[06/08/06] Landowner attempts to kill MST teacher near encampment

Since the end of last year, the men and women rural workers from the Pátria Livre encampment in the municipality of Correia Pinto (SC), have been denouncing the human rights violations committed by the owners of the São Roque Farm. The decree of expropriation of the area is being processed in the Supreme Court and the landless workers are waiting for the settlement along the BR-116 highway.

In the past week, there was an attempt on the life of Paulo César da Costa, teacher of the encampment school. The worker was collecting firewood together with Francisco José Siqueira Neto, another member of the MST, when they were accosted by two men on horseback, one of them the owner of the farm.

According to Costa, the farmer pointed a gun at him and demanded that they lay down on the ground. After a few minutes, two other gunmen arrived, one of them the son of the farmer. “He asked who we were. And after we replied that we were landless workers, he attacked me with a knife saying ‘then we’ll kill you right here