THE INCREASE OF VIOLENCE AGAINST PEASANT AGRO-EXTRACTIVIST COMMUNITIES IN THE REGIONAL SPACE OF MATOPIBA AND PRE-AMAZON

Abstract

In this paper, we intend to address the increase of violence against peasant agro-extractivist populations in the regional space that comprises Matopiba (Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí, and Bahia) and Pre-Amazon. We propose, particularly, to report some cases of violence including murders, threats, and intimidation perpetrated by agribusiness-related economic agents against male and female rural workers who inhabit and use intensively the regional ecosystems. Although this violence against the regional agro-extractivist populations is permanent and historically rooted, this phenomenon has expanded in the last two years, as a consequence of the role played by Michel Temer’s coup government. Among other things, this expansion is due to: the creation of legal conditions by the new government that allow the advancement of agribusiness and the legalization of grabbed public lands which are heavily used by local populations; by tightening political alliances with agro-export economy representatives; and by consenting the employ of public security force against the peasant populations living in the geographical domains of the aforementioned regional space.