A work accident involving employees of an internet provider company caused an electric discharge that killed nine people on Sunday (9) night at the Land and Freedom Encampment of the Landless Workers Movement (MST, in Portuguese) in the town of Parauapebas, Pará state.
Six landless workers and three employees of the internet provider company died. Eight people were injured with burns and went to the hospital. On Sunday (10), one of these victims remained hospitalized with second-degree burns, according to the MST.
The information was released on Sunday (10) in a press interview with MST directors, who expressed solidarity with the victims and restated the importance of the fight for land in southern Pará state, a region known for the violent actions of big landowners in areas where landless workers demand agrarian reform.
According to the MST, employees of the internet provider company “without any safety measures” were installing an internet aerial requested individually by some residents of the encampment, which has about 2,500 people. After the electric discharge, SAMU (Brazil’s Emergency Mobile Care Service) and firefighters were called. The fire was controlled, and landless workers took action to rescue people injured.
“About 8 p.m., when they were installing an aerial, the equipment supposedly touched the high-voltage network. It caused a fire that burned all the internet cables, made of flammable material, and burned down some of the makeshift houses,” Pablo Neri, from MST’s national directory, explained.
The MST named nine fatal victims: Jovenilson Aragão Trindade, Francisco Ferreira, Francisco De Assis Pereira Rodrigues, Fernanda Sousa de Almeida, Eva Maria da Conceição Silva, Francisco Nascimento de Sousa Júnior, Gabriel Pereira da Silva and Geovane Pereira dos Santos. The last three people are the company’s employees, reads a statement by the G5 internet provider company.
“G5 internet, from Parauapebas, offered its services to the residents of the encampment, who agreed to sign a contract with the company. As MST do not have the means to provide internet service, the decision was that the company could provide it,” said Pablo Neri.
Company laments deaths
In an official statement published on Instagram, G5 Internet lamented the death of its employees, said it is supporting the families of the victims and wished comfort and strength to those involved.
“We also extend our condolences to all those who lost family members and friends in the fire that occurred in the Palmares II MST encampment on Saturday night, November 9,” reads the statement.
Brasil de Fato contacted G5 Internet and asked whether the employees worked under adequate safety conditions, but there was no response until this news story was published. If there is a response, the text will be updated.
Beatriz Luz, leader of the MST in Pará state, said residents asked G5 employees to resume service the following day, due to late hours.
“We identified a company that also leads to a process of precarious work, which is why the service continued late at night, without any preparedness, with few technical devices to protect workers,” said Luz.
Encampment demands agrarian reform in an area related to land-grabbing
According to the MST, the encampment Land and Freedom is 5 kilometers away from the Santa Maria and Três Marias farms, which allegedly are unproductive large states obtained through land grabbing. That is why the MST requested the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra, in Portuguese) to inspect the areas to determine whether they are adequate for agrarian reform.
“The title of possession is under the name of Marabá’s land grabber Ítalo Toddy, and was exchanged for debts in dubious negotiations with the Miranda family, landowners known for their extensive public land holdings and for committing crimes against nature and workers,” declared the MST in a statement in November this year.
According to the Movement, big landowners in the region responded to the occupation with a siege to the landless workers and had the support of police forces in Pará state. Armed men have been intimidating residents, preventing people from entering and leaving the site.
Beatriz Luz does not rule out that landowners use the accident to delegitimize the fight for land in the region. “But what we have seen is precisely the opposite: the desire to remain in the territory until the land is guaranteed,” she said.
City Hall expresses solidarity
Led by Darci José Lermen (MDB Party), on Sunday (10), the town of Parauapebas declared that “it spares no effort to unconditionally support the victims of this fateful event and expresses solidarity with the families and friends of the victims”.
City Hall also said that, from the first moments, teams from SAMU and ambulances went to the site to provide assistance.
In addition, the Civil Defense said it has teams at the site with people from the social sector supporting residents, welcoming and registering families in order to deliver humanitarian kits.
“A Crisis Committee was also set up at the Jardim da Saudade Cemetery to speed up the autopsy and burial of the bodies, together with the Forensic Medicine Facility (IML, in Portuguese) and the Civil Police. Agents from the Municipal Department of Traffic and Transport (DMTT, in Portuguese) organize the traffic flow at the location, and agents from the Parauapebas Municipal Guard are also on the site,” says the statement from the City Hall of Parauapebas.
Edited by: José Eduardo Bernardes
