which has inequality at its heart.
Land distribution in Brazil is among the worst - if not
the worst - in Latin America. An estimated 1% of the
population owns some 46% of the country's arable land.
Carved up into large estates, the land is frequently
underused, or not used at all by its owners.
In 1997, MST occupied a huge, unused estate that had
been given to the General Motors corporation as a
`gift' by the Brazilian government. Such was the size
of the estate that it was valued at $258 million
dollars.
Ironically, police sent to evict the squatters refused
to do so, as they themselves were on strike at the
time.
The previous year, however, the security forces killed
70 unarmed civilians while evicting 500 families from
land they had occupied.
Within days of the call to arms being issued by
Tradition, Family & Property, Brazil's landed
establishment had responded.
On 30 March, landowners announced the formation of the
National Association of Rural Producers, a quaint
euphemistic title for the most entrenched section of
Brazil's tiny, wealthy elite.
The association also announced their intention to
establish armed militias in those areas most threatened
by the poor. Initial recruitment of at least 500 gunmen
was organised. One of the association's leaders also
spelled out the agenda of the new grouping: they would
teach the Movimiento de los Sin Tierra a lesson ``they
would not forget for the rest of their lives.''
The Brazilian government, which is quick to meet MST
occupations with violence, failed to respond to this
overt threat of bloodshed. This despite the fact that
MST occupations are peaceful exercises carried out by
unarmed civilians. The MST tactic is to rely on the
sheer weight of numbers without land to force official
action on the issue. Its current campaign involves some
58,000 families - at least a quarter of a million
people.
The MST said government failure to respond to such an
explicit threat of violence merely confirmed official
``paralysis'' and the lack of resolve on the land issue.
Indeed, the authorities already had ample proof of the
landlords' willingness to carry out their threat. Days
before the latter announced the formation of their
paramilitary bands, two MST leaders were murdered
during the attempted occupation of a large estate in
Para, northern Brazil.
By apparent way of response, the MST organised a
massive campaign of occupations in Para, with more than
20,000 landless occupying a number of large estates in
the region. More than anything, the series of
occupations demonstrated the MST's determination not to
bow to, or be intimidated by hired killers.
Last month, a Catholic church commission published a
study which showed slavery was a flourishing industry
in Brazil. More than 80% of the cases cited by their
report occurred in the same northern territory of Para.
The chief culprits were said to be large landowners,
who lured the landless and urban poor to their estates
with promises of high wages. Once there, the workers
were told they owed the landlord money for travel and
accommodation. The debt was paid off by working for
nothing.
Shortly after the MST launched its occupations in Para,
evidence of official complicity in the murder of the
two MST leaders was uncovered.
Public pressure and the threat of a bloody conflict
between landed and landless had finally forced the
authorities to respond.
Troops were dispatched to Para, ostensibly to ``restore
calm.'' However, the troops were also charged with
ending the MST's occupations in the area.
Simultaneously, eleven police officers were arrested
and charged with the murder of the two MST leaders.
Apparently, the officers had been indulging in a bit of
moonlighting - working after hours for the local,
landed mafia.
Indeed, nine of the eleven officers were also accused
of participating in the infamous massacre of El Dorado
de Carajas, in the territory of Para.
The massacre occurred almost exactly two years ago, on
17 April 1996. On that occasion, nineteen unarmed
landless protesters were murdered.
It appears remarkable that after two years, the
authorities had finally unearthed enough evidence to
charge the nine officers. Remarkably coincidental also
that it occurred just as national and international
attention was focused on the country, and the badlands
of Para.
Equally remarkable is that even with the presence of
armed troops in the area, the landowners have begun to
move against the MST occupations.
Most recently, some 80 armed members of the National
Association of Rural Producers expelled 1000 families
from the estate they had been occupying.
The property in question - belonging to one individual
- is some 17,000 hectares in size. That's 42,000 acres.
Meanwhile the MST has announced it has every intention
of carrying on its campaign of occupations. They also
pointed out that the landowners' armed campaign has now
taken on the characteristics of low-intensity warfare.
This war of attrition is intended, obviously, to
discourage MST activists and landless families from
future protests. However, according to MST spokesman
Gilmar Mauro, the campaign will continue: as long as
there are millions of Brazilians without even a place
to live and a tiny minority of landlords in control of
gigantic, unproductive estates.
That much is certain.
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