On Monday morning (27), the Mato Grosso military police arrested ten landless rural workers, a public defender and two representatives of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT, in Portuguese). The action took place during the eviction of 74 landless families who had occupied the Cinco Estrelas Farm a few hours earlier, in the town of Novo Mundo. Among those arrested are public defender Gabriela Beck and priest Luís Cláudio da Silva.
The families of the União Recanto Cinco Estrelas encampment, who have been encamped around the farm for 20 years awaiting land regularization, denounce that the expulsion was carried out without a court order and used police violence. The landless rural workers report aggression, the seizure of cell phones and police searches by male officers targeting females.
The house of a man who lives near the farm was raided, and his arm was broken by the police when he was handcuffed. A 47-year-old man was injured while trying to flee from police and needed medical attention because of an injury to his arm. In a statement published on Tuesday (28), the Mato Grosso Military Police disputes the workers' version, saying that the man had his arm injured “while trying to flee from police and needed medical attention.”
The workers also claim they were prevented from removing their belongings from inside the farm – cars, motorcycles, tarpaulin shacks and goods in general.
“They took my cell phone, made me unlock it, deleted all the videos I filmed and the pictures I took and called me all kinds of names,” says a 60-year-old woman heard by Brasil de Fato. Hours later, the elderly woman was taken to a local hospital after being beaten by a police officer, workers say.
“It's getting harder and harder, but so far justice hasn't shown up,” added another worker. According to them, some children and pregnant women “fell ill” during the eviction.
The names of the nine landless detainees have not been released yet.
The families have been “under tarpaulin, on the side of the road” for 20 years, waiting for legal authorization to be permanently settled on part of the farm's land. The area was already earmarked for agrarian reform by a lower court decision in 2020, but an alleged owner has filed appeals, which have yet to be heard by the lower court.
Images taken by the families before the arrival of the military police show men trying to invade the site with a tractor, while the workers react by driving away the machinery.
“The families' fear is great due to the long list of rights violations and violence they have already experienced, as well as their knowledge of the actions of the Rural Patrol/Mato Grosso Military Police,” the CPT said in a statement. According to the organization, the Rural Patrol has been one of the main causes of violence against encampments and settlements in the state of Mato Grosso.
Contacted by Brasil de Fato, police chief Geraldo Gezoni Filho said the police station in the city of Guarantã do Norte, which also serves the town of Novo Mundo, had not yet received any details about the case and was still waiting for a police report to be filed by the military police. However, he said that “in the state of Mato Grosso, invasions are not tolerated.”
The note from the Mato Grosso Military Police reinforces the idea of “zero tolerance” for what the agency defines as “attempts to invade rural properties.” The text states that “during the action, a 20-gauge shotgun, live ammunition, steel balls, gunpowder and products used to reload weapons were seized.”
Landless families occupied Cinco Estrelas, an unproductive farm in Novo Mundo, Mato Grosso do Sul state. / Courtesy
An impasse over the regularization of the farm
The Cinco Estrelas Farm covers around 4,300 hectares. In a first-instance decision in 2020, courts awarded the entire area to the state. Of this total, 2,000 hectares have been earmarked for agrarian reform to settle 74 landless families.
The land-grabber who claims the farm has filed a petition for a writ of mandamus asking for a preliminary injunction on the land. According to the CPT, the injunction has already expired, but the alleged owner continues to claim ownership of the farm.
In April 2024, the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA, in Portuguese) issued a decree for the definitive settlement of 74 families on the site, but the second instance of justice – represented by the Federal Regional Court (TRF, in Portuguese) of the 1st Region, in Brasilia – has yet to rule on the petition for writs of mandamus and appeals filed by the land-grabber.
The Cinco Estrelas Farm corresponds to the area where INCRA created the Novo Mundo Sustainable Development Project (PDS Novo Mundo) in April this year.
Gleba Nhandú region
Covering some 211,000 hectares, the Gleba Nhandú region, in the northern portion of the state of Mato Grosso, includes Cristalino State Park and several rural properties. Some of the land has been invaded by land-grabbers, who have forged ownership documents for decades.
In recent years, at least three farms located in Gleba Nhandú have been attributed to the state by the courts and should, therefore, be earmarked for land reform. Among them is the Cinco Estrelas farm.
The second is Recanto Farm, which had around 2,000 hectares set aside in 2018 for permanently accommodating the families in the Nova Conquista Settlement.
The third is Araúna Farm, which had 6,000 hectares of its area set aside in 2024 for the Boa Esperança settlement, made up of 100 landless families.
“I find this situation very sad because if the land is vacant, if it's federal land, [if the land grabbers] don't have a document, and if the occupation project has already been launched, why doesn't the Justice system come and give the land to the people, so they can go and survive on the land, like us from Nova Conquista, where the Justice system came and put us up? The climate here today is very sad to see. From the bottom of my heart, I feel their pain of not being able to enjoy what belongs to you," laments a resident of the neighboring settlement, Nova Conquista.
Edited by: Nicolau Soares
