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 Brazilian workers Osvaldo Soares Meira and Nilton Tavares de Araújo,
members of the Landless Movement (MST) in the northeastern Brazilian
state of Paraíba, were freed on June 4 after 34 days in prison. The
farmers were arrested and then tortured in the early hours of May 1st,
Labor Day, when camped along with 60 families on the border of Fazenda
Cabeça de Boi, in the interior of Paraíba.
They were violently evicted by the private militia of the property owner and by the military police.
The area claimed by the families was already declared part of the Agrarian Reform by presidential decree on December 4, 2008, and the MST was seeking an official deed and title for the land. Meanwhile, in an interview with TV Paraíba, the owner, Maria do Rosário Rocha, confirmed that after the occupation of the area by the workers, she sought to reclaim the land in order to create a nature preserve on that land.
According to Vanúbia Oliveira, from the CPT (Comissão Pastoral da Terra - Pastoral Land Committee) of Campina Grande, "the farmland was for a long time abandoned, unproductive and the position of the owner was a clear reaction against the workers, against the social movements in the rural areas."
Since the moment in which the workers were arrested and tortured, many human rights organizations expressed their views against the criminalization of the social movements and in support of the political prisoners of the MST, in order to act in solidarity with the workers of Paraíba.
The bishop of Campina Grande, Dom Jaime Vieira Rocha, visited the disputed area and the MST prisoners who were also accompanied by Pastoral Carcerária and others human rights agencies, in addition to support from the MST.
According to Dilei Schiochet from Paraíba's MST, "There is a clear case of an attempt to destroy the social movements in the rural areas, those that are struggling for the land. The torture and imprisonment are ways to intimidate the workers. But, on the other hand, there is a lot of solidarity among the social movements and rural and urban organizations, which were involved since the beginning of the process, creating a unity that is still very strong on the political left.
On the night of May 1st about sixty families linked to the MST made a settlement near the side of the Brazilian Highway 230 right next to the Fazenda Cabeça de Boi. On that same night, a group of masked men under orders from the owner, Maria do Rosário Rocha, shot at the families, grabbing seven workers and torturing them.
The gunmen threw gasoline on them and threatened to burn them alive. When the police arrived they took the captive workers. Without having a court order for reclaiming ownership, the gunmen and the military police destroyed the encampment. The state ombudsman for agrarian issues noted that the two imprisoned workers showed visible signs of physical abuse and burns.
The workers were freed from the Second Police Battalion in Campina Grande where they gave a statement. Of the seven initially held, five were freed the following day. Meanwhile, the judge of Comarca de Pocinhos, Adriana Maranhão Silva, ruled for pre-emptive imprisonment for the workers Osvaldo Soares Lira and Nilton Tavares de Araújo, alleging that they had threatened public safety.
On May 7, the lawyers filed a petition for habeas corpus with the state court and on May 19 they sought a repeal of the charges against the workers. Now the workers will appear in court as plaintiffs - and free.
CPT
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Written by Ana Paula Marra
Monday, 24 January 2005
On Saturday, January 22, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva paid a visit in the state of Bahia to the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST) encampment that bears his name.
The community of about 850 families occupies an area near the municipality of Eunápolis, in the south of Bahia. Lula promised the camp residents that they would receive land by July.