Under the Brazilian Constitution, landless families have the right to occupy arable land that is not being used in order to grow food to feed themselves.
The small farmers and their families occupying underutilized land on the Serro Azul farm in Pernambuco have been facing ongoing threats and acts of violence. Since mid-April when...
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Recent Videos/Audios
Occupy Brazil: The Landless Dig In
Brazilian Government | MST Occupations and Demonstrations | Agrarian Reform | Oppression of MST and Social Movements | MST Urgent Actions
Representatives of the State Secretariat for Human Rights, the State Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and the Ombudsman of the Department of Social Defense visited, on Tuesday (July 3, 2012), the Gregório Bezerra encampment in the city of Altinho, rural...
Dear Friends of the MST,
On behalf of my brothers and sisters of the Landless Workers Movement (MST) in Brazil, I salute you.
I write to tell you about the grave threats we are facing here in Pernambuco, Brazil, and ask for your help.
Armed thugs hired by large landowners are shooting at landless...
Brazilian Government | Agrarian Reform | Oppression of MST and Social Movements | MST Urgent Actions
The trial of the colonel of the Military Police of Pará who commanded the massacre of Eldorado de Carajás, Mário Pantoja de Oliveira, has been postponed once again. The postponement was granted by the Minister of STJ Laurita Vaz. In 2002, Pantoja was sentenced to 228 years imprisonment by jury trial in Belem. The crime was committed in 1996 and left 19 workers dead. The colonel's lawyers seek the annulment of the conviction, allowing Pantoja to wait for the trial for annulment in...
The MST needs your support to stop a campaign to criminalize all social movement activity in Rio Grande do Sul
In late June, the MST presented a document to the public that proves a strategy on the part of the Rio Grande do Sul State Public Ministry to “dissolve” the MST. The document outlines a meeting, on December 3, 2007, during which the State Public Ministry decided to outlaw any mobilization of landless workers, including marches and walks, to intervene in...
Dear Friends of the MST,
We are writing to update you on the situation in Brazil regarding Syngenta, and to tell you about the next steps in the struggle to punish the transnational for its crimes. As you know, the most recent occupation of a site owned by Syngenta, carried out on October 21st, 2007, was met with extreme violence on the part of NF Security company, which Syngenta had contracted to guard its property. During the altercation, activist Valmir Mota de Oliveira (“Keno”)...
Dear Friends of the MST
As we conveyed in the most recent MST Informa, many NGOs and social movements in Brazil are against government's plan to redirect water from the São Francisco river. According to some estimates, the project will spend billions out of the public coffers, drastically change ecosystems, cause migration of peoples, and bring few benefits for those who most need
the water. The beneficiaries will be the big agricultural companies.
Two years ago, the...
Dear Friends of the MST, As we conveyed in the most recent MST Informa, many NGOs and social movements in Brazil are against government's plan to redirect water from the São Francisco river. According to some estimates, the project will spend billions out of the public coffers, drastically change ecosystems, cause migration of peoples, and bring few benefits for those who most need the water.
The beneficiaries will be the big agricultural companies.
Two years ago, the Catholic...
MST Occupations and Demonstrations | Agrarian Reform | Oppression of MST and Social Movements | MST Urgent Actions
Dear Friends of the MST, On October 21 at 1:30 p.m., a Via Campesina encampment located at Syngenta’s 127-hectare farm used for field trials of genetically modified crops in Santa Tereza do Oeste, in Paraná, Brazil, was attacked by an armed militia. During the brutal attack, a leader and activist from the Movement of Landless Workers (MST) and member of Via Campesina, Valmir Mota de Oliveira, 42 years old (known as “Keno,”) was killed at point-blank range by two shots to the chest. Two...
Dear Friends of the MST,
As you know, our movement is mobilizing throughout Brazil for another campaign demanding Agrarian Reform in our country.
As you also know, April 17th is the International Day of Peasant Struggle as called for by La Via Campesina International and for that reason in many countries of the world, similar campaigns and protests are being organized by peasant organizations.
Here in Brazil in June of 2002, then-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso...
[03/29/2007] Call for April 17: International Day of Peasant’s Struggle
The 17th of April is the International Day of Peasant’s Struggle, established after the massacre of 19 landless peasants belonging to the Landless Movement (MST) in Brazil on the 17th of April 1996 during the second conference of La Via Campesina in Tlaxcala Mexico.
In commemoration of the International Peasant’s Struggle Day, La Via Campesina and its allies are organizing activities and actions all over...
Dear Friends of the MST,
Today, April the 3rd, the judge responsible for the 2nd judicial district in Recife, Pernambuco (PE), accepted the request for the provisional release of Landless Rural Worker, Iroilton Pereira de Morais.
The MST militant had been imprisoned since March the 8th, the day he was detained by military police in Recife while participating in a march to commemorate International Women’s Day.
We send thanks to everyone who helped secure the freedom of...
Dear Friends of the MST,
We write to let you know that Almir Silva Xavier and Everaldo Miguel Oliveira, MST rural workers and human rights defenders, have been jailed in the town of
[11/30/06]
Dear Friends of the MST,
The third week of November marks two years since the Massacre of Felisburgo (MG). On November 20, 2004, 18 hooded killers, coordinated by the rancher Adriano Chafik, went to the Promised Land encampment and shot at men, women, and children. The landless workers Iraguiar Ferreira da Silva, Miguel José dos Santos, Francisco Nascimento Rocha, Juvenal Jorge Silva and Joaquim José dos Santos were killed. Many people were wounded and 100 families...
