One month ago, the Olga Benário settlement, part of the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST, in Portuguese), was attacked by gunmen in Tremembé, São Paulo state. The crime left two people dead and six injured, one of them seriously.
Gilmar Mauro, a member of the MST's national leadership, says the community was shocked after the crime, and it took a collective effort to guarantee the minimum security for the settled families. “We are following the situation and taking turns to help with the internal process to guarantee some level of security. Of course, it's not the ideal security, but it has helped the families to stay there. This process has been going on ever since the attack,” he says.
The leader says that since the armed attack, the settlement has been debating about changing the space to ensure greater community integration and increase security on the site. “We are debating developing a project for the settlement, which will include rethinking the construction of the houses, build an agrovillage project, new constructions that allow for a greater degree of security for the families. But we will decide on it in consensus," he says.
To provide security and assistance to the families of the Olga Benário settlement, Brazil’s Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship sent a technical team to the site, including 26 people from the Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Communicators and Environmentalists (PPDDH, in Portuguese). The program provides protection to human rights defenders, communicators and environmentalists who are at risk, vulnerable or under threat due to their work.
Investigations
At the time of the crime, the MST attributed the attack to pressure from real estate speculation in the region. In an interview with Brasil de Fato, the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira, said it was an action by organized crime. For its part, the Ministry of Justice and Public Security has ordered the Federal Police to initiate an investigation into the case.
“We have no doubt that militias are involved in it,” says Gilmar Mauro. “The Brazilian state is being permeated by these sectors close to militias. We saw it here in São Paulo, for example, with the murder of the PCC [First Capital Command, a criminal faction born in São Paulo] whistleblower at Guarulhos airport.” The leader believes that the thesis of “internal conflict”, initially raised by police authorities, does not hold up. “We know it isn't true,” says Mauro.
Mauro also complains about the progress of the investigation. “We know that the investigation resulted in only one arrest, and the prisoner's cell phone hadn't even been taken from him. So, the investigation is still very slow,” he says. “It hasn't progressed beyond what we already knew. However, we have no direct information from the authorities responsible for the investigation. The way we see it is that it’s taking too long to investigate, and it may have been deliberate, so as not to get to the masterminds. I hope this is just our impression,” he says.
On the left, a dirty t-shirt smeared with dried blood on the site where the attack occurred; on the right, records of the protest to denounce the crime and demand justice/ Priscila Ramos-Filipe Peres/MST
When contacted by Brasil de Fato, the São Paulo Public Security Secretariat stated that “preventive policing in the region was intensified by the Military Police immediately after the episode and continues to be reinforced.” The statement also said that “civil police officers from the Deic [State Department of Criminal Investigations] in Taubaté, together with the Pindamonhangaba Police Station, carried out an operation on January 30 in Taubaté and São José dos Campos to carry out search and seizure warrants related to the crime.” “Ten search warrants were served, resulting in the seizure of a vehicle indirectly involved in the case, as well as cell phones. Efforts continue to arrest those involved and clarify the facts,” the text concludes.
Brasil de Fato also asked the Federal Police about the progress of the investigations and the measures taken to guarantee the safety of the settlers. It merely reaffirmed that the police investigation has been opened and investigations are ongoing.
Permanent measures
The MST has publicly advocated that the federal authorities take responsibility for actions to guarantee lasting security for settlements, as well as Quilombola and Indigenous territories, in the face of external threats. After a meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) on January 30, the movement's national leader, João Paulo Rodrigues, said that what happened in Tremembé was the result of the “absence of the state” and the MST, therefore, expressed its concern to the president.
“We shared our concerns with the president, and they are closely related to the lack of state presence in land reform areas. So, if the state doesn't work, conflict is likely to arise," Rodrigues said.
Gilmar Mauro says that the movement is organizing a meeting with the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, together with the Ministry of Agrarian Development and the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, to discuss the issue.
“The aim of the meeting with the Ministry of Justice is to map similar situations throughout Brazil [because] there are similar situations throughout Brazil, both in settlement areas and in Quilombola and Indigenous areas. By doing so and based on a diagnosis, we can establish a policy to guarantee the security of these territories. And I have no doubt that this requires the involvement of the Federal Police,” says Mauro.
The hearing request was also reinforced by the Workers’ Party Agrarian Center, which brings together around 20 of the party's parliamentarians, at the suggestion of federal deputy Nilto Tatto. “What happened in Tremembé has been happening in several settlements or even public areas, traditional communities, which always have real estate speculation behind them, or occupation as an agribusiness expansion strategy. So, we need to develop a program, within the scope of the Ministry of Justice, to tackle this problem, which is a national one,” said Tatto.
Brasil de Fato had access to the letter sent to Minister Ricardo Lewandowski on January 16. In the document, the group of parliamentarians describes what happened in Tremembé as a case of “violence linked to racism and historical discrimination” and point to the participation of organized crime. “The violence that took place there is a tragic example of the escalation of conflicts in the countryside. In this case, gunmen attacked the settlement of the Landless Rural Workers' Movement, killing two people and injuring six others. The attack was motivated by land disputes, with suspicions of organized crime involvement,” the text says.
“We are proposing to Your Excellency that this Ministry and Parliament take a position, with the aim of an articulated action that includes other agents, for the implementation of actions and programs that foster peace in the countryside and punish those responsible for the current wave of violence,” the Workers’ Party parliamentarians propose. “We hope that this meeting will take place at the beginning of February, as proposed by federal deputy Nilto Tatto, a member of the Center,” it concluded. The Ministry of Justice was contacted but did not return.
The case
The Olga Benário settlement was regularized in 2005 with 45 plots of land. Among them is an area of 5,000 square meters formally declared vacant by INCRA in December 2023. The plot was illegally sold and resold. When the illegal buyers were alerted to the impossibility of remaining in the area, armed men opened fire on a vigil of landless workers at the site on the night of January 10. The attack killed Gleison Barbosa de Carvalho, 28, and Valdir do Nascimento (Valdirzão), 52, and left six other people injured.
Two days after the crime, the São Paulo Civil Police arrested “Nero do Piseiro”, as Antônio Martins dos Santos Filho is known, who confessed to taking part. Another suspect, Ítalo Rodrigues da Silva, is still on the run.
