Written by Patrícia Benvenuti
An ambush on April 16, 2009, carried out by agents of a private security company left seven rural workers wounded on the Espírito Santo Ranch in the municipality of Xinguara, Pará, in the North of Brazil. Armed with high-powered weapons, the private security force shot at members of the MST (Movement of the Landless Rural Workers) who since February have been encamped in the area.
The incident was almost a repeat of another massacre – Eldorado dos Carajás, which by coincidence also occurred in Pará on almost the same day, April 17th (1996). On that day, 19 MST members were killed and dozens more wounded after a conflict with the Military Police who were trying to control the protestors.
The recent assassination attempts in Xinguara demonstrates that the violence, with new characteristics, committed in Eldorado dos Carajás continues. According to the most recent study “Conflicts in the Brazilian Countryside,” released by the CPT (the Catholic Church’s Land Commission) on April 28, conflicts continue to be a constant factor for millions of rural workers, indigenous peoples, quilombolas (descendants of runaway slaves) and other rural populations.
In addition to the recurring violence in rural areas, which already seems to be part of the structural formation of the country, the advancement of big economic conglomerates in the competition for land gives way to new forms of violence.
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