Violence in the rural areas: the 2016 records

In 2016, 61 murders related to rural conflicts were recorded, equivalent to an average of five murders per month. Of these 61 murders, 13 were indigenous people,4 quilombolas, 6 women, and 16 were young people aged between 15 and 29, one of whom was an adolescent.  In the last 25 years, the number of murders has only been higher in 2003, when 73 murders were recorded.

Between 2015 and 2016, all forms of violence have risen:

In 2016, the number of people arrested in rural conflicts rose by 185%.  Of the total arrests, 184, more than 80% of the total, were in the North, with 88 (39%) in Rondônia alone. The state with the highest number of murders (21 of the 61) also made the most arrests. In 2016, the Legal Amazon region, which covers the entire Northern region as well as parts of Maranhão and Mato Grosso, recorded 79% of total murders, 48 of 61 records; 68% of attempted murders, 50 of 74; 391 of the 571 physical assaults; 171 of the 200 death threats, 86%; and 192 of the 228 people arrested.  As well as presenting the highest number of murders and arrests, the state of Rondônia had the second highest number of assaults (141 of a total of 571), the second highest number of death threats (40 out of 200) and, together with Mato Grosso do Sul, the third highest number of attempted murders (10).
Four dark shadows, based on violence

Leonardo Boff asserts that “we are the inheritors of four shadows that weigh on us and out of which originated and originate violence”. These are: our violent colonial past, the indigenous genocide, slavery, “the most terrible of all” and the Land Law which excluded the poor and Afro-descendants from accessing land, and handed them over “to the arbitrary nature of large-scale landowners, subjected them to labour without social guarantees”.

From the Pastoral Land Commission (Comissão Pastoral da Terra: CPT): http://www.mst.org.br/2017/04/17/violencia-os-recordes-de-2016.html