Tens of men of the Brazilian Armed Force and the Security National Force arrived at the peasant area of Enilson Ribeiro, Seringueira municipality, on September 7th, in a clandestine operation. The campaign was covered up by the “Guarantee of Law and Order” (GLO) and the “Green Brasil” Operation and employed intimidation and provocation during a week. This is one more concrete fact to comprove that the objective of the decree is to combat and intimidate the peasant struggle.
In accordance with the note issued by the National Commission of the Poor Peasant League (LCP), “the peasants in the area have reported that during a week the militaries of the reactionary Armed Forces committed all sort of intimidation, threats, harassement and humiliation”.
The militaries, according to the peasants, “invaded and searched the peasants’ dwellings, confiscated shotguns, seeking insistently information on the leaders, when would be held the meetings and assemblies and the lawyers’ names who defended the families”.
The militaries made “ threats of imprisonment, including to the lawyers”, continued LCP. “Besides the clear intention of restriction of the right to free association and defence of the families, in different periods there have been scurrilous statements aiming at criminalising the peasants’ struggle and LCP”.
‘GLO’ prepares the ground
As it was pointed out by the LCP National Commission, the military occupation has been using the fire fighting as a smoke screen. Even being Mato Grosso the state with the largest number of fires in the region (that, according to the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) data, has more than 13,000 focus) the biggest concentration of the troops is in Rondonia, the state in which more people died struggling for land in the last years.
During a debae at the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj), on October 22nd , the LCP denounced that the military siege is not restrict to the Enilson Ribeiro area. “These fires in Amazonia, who provokes them? Bolsonaro’s landlords but mostly the Brazilian Army”, and proceeds affirming that their objective was to impose the GLO: “Now, all of LCP’s camps are surrounded, the troops are stationed beside them, in regions in which there are no firing focus! Just to show that they are there to combat the struggle for the land”.
The proof of this statement is that, during the GLO, Sepetember 10th , in Rondonia, as AND notified at the time, the reactionary Army, the National Force and the Tatics Force of the Military Police (PM) expelled 400 peasant families of the Boa Esperança settlement, located at the countryside of Porto Velho. The peasants report that the troops acted violently, put fire in the area and everything was recorded in video by the workers. The police arrested four peasants that have been denouncing for years the political persecution.
“What this landownership government is afraid of is that the peasant struggle in Seringueira becomes an example; that is why they station their troops against the peasants”, affirmed the LCP in a recent statement when the Enilson Ribeiro area was besieged.
To confirm the denouncements of the peasants, the Minister of Defence, general Fernando Azevedo, in a parcial estimation of the Operation “Verde Brasil”, at the end of September, said that “Amazonia is a priority for the Armed Forces”. And continued: “ In less than 15 years we have doubled the military presence there, from 20 thousand to 44 thousand persons. This has facilitated our capillarity. We have been in the region not only for the burnings”.
Military siege will remain
The GLO in Amazonia started on August 24th, with the expected duration of one month and extension of one more month, by a decree. It has been implemented right after the criminal and planned “Day of Fire”, when Bolsonaro and the generals’ government, answering the international pressure, permitted the use of troops of the Armed Forces and other federal forces in order to “combat the fires” in the whole legal Amazonia. The military contingent has already reached 8 thousand militaries and the measure, despite the fact that has arrived to its end, has the permanency of the troops as a reality.
This fact is restricted to, as AND has demonstrated, the permanent occupation of all the Amazon region denominated “Project Barão de Rio Branco”, implemented since February, as divulged by The Intercept.
Furthermore, GLO, with respect to the declared objective of “fighting the fires” and defence of the forest, has failed, showing that these have never been their real goal. In accordance with the environmentalist, Tarso Azevedo, in an interview to the media monopoly, O Globo, the data analysed on the burnings and deforestation in Amazonia pointed out there has been an increase of the rate of deforestation even with the presence of the militaries. It occurred, in the first month of occupation, an increase of 96% of cleared areas with regard to the same period last year, according to data of the Deter system, Inpe.