A poor farmer known as “Ceará” was murdered on the 29th January of 2017 in the Bacuri Settlement, in the Rio Crespo County, State of Rondonia.

The settlement, connected to the peasant’s organization “Liga dos Camponeses Pobres”, was established in a farm which land belongs to the government and was illegally occupied by the landowners Paulo França, Degmar and José Genaro de Andrade.

The conflict with the landowners is not recent. There are records of previous attempted murders in the area in 2015 (http://rondoniadigital.com/camponeses-da-area-bacuri-sofrem-tentativa-de-homicidio/) and, according to the farmers, a few days before “Ceará” was murdered, Paulo França invaded the settlement and threatened them saying he would kill something like 10 peasants. Also, a little while before the murder, the house of the local coordinator was the target of  arson attack.

It is worth noting that the settlement was violently evicted by the military police on 24th November of 2018 (https://anovademocracia.com.br/no-202/7979-ro-acampamento-despejado-em-rio-crespo). During the eviction, the military police set several houses on fire, destroyed crops and even assaulted one of the farmers who was clubbed in the back with the bottom of a gun.