We are publishing an unofficial translation of a document from the LCP of Rondonia and Western Amazonia denouncing and condemning the recent massacre of peasants in the Tiago Campin dos Santos area.
Torture before the massacre
The massacre, perpetrated by the Special Operations Battalion (BOPE) on 28 January in the Nova Mutum Paraná region, Porto Velho district, was preceded by the arbitrary arrest and torture of at least three peasants from the Tiago Campim dos Santos area, one of whom was shot in the shoulder, while two other peasants, comrades Esticado and Mandruvá, were tortured and killed.
The peasants Esticado (Rodrigo Hawerroth) and Mandruvá (Raniel Barbosa Laurindo) were not in possession of a weapon, were arrested by the military police and brutally tortured without any chance of defence and later cowardly murdered. The marks on the comrades' bodies leave no doubt about the cruelty they were subjected to, both bodies had numerous bruises from rifle butts and blows, perforations on the body, including in the eyes, furthermore comrade Rodrigo had his tongue torn out and both ends of his mouth cut by a sharp object.
In addition to this shameful crime, other troops of the military police under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Pontes attacked the families camped near BR 364, shooting and throwing bombs in their direction, robbing and destroying their belongings and carrying out arbitrary and illegal repression and expulsions.
All this to defend the privileges and illegal interests of the large landowner Antonio Martins dos Santos, the Galo Velho, the notorious thief of public lands of the Union, who has been denounced several times and has been the target of various actions by the Federal Ministry of Public Affairs. The military police of the governor, Colonel Marcos Rocha, lackey of the landowner, has committed a series of crimes against the peasants of this region in defence of the bandit Galo Velho, land robber, land thief, leader of an armed gang (almost always made up of police officers) and murderer of peasants.
And in the face of all this, the press monopolies (G1 of the Globo network) and the rubbish press of Rondonia (rondoniaovivo et al.) fulfil their role as usual as mouthpieces of the hoodlum police and the big landowners. They remain silent about such serious crimes or confine themselves to repeating the mercenary police's mendacious version of an armed confrontation and exchange of fire, always trying to slander and demonise the peasants in the struggle for land as the worst criminals in order to absurdly justify the practice of mistreatment, torture and summary executions.
It only takes a little honesty, it only takes eyes to see with a simple glance the photos showing the situation in which the bodies of comrades Esticado and Mandruvá were presented, mutilated and already lifeless, to confirm that they were brutally tortured and murdered in cold blood and that the police version is nothing but a shameless and cynical farce to hide once again the truth of the facts.
Till when will this outfit of murderers and uniformed bandits of the old state continue to commit torture and murder of peasants with impunity?
As long as it depends on the governors of the landlords, the other politicians of Rondonia, the mercenaries of the police and a large section of the judiciary of the state, the landlords who steal the land from the Union and their armed gangs, the national press monopolies and the rubbish press of Rondonia, all of whom are the same scoundrel and are richly funded with public money, this will continue until they are wiped out by the revolution in the country.
But as long as this does not happen, they are mistaken if they believe that they can continue their crimes with impunity without being reacted to. No matter how much they try to use repression and state terror to put down the peasants' struggle, while on the one hand there is a handful of parasitic landowners protected by the old state who seize most of the land, and on the other hand millions of poor peasants who are landless or have little land, the struggle for agrarian revolution, for land for those who work it, will continue to grow; and the spilt blood of our comrades will be avenged, we will respond with the same violence, you can count on it! The blood of our people shed in struggle does not drown it, but soaks our cause, makes our flags even redder, increases our class hatred, our determination and our will to fight. The risk the stick takes, the axe takes! We'll pick up the tab and you'll pay dearly for it!
To the peasants, the workers, the small and medium entrepreneurs, the students, the teachers, the people's artists, the honest intellectuals, the class and democratic organisations and bodies and the truly democratic people: We call on all to demand the punishment of those who ordered and carried out the abuses, the tortures and the murder of the peasants!
Honour and glory to the comrades who fell in the struggle for soil!
Punishment for those who carried out and ordered the murders of the people's fighters!
Out of our territories, raccoon police of the big landowners who are thieves of the Union land!
The land of Tiago dos Santos belongs to the people!
Conquer the land! Destroy the latifundium!
Long live the agrarian revolution!
LCP - League of Poor Peasants of Rondonia and Western Amazonia