Dear Friends of the MST and Via Campesina,
In response to the international campaign Terra de Direitos launched to
support the Via Campesina’s occupation of Syngenta Seeds, yesterday the
multinational corporation published a statement in three of Brazil’s
largest daily newspapers, including the Estado de São Paulo. This
maneuver came hours before the support campaign was launched in Latin
America, and days before Sunday’s national elections. The press...
Solidarity Campaign: The Chico Mendes Encampment, here we produce dignity!
For more than two years, nearly 500 rural landless workers from the Chico Mendes Encampment have fought for the ownership for 580 hectares of land of the Engenho São João. This is part of the Usina Tiúma, owned by the Votorantim Group, one the businesses that owns many plantations and large estates in Brazil.
The farm has been idle for 17 years, since the Usina Tiúma closed. Some of those now living on...
[09/15/06] Friends of the MST,
We are pleased to report that Minister Nilson Naves, of the Supreme Justice Tribunal, has just revoked the decree of preventative imprisonment filed against our comrade, Jaime Amorim, member of the MST’s National Coordinating Body for the state of Pernambuco.
This is an enormous victory against the oligarchs of Pernambuco, and it is the result of the solidarity demonstrated by all who joined us in the fight to defend Jaime Amorim!
We send...
CAMPAIGN FOR THE RELEASE OF ENIO BOHNENBERGER
Dear Friends of the MST,
As many of you are aware, on the 4th of July of 2006, a judge from the 11th District Court of Belo Horizonte ordered the preventative imprisonment of our colleague Enio, member of the MST's National Coordinating Body and a longtime Human Rights activist. Enio has been detained ever since.
The order of imprisonment was prepared in response to popular protests which took place at the headquarters of...
Dear Friends of the MST,
Thank you to everyone who made the effort to mail a letter in support of the Via Campesina’s occupation of Syngenta Seeds’ experimental test site in Santa Teresa do Oeste, Paraná, Brazil, to Governor Roberto Requião. The Via Campesina, an international movement of peasant social movements, and Terra de Direitos, a Brazilian human rights NGO, appreciate your efforts.
Syngenta is one the largest multinational agribusiness corporations in the world, and...
[08/22/06] URGENT ACTION: MST files habeas corpus, asks for international support
NOTE: Brazil's Superior Justice Tribunal decided in favor of habeas corpus for Jaime Amorim, releaseing him from prison on Monday, August 28th. Thanks to everyone who demonstrated their solidarity in this important fight!
Brief Summary –
Jaime Amorim, member of the MST’s National Coordinating Body, is being detained by the authorities in Pernambuco (PE). On Monday, August 21st, Jaime was...
On July the 31st of 2004, over 400 MST families occupied the Santa Filomena Estate in Brazil’s southern state of Paraná. During the occupation, MST activist Elias de Meura, 20 years of age, was shot and killed by gunmen hired to keep the landless from occupying the estate.
The families have continued to refuse to leave the estate, citing its inproductivity as was declared by Brazil’s National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) in 1997.
This Thursday,...
Campaign for the Expropriation of the Coqueiros (Coconut Palm) Farm
Dear Friends,
The MST recently kicked off a campaign for the expropriation of seven thousand hectares of vacant lands known as the Fazenda Guerra, located in the municipality of Coqueiros do Sul. Currently, this vast, uninhabited area belonging to the Guerra family comprises 30% of the total land area of the municipality while only employing about 15 temporary laborers. The MST postulates that the land should...
Dear Friends of the MST,
The MST’s Human Rights Sector is asking for your urgent support and solidarity.
On November 20, 2004, 18 armed gunmen, commanded by the rancher Adriano Chafik, attacked the MST’s Terra Prometida (Promised Land) encampment. They shot and killed five rural workers, wounding another 12. This sad episode became known in Brazil as the Massacre of Felisburgo. [See ‘BACKGROUND’ @ BOTTOM OF PAGE].
In the second half of 2005, rancher Adriano Chafik was...
[03/22/06] URGENT ACTION NEEDED: Armed police in Rio Grande do Sul invade offices, attack women organizers and confiscate computers, organizing materials and other items
**SOLIDARITY LETTER INCLUDED**
Dear Friends of the MST,
The MST’s National Coordinating Body is asking for your urgent support and solidarity.
Women leaders in rural Brazil, whose only crime was to organize themselves in defense of life, biodiversity, and food sovereignty for the Brazilian people,...
Dear Friend,
Greetings from the Friends of Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement! We are writing to you today with both exciting updates as well as an urgent plea for your support.
1. FMST NEWSLETTER--NEED YOUR ADDRESS:
We have printed a lovely 4-page Summer FMST Newsletter that we would like to send to MST supporters. Please send your updated ADDRESS to info [at] mstbrazil [dot] org as soon as...
Dear Friends,
At this time, the social movements in the field in the state of Pará are facing another round of massive evictions because of an alliance between the state governor, the Judiciary of Pará and the large estate owners who are trying to destabilize the encampments and the settlements and thus prevent land reform from being carried out.
We ask for your solidarity at this time. We suggest that you apply pressure by contacting the authorities listed below, requesting an...
URGENT ACTION: Letters to Brazil’s Embassy
If you cannot join us at these locations, please send letters to the Brazilian Embassy in DC to express your concern. A sample letter can be found below. Portugues esta em baixo.
Please mail letters to written to President Lula to the attention of Ambassador Roberto Abdenur in DC at:
Brazilian Embassy
3006 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20008-3634
SAMPLE LETTER
Esteemed Sir
President of...
For Immediate Release (*portugues esta em baixo*)
21 April 2005
Contact: Dawn Plummer at dawn [at] mstbrazil [dot] org
March and Vigils in Solidarity with Brazil’s Landless Peasants
for Land Reform, Human Rights & the Environment
New York, NY – On April 22, demonstrations at Brazilian consulates around the...