[02/16/07] Gunmen Hired to Murder MST Leader Imprisoned in Pernambuco

The gunmen hired to murder the leader of the MST have been imprisoned in
Pernambuco.

On Wednesday the 14th of February, the Municipal Police of Aliança of
Pernambuco's Northern Zona da Mata arrested the gunmen José Edson
Leonardo (38 years old), otherwise known as Lóia, and Francisco Assis
Silva (44 years old).

The suspicion is that the gunmen were contracted in the city of Goiania,
by a farmer known as Branco, to murder the Landless rural worker João
Izídio da Silva (40 years old), coordinator of the Guararapes encampment.
The encampment is situated in the Guararapes estate, part of the failed
Aliança Mill, an area that has staged many land conflicts.

On the night of Tuesday the 13th the gunmen went to the encampment to
threaten João Izídio. The following day the Landless People presented a
complaint of the threats to the Aliança police station. When the police
got there the gunmen had just finished invading the encampment. They were
caught red handed with a 12 gauge caliber rifle and a 40 point pistol.

The violence in the area had already been denounced many times to the
relevant State organs, but unfortunately, the recent assassination attempts
that occurred last Wednesday demonstrates that the problem will only be
resolved once all the land has been expropriated.

A History of Violence:

The Aliança Mill is an historic battle ground for the MST. The mill
went bankrupt in 1996 after running into a debt of more than 250 million
reais (statistics from the State and Federal Governments in 1998) including
debits with the employees. The residents of the former mill, robbed of
their worker’s rights, from 1998 onwards, proceeded to claim the
expropriation of the 22 estates that add up to 7.300 hectares. Only five of
the 22 estates were expropriated, among them the Natal estate.

Industrialists responded to the demands of the Landless People with
violence. Leaders of workers movements were killed and families of the
residents are terrorized by gunmen in an effort to shift them from the land.

In December of the previous year the Landless rural worker José Gomes,
linked to the Pastoral Commission of the Land (CPT), was murdered on the
Natal Estate. In October 2003 another rural worker, Ivanildo Ferreira de
Lima, 25 years old, was killed by three men on motor bikes and in November
of the same year Severino José da Silva, 64 years old, was murdered in his
own home.