Police kill two landless rural workers in northern Brazil

Brasil de Fato

Civil police officers from the Agrarian Conflict Police Station (Deca, in Portuguese) in Maraba, Para state, northern Brazil, murdered two landless workers at the Promised Land Rural Association camp last Friday (11). Four others were arrested, and, according to the encampers, they were tortured for hours. 

Since then, all the 200 people occupying the disputed area on the Mutamba farm, owned by the Mutran family, have been grouped in a collective shed. They claim that a police helicopter flies over the site every day. 

The landless rural workers accuse the police operation Fortis Status (strong state, in Latin), led by police chief Antônio Mororó, of leaving people injured. Some workers were shot in the hands and legs, and others had broken ribs.

The Para Civil Police say the operation was aimed at carrying out three arrest warrants and 18 search and seizure warrants regarding allegations of theft, logging, criminal association, attempted murder, illegal possession of weapons and arson. None of those arrested or killed, however, were the targets of the operation. 

The men the police officers murdered were Edson Silva e Silva and Adão Rodrigues de Sousa. The latter had five children and, according to witnesses, was executed while sleeping in a hammock. Police claim there was a violent confrontation. 

The occupation was independently organized, but the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST, in Portuguese) of Para is one of the entities supporting the group. Polly Soares, from MST’s state leadership, visited the area on Saturday (12), after the attack. “There are families there suffering violence and intimidation every day,” she describes. “We witnessed the helicopter flying overhead, with police inside pointing guns [to the shed],” says Soares.

Landless rural workers told they are being harrassed by helicopters / Promised Land Encampment

What happened, according to the movements

On Monday (14), the MST, the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT, in Portuguese), the José Cláudio e Maria Institute (IZM, in Portuguese) and other organizations released a statement retelling the episode based on the encampers’ accounts. 

According to the document, around 16 workers were sleeping, and two others were preparing coffee in a collective shed when, at around 4 am (local time) on Friday (11), the place was raided by police officers, who shouted “That’s over” and shot people inside the shed. “In desperation and seeing nothing due to the darkness, people tried to escape the gunfire as best they could. The result was two dead, several wounded by bullets and four people arrested,” reads the statement.

“The narrative shared by police chief Mororó and adopted by the Secretary of Public Security of the State of Para”, reads the text referring to Ualame Machado, “is that it was a heavily armed criminal organization, involved in illegal timber sales, cattle theft and other crimes.” 

“The result of the operation, which involved dozens of police officers, several vehicles and two helicopters, was the seizure of only seven shotguns and some ammunition. No heavy weapons, no chainsaws, no timber trucks, no stolen cattle, nothing else,” reads the text, also signed by the Para Society for the Defense of Human Rights. “From this perspective, the operation was a farce,” it concludes.

“The workers didn’t die in a shooting, that version was made up,” Polly Soares points out. “There is no shoot-out when a person is asleep and is surprised by a rain of bullets. This thesis is a lie, it’s intended to criminalize workers,” says the MST leader.

“The head of Deca, Antônio Mororó, was there during the torture episodes and murders. We demand his removal. He has no condition to remain in charge of the police station. And we believe that his presence will jeopardize the investigations. How are the police going to investigate itself?” Soares asks. 

Asked about the accusations, the Para Civil Police said “The action was carried out in accordance with the law” and that investigations into the case “are ongoing” by Deca, the same police station that led the operation. 

Eviction temporarily suspended

The 12,229-hectare Mutamba farm, in the rural area of Maraba, is occupied by three landless rural families. The nucleus targeted by the police operation is about 500 meters from the headquarters of the Mutran family estate, and was almost evicted. 

In March, a repossession order was issued by Judge Amarildo José Mazutti, of the Maraba Agrarian Court. In May, however, it was temporarily suspended by Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin. 

In his decision, Zanin reinforces the obligation to adopt measures that, according to the Argument for Failure to Comply with a Fundamental Precept (ADPF, in Portuguese) 828, must precede forced removals. These include judicial inspections of the territory and debating the case in a land conflict commission at the Court of Justice.

Cases of slave labor at the Mutamba Farm

Located in southeastern Para, the Mutamba farm is part of a “region with a history of agrarian conflict and forced labor”, says Para state deputy Lívia Duarte, who is following the case. She has forwarded reports of execution and torture to Para’s security and human rights departments.

“The area is not far from the Curva do S,” she says, referring to the place where the Eldorado do Carajás massacre happened. “It’s a region, for example, where my family – my grandfather, my father – were subjected to slave labor throughout their lives,” says Duarte. 

The Mutamba farm, built on an area previously covered by chestnut trees cut down to make way for cattle pasture, was caught using slave labor in August 2002. On that occasion, 25 workers were rescued. Two years later, the company Jorge Mutran Exportação e Importação LTDA was included on the “dirty list” of slave labor and had to pay a fine of BRL 1.3 million (almost US$ 230,000) to the Workers’ Support Fund.