Through the press offices of ISPN and Rede Cerrado
The statement is from Dilvanice das Chagas, who made an appeal during a Public Hearing held to discuss violence suffered by traditional communities in western Bahia.
On October 30th, at the Chamber of Deputies in Brasília, representatives from traditional communities, civil society organizations, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Council for Human Rights, and the state government of Bahia met in a Public Hearing to discuss and propose actions regarding one of the largest land grabbing cases in the country. The event brought to light serious allegations of various types of human rights violations perpetrated by the mega-project Condomínio Agronegócio Fazenda Estrondo against eight communities located in the upper Rio Preto region, municipality of Formosa do Rio Preto, western Bahia.
Employees of the security company Estrela Guia, contracted by Estrondo, harass, assault, and prevent residents of these communities from moving freely within their territory. Heavily armed men guard and patrol the traditional territory, preventing the collection of natural resources such as buriti palm and golden grass, and making it impossible for the traditional inhabitants of the Gerais region to carry out their main economic activities: livestock farming and extractive industries.
Understand the legal trajectory of the case.
The Estrondo Condominium is one of the largest producers of soy, cotton, and corn in Brazil, and even houses two silos belonging to the companies Bunge and Cargill. The enterprise is accused of illegally appropriating 444 hectares of land in the region, having been cited in the INCRA's White Book on Land Grabbing in 1999. Part of this land has been occupied for hundreds of years by traditional Geraizeiras communities, who today are experiencing one of the biggest territorial conflicts in the Cerrado.
In 2017, the communities obtained a preliminary injunction maintaining possession in a lawsuit filed against the companies Delfim Crédito Imobiliário S/A, Cia de Melhoramentos do Oeste da Bahia (CMOB), and Colina Paulista, which manage the Estrondo development. The injunction recognizes the communities' right to possession of the 43 hectares they traditionally occupy. A month later, the specialized court handling the case had its activities terminated by a decision of the then-president of the Court of Justice of Bahia, Maria do Socorro Barreto Santiago. The case was transferred to the district of Formosa do Rio Preto.
In November 2018, after numerous reports about the continuation of land grabbing actions, the local magistrate, Sergio Humberto Quadros Sampaio, instead of fining the companies, reduced the area covered by the injunction to 9.000 hectares, imposing a series of other measures that would make the communities' claim unfeasible. Through the Association of Lawyers for Rural Workers of the State of Bahia (AATR-BA), which represents the communities judicially, the geraizeiros filed a new appeal against this decision with the Court of Justice on January 21, 2019. Two days later, the judge suspended the magistrate's decision.
The drastic reduction in the area covered by the preliminary injunction, without reasonable justification, was not the only decision made outside the norm by Judge Sergio Humberto Quadros Sampaio. Days earlier, he dismissed, without ruling on the merits, the discriminatory legal action filed by the Attorney General's Office of the State of Bahia (PGE), which, after technical work identifying and delimiting the lands, concluded that they are vacant lands traditionally occupied by the geraizeiros, consequently initiating a procedure for the collection of the lands and their allocation for collective titling in the name of community associations.
In the ruling, the judge alleges that the state of Bahia has not proven that the lands are vacant. However, in the judicial process of discriminatory claims over public lands, the examination of evidence does not occur before the process, but rather during its course.
Violation of rights
“We want our Gerais free from violence,” lamented Dilvanice das Chagas, a resident of the Gerais region, during the Public Hearing. She, who said she felt very proud of her origins, recounted, emotionally, the threats they have suffered since 2014 from employees of Estrela Guia: “Our territory is not a reserve for the condominium; we have been there for over 300 years. Gerais is a sacred place for us. We have the right to continue fighting for our land. For our Gerais.”
Among several episodes of abuse of authority and violence, the company is accused of using police support to destroy and steal a communications tower, acquired by the community to enable emergency contact with the nearest municipality, which is 170 kilometers away from the village. Furthermore, there have been reports of illegal arrests and even shootings against residents.
“On January 31st, Estrondo's security guards shot my husband simply because he wanted to feed the cattle they had held captive, without reason, for three days. They took our cattle, put them in a truck, and dumped them in an area 60 kilometers from the community. The cattle were badly injured, and more than 20 head have still not been found. They shot my husband, arrested my brother-in-law, and assaulted me.”
Dilvanice das Chagas, Geraizeira communities
Check out the full account from Dilvanice. click here.
Eduardo Nunes de Queiroz, Federal Public Defender and member of the National Council for Human Rights (CNDH), recalled that cases of violence against traditional communities reflect the uncontrolled expansion of agribusiness in the Cerrado, especially in the MATOPIBA region (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia). “This is placing these communities in a situation of great vulnerability. This house (referring to the National Congress) needs to pay attention to how this expansion of large agricultural enterprises is being conducted and handled by the federal government – especially regarding oversight and regulation.” Furthermore, he stressed the need for greater clarity regarding the process of criminalizing these communities.
