Violence in the rural environment

Abstract

The article analyzes violence in the Brazilian rural environment, starting from the distinction between social violence and physical violence and its recent evolution. The exposition argues that land concentration, the political power of large landowners, remaining coronelismo, impunity of perpetrators, and the State's inoperancy and connivance constitute the main causes of the phenomenon. The text lists the immediate or conjunctural causes and relates the main forms of violence and arbitrariness against MST rural workers, including persecution, illegal arrests, evictions, and assassinations. The investigation concludes that repressive violence has acquired a mass character, with alliances between landowners and organized crime.