The land dispute between the Brazilian State and the quilombola population of Alcântara, a peninsula in the state of Maranhão, is the subject of complaints that began to be analyzed this Wednesday (26), by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CIDH), with Brazil in the defendant’s dock.
According to the complaint, the rocket launching base caused land expropriations and compulsory removals. The loss of territories had an impact on access to basic rights for quilombolas, such as health, education, basic sanitation, adequate feeding, the right to come and go and the access to culture. The impact may have reached as many as a hundred communities.
The history of the dispute dates back to 1983, when 312 quilombola families were expelled from their territory, in Alcântara, a 22,000 inhabitants municipality, and transferred to agrovillages further to the south in the state. There, they won 16 hectares plots.
Three years earlier, the then state governor, Ivar Saldanha (Social Democratic Party), had expropriated 52,000 hectares of territory occupied by quilombolas and handed them over to the Union. The measure was part of the construction project for the Alcântara Space Center (CLA), championed by the dictator João Batista Figueiredo (1979-1985) and managed by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB).
Quilombolas expelled from their territories were transported to agrovillages located in the interior of the state, in a region covered by sand and sterile soil. In the quilombos, fishing guaranteed the livelihood of the community and dictated the organization dynamics of the place.
“I don't even know why it's called 'agrovillage', there's nothing like agro. It's a project gone wrong. I live in one of the agrovilas, it never worked out, they put us in a place where we can’t support ourselves”, explains Antônio Marcos Pinho Diniz, president of the Alcântara Rural Workers Union, in an interview with Brasil de Fato, in 2022 .
In 1991, former President Fernando Collor expropriated over 10,000 hectares of Alcântara for the construction of the CLA, totaling 62,000 hectares. In 2008, the game turned in favor of the quilombola families. A Technical Report on Identification and Delimitation prepared by Incra, guaranteed 78.1 thousand hectares of the region for the quilombola communities and limited the space of the air base to 8 thousand hectares.
In 2010, during the second government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian State claimed another 12,000 hectares in the coastal area of Alcântara. The new acquisition was never confirmed, but the 792 quilombola families in the region have lived in fear of this possibility ever since.
In March 2019, Brazil and the United States signed a contract that guarantees the North Americans the right to explore the Alcântara base. The agreement estimates technological safeguards and allows the launch of rockets and satellites in the region.
The possibility of expanding the area of the CLA, — which today is 8,000 hectares — is included in the document. This made the Quilombolas mobilize to definitively obtain title to their lands, which would guarantee them stability in the region and power in future negotiations with the State.
Conflicts remain
On March 29 of this year, Brazilian Air Force (FAB) soldiers stationed at the Alcântara Space Center (CLA) and Brazilian Federal Police (PF) agents invaded a part of the Vista Alegre territory to comply with an eviction order issued by the 3rd Federal Civil Court of the Federal Court of Maranhão, requested by the Brazilian government in 2020.
The action, however, should not reach the entire community, only the Pousada Vista Del Mar, managed by quilombola Moisés Costa, a resident of Quilombo Vista Alegre, who protested against the removal.
“We haven't worked here for almost a year, there was never any negotiation, they arrived with bombs and attacked us, there was a child who was shot, an elderly man was hit in the leg, it was a horrible scene”, explained Costa.
In a note released at the time, the Brazilian Air Force defended itself. “The community is at the center of a historic dispute with the Brazilian Air Force soldiers assigned to the CLA, who illegally claim to own the area, contrary to the Federal Constitution of 1988 and court decisions and judgments that recognize this area as belonging to the quilombola communities and determine the regularization and collective titling, which has never been done."
Edited by: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
