April 17, 2016
Agrarian reform is now blocked in Brazil. The concentration of wealth in land is growing and our established settlements are not receiving any effective support. Violence against the landless is on the rise and the large estate owners and agribusiness are operating with impunity.
The massacre of Eldorado dos Carajas is a grim reminder and a symbol of the government’s indifference to rural workers and the Brazilian people in general. Those of us in the Brazilian Landless Peasant Movement (MST) are committed to reversing this situation.
The massacre took place twenty years ago on April 17,1996 when approximately 1200 landless peasants blocked highway 150 in the city of Eldorado dos Carajas, in Northern Brazil. The action took place to demand the expropriation of Fazenda Macaxeira, a large unproductive land holding in the region. Under the order of the Governor 155 members of the military police of Para isolated a group of the workers marching and opened fire. The result was nineteen members of the MST were killed. Autopsies later revealed that many of the dead had been brutally beaten and then shot at close range. Another three workers died from their wounds and many others seriously wounded.
Members of the MST families who had lost loved ones denounced the police and asserted that another 100 people were missing and were never accounted for including women and children. Jose Carlos Agarito a survivor of the massacre claimed, “I think over 100 died there was never any sign of them. I want to know what happened. Many say that they saw a car and a truck leave the area covered with black canvas with blood leaving the area.
Twenty years after the murders no one has been punished for it. Since then April 17 has become known as the International Day of Peasants’ Struggle.
Source: www.mstbrazil.org