According to Marco Paulo Schettino, Executive Secretary of the 6th Coordination and Review Chamber of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, specializing in Indigenous Populations and Traditional Communities, this is a case of evident rights violations. “It is necessary to guarantee not only possession, but also the enjoyment of the territory. This possession does not only concern economic possession, but also the guarantee of the way of life of these populations. The Public Prosecutor's Office is closely monitoring these communities,” he emphasized.
Legalized deforestation
Martin Mayr, representative of the organization 10envolvimento, who is following the case, denounced that Fazenda Estrondo appropriated territories from the communities as if they were its Legal Reserve area to justify the rampant deforestation of the Cerrado in the area where it undertakes agricultural exploitation. “Estrondo feels legitimized to deforest the entire plateau […] Western Bahia may have high agricultural potential, but before being a grain production region, it is a water production region,” he pointed out. The region has enormous expanses of plateau area, important for the infiltration of rainwater. When deforested and covered by monocultures, the plateaus lose much of their capacity to recharge water sources, harming downstream watercourses, such as the Rio Preto, on which the communities depend.
In addition to unregulated deforestation, Estrondo also uses the Legal Reserve to pressure the traditional communities and justify the violence committed against them. When registering with the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), the company transferred part of its reserve to traditionally occupied areas and uses this as an argument to corner the communities, using fences and controlling the movement of people with guard posts. "Two years ago, the courts already ruled that Estrondo's legal reserves belong to the communities, yet the government still allows the suppression of their lands," denounced Martin.
In targeting these communities, in addition to the deforestation resulting from their production methods, Estrondo also threatens a way of life that contributes to environmental conservation. “Even with such a long history of occupation, we find extensive Cerrado coverage in these territories, which demonstrates that the way of life of these communities reconciles production with conservation,” comments Isabel Figueiredo, from the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN), one of the organizations monitoring the case.
State Neglect
The representative of AATR-BA, Joice Silva Bonfim, emphasized that the Brazilian State has been aware of this situation since 1999 and "if some kind of action had been taken at the time, perhaps we wouldn't have a consolidated situation of agribusiness over the territory of the communities," she pointed out. She observed that the Estrondo companies recently filed adverse possession lawsuits for the area, which demonstrates the contradictions of the enterprise in appropriating the land. "If they claim to be the legitimate owners of that area, why resort to adverse possession?" she questioned. According to the lawyer, there is a direct involvement of the Bahian judiciary in this land grabbing situation. “This is a case that requires immediate attention. The State is directly involved in the violence and acts in a coordinated manner. There is negligence on the part of state public security authorities, which contributes to the non-compliance with judicial decisions, in addition to the lack of investigation into cases of aggression and intimidation suffered by community members that have already been reported to the local police,” he emphasized.
Present at the hearing, federal deputies Valmir Assunção (PT-BA), Joenia Wapichana (REDE-RR), Frei Anastácio (PT-PB), and Helder Salomão (PT-ES) expressed their commitment to the cause. Wapichana stated that the delay in complying with court decisions has unfair impacts and worsens the situation of the communities. Deputy Valmir reinforced this statement and highlighted the urgency of action by the Chamber's Human Rights and Minorities Commission with the Bahia state government. "We, federal deputies, must work to conduct due diligence and pressure the government to comply with the court decision, to expedite the Discriminatory Action," he emphasized.
Next Steps
According to Guilherme Eidt, legal advisor at ISPN, the hearing fulfilled its objective of bringing visibility and attention to the case, and "provided direction for coordinated actions with the Human Rights and Minorities Commission, to advance the dialogue with the government institutions and the Court of Justice involved."
Among the main outcomes of the hearing are:
– Conducting joint investigations in the region by the Human Rights and Minorities Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, with the National Council for Human Rights and the Brazilian Committee of Human Rights Defenders;
– Request for information from the Court of Justice of Bahia regarding compliance with the preliminary injunction maintaining possession of the communities' territory, and on the progress of the Discriminatory Action filed by the state government;
– Representation to the National Council of Justice regarding the conduct of the Bahian judicial authorities in failing to comply with a decision to maintain possession in favor of the community members, and in the delay in processing the Appeal in the Discriminatory Action;
– Request for information from the Federal Police regarding the legal operation of Estrela Guia and the use of high-caliber, long-barreled weapons to provide security services to Fazenda Estrondo;
– Request for information from the government of the State of Bahia regarding the leniency in investigating allegations of assaults and intimidation suffered by community members, as well as the actions of the civil and military police in the region.
– Recommendation to INEMA (Institute of Environment and Water Resources) to suspend the Vegetation Suppression Authorization granted to Estrondo to deforest 25 hectares of Cerrado in the Chapada area, since the declared Legal Reserve is territory of the communities.