Brazilian Police Kill Ten People during an Operation on a Farm in Pará

05/25/2017 - 11h30

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FABIANO MAISONNAVE

FROM MANAUS

A joint action of the Military and Civil police departments of the state of Pará ended with ten people killed on Santa Lúcia farm, in the city of Pau d'Arco (867 kilometers south of the capital, Belém), on Wednesday, May 24.

It was one of the most violent episodes connected to the dispute over land ownership in 21 years, since the massacre in Eldorado do Carajás, a city in the same region. At the occasion, police officers killed 19 members of the Landless Workers' Movement (MST).

Divulgação The official version also says that the police were received with gunfire and reacted

The bodies of nine men and one woman were taken by the police to the morgue in Redenção, a city in the same state.

The local press and the State Department of Public Security of Pará said that the police officers were carrying out an arrest warrant against people suspected of killing a security agent of Santa Lúcia farm earlier in May - the farm is the target of dispute over land ownership.

The official version also says that the police were received with gunfire and reacted.

The Land Pastoral Commission (CPT), however, says that the attack was an eviction action that did not respect the agreement in force since the episode in Eldorado do Carajás.

"The local police were responsible for the eviction and did not respect the state order signed after the episode in Eldorado do Carajás. The order was that the local police was not authorized to do it," says priest Paulo César Moreira, the national coordinator of the Pastoral Commission.

The new massacre occurred amid escalating violence linked to disputes over land ownership in Pará. The CPT says that at least 17 people died in recent weeks in the state as a consequence of these disputes.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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