Violência no Rural Paraense: uma Marca do Passado e do Presente.

Abstract

The Amazon, and especially the rural areas of Pará, are rich in natural resources, which are coveted by economic interests. For this reason, the present work aims to contribute to the knowledge of the dispute for these natural resources that generates violence. In this sense, the work is based on a bibliographical research that seeks to understand the expressions of violence and how it is related to this dispute. Among the economic activities developed in rural Pará, the following stand out: cattle raising; extraction and commercialization of hardwood, mahogany; soy plantation; mineral exploration and deforestation. These activities demand large extensions of land, which ends up fomenting and creating favorable conditions for the dispute of natural resources and land. In this context, violence is constituted as an outcome of this dispute and, at the same time, as a consequence of this competition for land and natural resources. This competition for land ownership creates half-excusable ways of obtaining land, and one of these means is the illegal occupation of land by means of the falsification of title deeds and the falsification of definitive land titles. Thus, land is acquired that belongs to the Union and the State, as well as from former owners, such as collectors, squatters, and settlers. In face of this situation, one notices the participation of notary offices that legalize the possession of these lands. To guarantee this possession and the defense of the land, the new owners of the land (farmers, landowners, and businessmen) organize "armed gangs" made up of hired gunmen, gunmen, and sometimes with the connivance of the military police. Such groups promote the most diverse forms of violence, among them psychological pressure; death threats and eviction accompanied, in most cases, by a legal order; destruction of belongings; expulsion from the land; physical aggression, and murder. From 1995 to 2004 there were 160 deaths in the countryside involving disputes over land, which reinforced the title of Pará as the champion of deaths in the countryside. Linked to the dispute for natural resources and, consequently, for land ownership, impunity also stands out, which generally presents itself as the slowness of justice in the trials of those who ordered and executed the deaths; the statute of limitations for the processes; badly conducted, abandoned, and/or filed investigations; escaped defendants having their trials postponed, and arrest warrants that have not been executed. All of this contributes to an absence of repression of those who commit crimes because of the dispute for natural wealth and land ownership.