Antônio Pereira Queiroz, aka “Titela”, a farmer who lived on a state owned land called Bacajá, in Anapu County, State of Pará, was killed by gunmen on the 8th of June, 2016.

“Titela” was working in the rice fields with his companions when they were attacked by gunmen. The attack killed 2 people – “Titela” and a young man called Marrone -, 2 more were severely hurt but managed to survive and a 11 year old boy was able to escape.

Anapu County is one of the most dangerous areas in the Country. According to the news agency “Brasil de Fato”, between the year of 2000 and August, 2019, there were 20 murders, 16 assassination attempts and 34 death threats in Anapu County alone.

Bacajá is a state owned land which was under the control of the “Santa Helena Participações Ltda.” farming industry, owned by Carlos Roberto Fleck. The INCRA – national institute in charge of land reform – issued a repossession procedure in 2013 in order to retrieve the land. The “Santa Helena” farming industry didn’t like the result, though, and decided to keep control of the land by force.

Some time after the attack that killed “Titela”, a group of 30 heavily armed men entered the community to threaten the peasant farmers, they broke down the houses and said that those who didn’t leave the area would be killed.

To this day, the government hasnt taken the appropriate actions to remove “Santa Helena Produções Ltda.” from the area and assure the peasant farmers’ safety. Because of that, several families were forced to flee the area, some of them even had to enter protection programmes.