Rural workers from Gleba Campina, in the town of Junco, about 260 km away from Maranhão’s capital city, have set up a People's Trial to judge land grabbing crimes in the region. The trial, which will take place between March 9 and 10, is a political action that demands justice and attention to criminal actions. Five people have already been killed while fighting for the right to land and denouncing the long list of threats and violent acts.
Also known as the Vilela Community, the region is home to 100 families that occupy about 2,250 hectares of land used as a source of livelihood. There, peasants have grown cassava, beans and corn, in addition to animal raising for more than 20 years.
Jorge Moreno, a lawyer at the Land Struggle Solidarity Committee (Comsolute, in Portuguese), organized a trial supported by different organizations, such as the Union of Communities in Struggle and the Student Collective Sons of the People. It explains the importance of the area.
“This kind of tribunal happened in three places: here in Maranhão state, Bahia state and Santa Catarina state. The most important is for people to know, help and support us ,so that this community here and all the others in Maranhão that are going through difficulties, especially the land grabbing of their territories, can be supported and have the solidarity of our population."
Image highlights peasant improvements destroyed at the behest of land grabbers in the Vilela Community / Comsolute
Conflicts
The families argue that in 2008, years after the community’s establishment, farmer Nestor Osvaldo Finger – originally from southern Brazil – presented himself as the owner of the lands and started to claim more than 50,000 hectares. Since then, the conflicts have never stopped.
The conflict also involved other communities from that same region, such as Boa Vista do Gurupi, Amapá do Maranhão, Carutapera, and Viseu (Pará state), all of them part of the people’s tribunal.
"We have documents from Incra [Brazil’s Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform] proving that this was already one of the top 100 biggest cases of land grabbing in Brazil. Even though, from the 2000s onwards, some land grabbers arrived here in the region of Junco do Maranhão, Boa Vista do Gurupi, Carutapera and Amapá [do Maranhão] claiming to own 52,000 hectares of land that they were never able to locate," explains Roniery Machado, the lawyer working on the cases.
In the last 30 years, over 140 people were killed in rural areas of Maranhão state. Less than 5% of the crimes were solved / Banco de Dados AND
Right on the access road to the area where the event would take place, a banner with the words "Out with land grabbers! For the titling of our land!", in protest at the recurring court rulings in favor of land grabbers in the region.
"Rural workers speak the truth. We are the ones who fight and go after food to put on the rich man's table, but the highest authority in the country doesn't see our side. Today, we suffer humiliation and sadness. For more than 25 years we've been fighting for this area. Big landowners and agribusiness men have persecuted us and we've never had any support," protested Antônio Mendes, a resident of the Vilela Community.
Organizations from different regions of Brazil are following the case, and some of them participated in the trial, such as the Brazilian Association of People's Lawyers (Abrapo, in Portuguese).
"These people have suffered a great deal of violence from big landowners, the same who, using gunmen, have been terrorizing, killing, intimidating, arresting, invading (...) That's why we've come from all corners of Brazil to support these people and show that this struggle is not just theirs, but that of all those who fight for people’s rights – and we will win," says Marino D'Icarahy, Abrapo's people's lawyer.
Firearms found with land grabbers before the beginning of the People's tribunal activities. The guns were found in Junco do Maranhão / Comsolute
On the eve of the tribunal, police operations in the region seized nine guns, vests and ammunition inside a farm. Four people were arrested and accused of being landowners' thugs who threatened rural workers’ families.
Regarding the escalation of violence, the Public Prosecutor's Office reports that the leaders are in protective services and points to a conservatism among security forces that benefits the properties of businessmen.
"The public forces still don't understand that those living in rural communities are weak, vulnerable and need protection. In general, the police set out to protect businessmen's assets. They don't realize that rural workers have been there for many years and have more rights to the land than someone who acquired it God knows how," explains Haroldo Paiva, the prosecutor of the Agrarian Conflicts Court.
Among the investigations carried out by the State Public Prosecutor's Office, there is “possessory encroachment” (“esbulho possessório”, in Portuguese) – which means the action of illegally taking possession of property – alteration of boundaries, arbitrary exercise of one's rights and procedural fraud. The agency blocked land registrations.
A peasent shares his testemony with judges during the People's Tribunal / Comsolute
The State Public Prosecutor's Office has guaranteed that land registrations will be blocked while the alleged fraud is investigated.
"There is a lawsuit before the courts. The community was the plaintiff in this lawsuit and lost. Now, we are appealing. We've just appealed to the court to see if we can do the proper investigation, where we believe we can prove the actual ownership of these people," says Haroldo.
Land grabbing
At the end of 2023, Maranhão’s governor Carlos Brandão sanctioned law 12.169, popularly known as the 'Land Grabbing Law', because it limits the right to the land of traditional communities and favors land grabbing.
"The core issue here in Maranhão is land misgovernance. The government doesn't know where their lands are, who they are with, or how they acquired them. People have been taking over public lands all these years, from back then until now, without obeying the legal rules," adds prosecutor Haroldo.
The public defender's office, through Jean Nunes, is also involved in the case and reports that a lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the rural workers’ families, on behalf of the Maranhão Rural Workers' Federation, Fetaema (in Portuguese).
A piece of wood with a message threatening the residents / Comsolute
In a statement, the Maranhão Public Defender's Office said it "reiterates its commitment to protecting the rights of traditional peoples and communities in Maranhão that are immersed in serious agrarian conflicts, adopting all legal measures to ensure the possession and safety of the members of these communities on the lands they traditionally occupy, in a clear expression of its constitutional duty".
Questioned about the allegations of the agency's subservience to land grabbers, probable documentary defects and what measures are being adopted, Incra stated that it "emphasizes its commitment to seeking solutions, based on constant dialogue with social movements and demands related to Agrarian Reform".
We contacted the Maranhão Court of Justice and the family of farmer Nestor Osvaldo Finger, but to no avail.
The information collected during the People's Tribunal will be transformed into a report to be sent to the due authorities, demanding justice and safety for the families.
Edited by: Thalita Pires
