Federal
Brazilian police and military personnel, some wearing United Nations insignia,
are forcibly relocating whole communities in Brazil at gunpoint under the guise
of returning huge tracts of land to a small group of Indians whose ancestors
were allegedly there at some point. Thousands of local residents who have lived
in the area for decades or were even born there, however, are fighting back,
with critics saying the government’s actions smack of Stalinism and may
constitute crimes against humanity.
Since the latest controversial operation began in November in
the state of Mato Grosso, according to authorities and news reports, citizens
opposed to being stripped of their property and homes have been doing
everything in their power to stop the assault — setting up road blocks,
battling heavily armed federal forces with stones, sticks, and Molotov
cocktails, torching government trucks, protesting, and refusing to leave.
Others cried as they tore down their own
simple houses under armed guard.
Reporters on the scene and
even federal lawmakers suspect
bloodshed may be near. The government, however, has vowed to expel
the communities at any cost, threatening those who refuse to comply with
criminal charges and even confiscation of what little remains of their personal
property. Rubber bullets, tear gas, and threats of real bullets and prosecution
have all been employed to forcibly remove the locals, whom the government
continues to dehumanize as “invaders” and “intruders.”
Critics and local residents have accused the government of
Brazil of mass corruption, saying the end goal is to smash private property
ownership and all potential resistance — starting with the rural population.
They argue, among other points, that federal authorities are doing the bidding
of foreign interests and are in cahoots with the UN, massive international
corporations, Western-based non-governmental organizations like Greenpeace, and other
interests.
“This is just one more case among many. The policy of
Brazil’s leftist government is to dismantle the country to deliver it all to
‘native reserves,’ which are nothing more than instruments of billionaire
foreign Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs),” explained renowned Brazilian
writer and philosopher Professor Olavo de Carvalho, who has played a key role
in exposing the well-orchestrated socialist takeover of Latin America.
The so-called “pink tide” sweeping over the region is being
led in part by top Brazilian Workers' Party (PT) officials, who currently hold
power, collaborating with totalitarian regimes in the region. As The
New American has documented extensively, a shadowy network
of socialist and communist political parties as well as Marxist terror groups
known as Foro de São Paulo — founded by former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio
“Lula” da Silva, communist tyrant Fidel Castro, the Sandinistas, and others —
now dominates Latin American politics.
The justification used in the most recent land grab case in
Mato Grosso’s Suiá-Missu, however, is unparalleled in terms of cynicism,
Carvalho, the conservative Brazilian leader, told The New American.
“Ages ago, Brazilian Indians used to avoid settling in a particular place; they
traveled long distances and created temporary residences along the way,” he
explained. “The Brazilian government accepted the thesis of some
anthropologists that wherever Indians left one of their dead buried in the
ground, suddenly the land belongs to them. The population of Suiá-Missu is poor
and working people who have no way to respond to the brute force of the
communist government.”
Some 400,000 acres of land in the state of Mato Grosso with numerous towns — at least one of the communities in Estrela do Araguaia was home to an estimated 7,500 residents complete with churches, schools, hospitals, a graveyard and more, though the government claims the figures are smaller — was reportedly handed to a group of nearby Indians in the 1990s by official decree. Property owners’ deeds were nullified and no compensation was offered. Authorities began the forced relocation of all non-Indians late last year after giving existing residents just 30 days to vacate their land “voluntarily.” Most refused to go.
“In the final days of December, the federal government’s task
force working on expelling local residents from the Marãiwatsédé indigenous
land in Mato Grosso prioritized the expulsion of the community of Posto da
Mata, a center of fierce resistance against returning the land to the Xavante
Indians,” the federal National Indian Foundation (Funai), part of the Justice
Ministry, said in astatement in
early January. “Justice officials set a January 4 deadline for residents to
evacuate the area. Whoever does not leave by that date will have their
belongings confiscated by Justice and will have to answer for the crime of
disobedience.” Tensions are still brewing, though, and the evictions are far
from completed.
About 3,000 people lived in Posto da Mata, including 700
school children who will now be homeless if the government gets its way.
"Where are we going to stay? Where are we going to live? What are we going
to live off of ? What are we going to eat going forward?" wondered a tearful girl outside one of
the town's two schools in a TV interview. "I've lived here all my 17 years
and I'm not leaving."
An 8-year-old boy, also crying, read a letter to Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff, a “former” self-styled communist terrorist during the military
regime, begging her not to let the police knock down his family’s house.
Rousseff and her administration, however, appear unmoved, with the powerful
Brazilian regime marching onward regardless of the human tragedy left in its
wake.
“The federal government is sticking to the judicial decision
with firmness and serenity,” Chief Minister Gilberto Carvalho with the General
Secretariat of the President said in a press release.
“Violent and illegal actions will not be tolerated and adequate measures are
already being taken.”
Locals, however, are still petitioning the
government to stop the barbaric relocation, which they say will shatter
thousands of lives. Protesters have been tearing down and burning Brazilian flags while
local, state, and even federal political leaders have expressed outrage about
the brutal relocation. Congressman Valtenir Pereira, for instance, warned a top
executive branch official about the increasing risk of bloodshed as the battle
rages on. He also said that the forced relocation of families risked damaging
Brazil's image and reputation in front of the international community.
"I told
him that the international community is aware of the problem. We are running
the risk of allowing bloodshed to occur. The conflict has already started,
we've had incidents between police and locals who did not want to leave the
area," he said. "I also said that this conflict can become a blood
stain on the presidency. President Dilma and her vice president cannot let this
happen, otherwise they will stain Brazil's image internationally. The solution
depends only on the president."
