Zema, you scoundrel and liar! All our support to the struggle of the families of the Quilombo Campo Grande Camp in Minas Gerais, Brazil
We, researchers of CLACSO Working Group on Latin American Critical Geographical ThoughtWe stand in solidarity with the 450 MST families who make up the Quilombo Campo Grande Camp in the municipality of Campo do Meio, in the state of Minas Gerais, in southeastern Brazil. This afternoon, August 14, 2020, these families mark 50 hours of resistance to the eviction ordered by the State Court at the request of the former owner of the Ariadnópolis Power Plant and carried out by the Military Police. Brazil, in addition to failing to implement agrarian reform, has a policy of judicializing and criminalizing the struggle for land. In this sense, eviction orders are being issued throughout the country as a tool to guarantee large landholdings and the historical concentration of land ownership. All of this is happening despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which this month has reached the tragic milestone of over 100 deaths.
The families, linked to the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) / Via Campesina, have been occupying the former Usina Ariadnópolis estate for 22 years. During this time, without any support from state public policies, they became a leader in organic coffee production. What we witnessed over these three days was a cruel and disproportionate repression against the peasant families. The area requested by the former owner of the plant and authorized by Judge Roberto Apolinário de Castro (TJ-MG) for its construction had already been abandoned by the campers. The Military Police's first action was to demolish the walls of the community school. After that, drones flew over the heads of the campers, including the children. Finally, they set fire to the fields and the area surrounding the encampment. And they have been systematically launching tear gas and other "moral effect" grenades at the people who continue to resist.
At GT PGCL/CLACSO, we repudiate these arbitrary actions by the Military Police and denounce the Government of the State of Minas Gerais. On August 12, Zema lied on social media, claiming that the eviction had been suspended in an attempt to deceive the families camped out and weaken their resistance. He indicated that his Secretariat of Social Development sent a letter to the Campos Gerais district, which in turn rejected the request. The Government is making a clear and ideologically defined choice: repression and the interests of the large landowners in that state. That is why we believe that with solidarity we can help the peasant families in their resistance and in their hope of achieving their dream of owning a land!
THE CHAOS WILL ENDURE! THE EDUARDO GALEANO SCHOOL WILL ENDURE!
#ZEMACOVARD
#SAVEQUILOMBO
August 14th, 2020
CLACSO Working Group
Latin American critical geographical thought
This statement expresses the position of the Working Group Latin American critical geographical thought and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.
