On March 19, the São Benedito Peasant Community, in the municipality of São Bernardo, Maranhão, denounced in its social network criminal activities of land grabbers that threaten the life of the local population. In the video, a ten -year -old reports attempts at invasion and dirt theft, but that the peasants “won't leave”. It also shows the intense peasant production on site.
The community has over 200 years of existence, with lands passed from generation to generation, in which residents work in the fields for their subsistence. According to what was documented by them, through social networks , houses are being demolished, gray lands are being deforested without Ibama's permission and their plantations are also committed by criminal estates of the landlord.
Similar situations have grown throughout the state of Maranhão, especially after the implementation of the "Land Grabbing Law", sanctioned by Governor Carlos Brandão. Being an updated version of the well-known Sarney Land Law, the legislation that expands the possibility of regularization of public lands from 200 to 2.5 thousand hectares, serving as an instrument for landowners, in the name of agribusiness, to feel entitled to commit heinous acts of violence against peasant, indigenous and quilombola people.