Landless denounce police abuses in occupied area in Goiás

Members of the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) accuse the Military Police (PM) of Goiás of threatening and embarrassing them. According to the group, in recent days, “a large police contingent” has begun to carry out patrols around the Dom Tomás Balduíno Popular Camp, set up on a farm in Formosa that the landless claim is destined for agrarian reform. According to the movement, there are 260 families camped on the property, which has been occupied since 2015. The workers claim that, in recent days, the military police have blocked access roads to the site, limiting the free movement of people, and have begun to ostensibly inspect the campers’ vehicles, without any justification. In a note, the MST says that “armed jagunços”, that is, private security guards, closely monitor the police action, which the movement considers an “offensive” to try to remove the landless from the property. According to the MST, the police even justified the action by claiming that the current owners of the area had appealed to the courts in search of a repossession order in order to remove the people camped. For the movement, the measure would be illegal, since the destination to be given to the area depends on a court decision and mediation by the Land Conflicts Council (CCF). The MST claims that, before he died, the former owner of the farm, Maurício Bicalho Filho, offered the property to be used by the National Program for Agrarian Reform. As the process of expropriation of the area and the approval of a new settlement were not concluded before Bicalho’s death, a legal dispute began, headed by the businessman’s heirs. The report was unable to contact the heirs or the family’s lawyers. Consulted by Agência Brasil, the PM reported that, last weekend, it carried out “routine approaches” in the region of the Dom Tomás Balduíno Popular Camp with the objective of “providing security to the local population”. “The Military Police reiterates that, together with the Judiciary, it is adopting all the necessary legal measures to guarantee the preservation of order and the safety of all those involved, always acting in line with the legal system”, added the corporation. The National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) informed that representatives of the autarchy and of the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture are already in the occupied area to “provide actions that avoid conflicts and any type of violence against the families in camps and in a state of social vulnerability”. According to the INCRA press office, this Tuesday (27th), representatives of the federal agencies will meet with members of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Formosa, the Republic’s Attorney’s Office and the Federal Police “to ensure that the institute can carry out the work [de recadastramento dos sem terra] with safety”.

Agência Brasil