Protesters in the U.S. Advocate for Agrarian Reform and Veto the Forest Code in Front of the Brazilian Embassy, during a Visit by President Dilma, April 9, 2012

On Monday (09) morning, the Friends of the MST in the U.S. along with other environmental and human rights organizations promoted a April 9 DC demo - Brazilian Embassymarch to the Embassy of Brazil in Washington, DC - the day the President Rousseff visited the U.S. - to press her on the current reality of the Brazilian countryside.

Among the points of claim: (1) to denounce the paralysis of Agrarian Reform and the requirement to settle families in the encampment, a figure which reaches 186,000 families; (2) Justice to the massacre of Eldorado dos Carajás, where 21 landless were killed by the Military Police in the town of Eldorado dos Carajás, Pará, in 1996. Sixteen years after the episode, no one responsible for the event has been imprisoned; and (3) calling for the presidential veto of the new Forest Code, pending in the House, which has the sole purpose of undermining the Brazilian environmental legislation.

The march in Washington sought to express solidarity with social movements and activists in environmental and human rights in Brazil. Moreover, the activists also marched in memory of martyrs who represent the national peasant struggle, including Sister Dorothy Stang, Chico Mendes, the 21 MST militants killed in Eldorado dos Carajas, Claudio Zé Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espirito Santo.

From Pagina do MST

April 9 DC demo - Brazilian Embassy

April 9 DC demo - Brazilian Embassy

 

 

 

 

April 9 DC demo - Brazilian Embassy

April 9 DC demo - Brazilian Embassy

April 9 DC demo - Brazilian Embassy

April 9 DC demo - Brazilian Embassy