MST attack in Rondonia kills one man

There are no reviewed versions of this page, so it may not have been checked for adherence to standards.

Saturday, December 4, 2004

According to Agência Estado, members of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement (MST) are accused of beating to death Paulo Brizola Nunes. Mr. Nunes, 51 years old, was an employee of the Noroeste Farm in Cabixi, 820 km (510 miles) away from the regional capital of Porto Velho, Rondonia. The farm was considered at risk of invasion due to its proximity to a MST encampment.

Nunes and another employee of Noroeste Farm known as "Coco" were on a motorcycle when they were allegedly attacked. MST members allegedly extended barbed wire across the road to down the two men, who were then pummelled with axes and sticks. Coco escaped to a Cabixi police station but Nunes was rendered unconscious and did not survive the assault.

MST is a large Marxist-Maoist inspired movement of agricultural workers in Brazil, officially founded in 1984. The movement claims to pursue equitable redistribution of Brazilian farmland. In 2003 there were 632 MST camps in Brazil, containing 116,382 families. According to a recent report on labor standards in Brazil, conditions for laborers are poor. Currently, MST receives financial help from the Brazilian government and donations from international organizations. The movement also receives funds by selling videos of their invasions and other products like books, flags and caps.

MST's most visible tactic has been their armed occupation of mostly privately-held plantations and landholdings. However, some Brazilians have protested MST's use of violence. Many farms hire gunfighters to protect their properties from invasions as MST is known to permanently evict farmholders. MST claims they use arms only to defend themselves from the gunfighters.

Sources

Nilton Salina, Conflito com sem-terra deixa um morto em Rondônia, Agência Estado(AE).
MST International webpage. English-language page
MST Official webpage.Portuguese-language page
Alexandre Mansur & Gerson Camarotti, MST – Os filhos querem revolução, Época magazine, July 7, 2003.

External links

MST Camps in Brazil, 2003

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.