The history
of the land is in dispute, but it appears that in the 1960s, Brazilian authorities
may have expelled local Indians from the region and moved them hundreds of
miles away before selling off the land. The goal was supposedly to encourage
Brazilians and agricultural producers in particular to settle the area, which
saw a steady influx of new residents over the following decades.
Many locals and even outside analysts question whether the
land was really inhabited by Indians at all. Even some Xavante Indians have spoken out, explaining that their people
always lived in another region with another climate and type of vegetation.
The UN and Greenpeace, though, were heavily involved in
promoting the idea during the recent Rio+20 “sustainable development” conference in
Rio de Janeiro, parading a group of Indians around the premises in
between bizarre ceremonies worshiping
“Mother Earth” and calls for a planetary regime. Greenpeace,
of course, has an atrocious record when it comes to indigenous people and has destroyed more than a few Native American communities
over the years under the guise of pseudo-environmentalism.
Nevertheless,
the courts ruled in 2010 that the executive decree kicking all non-Indian
residents out of the area without compensation for the loss of their property
and homes could move forward. Shortly after that, the decision to force
residents off their land was put on hold. In May of 2012, however, another
court said the relocation could proceed.
That
decision was also halted, but the Brazilian Supreme Court eventually decided
that the evictions could proceed as planned. Residents were notified on
November 7 that they should pack what they could and go within 30 days, or face
the full fury of the federal government. A few reportedly left, enticed by
government promises of welfare and new land somewhere else for certain eligible
small farmers, but many more stayed. Ranchers and farmers with larger
properties were offered nothing.
“According to Brazilian law, as the invaders remained
illegally on Indian land, knowing that it is federal property, they are not
entitled to any compensation,” a spokesperson for Funai, the Justice Ministry’s
Indian department, told The New American in a statement
without addressing the now-voided property deeds held by residents.
“Nevertheless, the Brazilian government acts to resettle those who meet the
criteria of the Brazilian Agrarian Reform Policy.”
Of course, land expropriation in Brazil is nothing new — for
decades, the government has been demonizing “big” farmers and “wealthy”
ranchers, seizing and redistributing their property in the push for so-called
“agrarian reform.” Even recently, longtime residents in other regions have also
been expelled under the guise of “Indian lands,” too. In neighboring Venezuela,
meanwhile, socialist strongman Hugo Chavez has been stealing massive amounts of land from its owners as
well, citing the alleged need to “redistribute wealth.”
But like Mao’s “agrarian reform” in Communist China,
which was portrayed as an innocent movement until it ultimately contributed to
the murder of tens of millions, farmers and opponents of the assault in Latin
America fear the worst. “The goal of destroying the rural sector in Brazil, one
of the strongest in the world, is far from complete,” conservative Brazilian
activist and farmer Walber Guerreiro told The New American, noting
that, like all communists, the current government leaders of Brazil hope to
smash independent-minded farmers and ranchers. “But it is an absolute priority
for the Marxist agenda.”
Guerreiro,
who knows some of the victims in Mato Grosso, also cited international treaties
declaring forced relocation to be a crime against humanity, saying it was time
for the world community to speak out about the rampant and increasingly serious
abuses being perpetrated by the Brazilian regime. He worries that if
authorities are allowed to continue running wild with impunity, bigger towns
will be next, and more victims will soon be forcibly stripped of their homes
and property at the barrel of a gun.
Also alarming, he said, was that some of the military
vehicles being used to terrorize and evict local residents bore the same UN
insignia used by international so-called “peace keeping” forces. Video
documentation showed, and Brazilian
federal authorities confirmed to The New American, that troops and
equipment sporting the UN logo are indeed involved in the operation. However,
officials claimed that the controversial global organization was not actually
involved and that the soldiers and equipment had recently returned from “peace
keeping” operations abroad, hence the insignia.
“My family
has been on the lands we work since the '50s, but it is clear that nothing, not
even our work time, our obedience to laws, the deed for the land, our huge
production volume — nothing can protect us,” he said. “We can suddenly be
informed that there is ‘Indian land’ under our farms, and from that point
onwards we cannot do anything in our defense.”
After the
regime is done with farmers and ranchers, though, new classes of victims will
find themselves in the crosshairs. “Nothing guarantees civil security in the
Workers' Party’s (PT) Brazil, and this process will not end with just the
persecution of farmers,” Guerreiro concluded. “In the end, everyone will have
their property expropriated, exactly like what happened in Cuba, the paradise
of the PT’s dreams.”
As The New American reported years ago, socialist and communist forces are making significant
progress throughout Latin America, with major support from abroad
and just a handful of national governments resisting the
trend. However, considering the recent birth of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUL
or UNASUR) — a European Union-like transnational regime dominated by self-identified socialists —
the people of the entire continent are facing the very real prospect of brutal tyranny
in the not-too-distant future. And without a massive outcry, the farmers and
poor workers of Suiá Missú will definitely not be the last victims.
Source: The New American, Written
by Alex Newman Monday, 07 January 2013 12:08
Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New
American, is currently based in Europe after growing up in Latin America,
including four years in Brazil. He can be reached at anewman@thenewamerican.com.
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Comments:
Our own Communist
Dictatorship has been seizing land, closing farms, closing businesses and shutting
off irrigation and drinking water to starve out rural residents for years. It isn’t reported in the news at all. Florida residents have suffered the same fate
as the Brazilians. Our Federal agencies have attempted to use the courts to
uphold their actions against private citizens.
In the U.S. these cases are resolved in favor of the citizens, but their
legal bills have ruined them financially and many lacked the funds to
recover. Unless we demand stronger state
laws protecting private property and retain our gun rights, we will see
Homeland Security and U.N. forces seize our property at gunpoint.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea
Party Leader
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