This was a historical debt and one of the saddest events in the history of the struggle for land in Brazil. On April 17th, 1996, military police officers violently repressed a protest held by over 1500 landless peasants in El Dorado dos Carajas.

The repression resulted in the death of 19 social activists who were demanding speed in the land expropriation proceedings. The legacy of the massacre was a landmark in terms of peasant struggles, to the point that every year on April 17th, the International Day of Peasant Struggle is celebrated.

A court had already sentenced the two military officers, but they were not in prison because they had filed an appeal. Now the judicial decision was upheld: Pantoja was sentenced to 228 years and Oliveira to 158 years and four months.

The Brazilian organizations welcomed the decision and they hope this will set a precedent, since there are tens of crimes against peasants that are still unpunished. One of these organizations is the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST). The 19 victims of El Dorado dos Carajas belonged to this group.

The coordinator of MST Pará, Ulisses Manaças, welcomed the court’s decision and hopes other cases will be solved as well. "Although we face the difficulties of the Judiciary, this decision gives us strength and enables a change to strengthen the struggle for justice and human rights", highlighted Manaças according to Prensa Latina.

It is also possible to advance in the context of this case, among other things because it is clear that a massacre just as the one in Para cannot be the responsibility of only two people. The MST blames political leaders of the time, such as former Governor Almir Gabriel, who ordered to clear the road blockage, and the Public Security Secretary, Paulo Camara, who authorized the repressive measures.

Photo: www.mst.org.br