The Brazilian State was condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in a sentence released this Thursday (14). The Court recognized the intense violence and the omission by Brazilian justice in the murder of rural worker Antonio Tavares and the injuries suffered by more than 197 members of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) by agents of the Military Police of Paraná, during the repression, on Highway BR-227, in Campo Largo (PR), of a march for agrarian reform that would take place on May 2, 2000 in Curitiba. Women, children and elderly people were also injured in the repression.
Faced with the Brazilian court filing and continued impunity, the case was reported in 2004 to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). In February 2021, the case was submitted to the Inter-American Court by the MST itself, Terra de Direito e Justiça Global. Family members of Antonio Tavares, his widow and three children, attended the announcement of the sentence in Curitiba, along with MST activists, members of Terra de Direito and supporters of agrarian reform.
Widow and children of Antonio Tavares, during the announcement of the sentence, in Curitiba / Photo: Barbara Zem MST-PR
With more than 80 pages, the decision has four major determinations for the Brazilian State. The first concerns the fact that the military justice system does not have the power to judge and investigate military personnel who commit crimes against civilians. The measure aims to confront the current situation of impunity. In the process of holding those involved in the crime against Tavares accountable, the military and civil police investigations were archived and the bodily injuries inflicted on the more than 197 injured people were never the subject of investigation by the local authorities. Another measure present in the sentence is the inclusion of specific content in the curriculum for the permanent training of public security agents, in order to guarantee respect for the rights of protesters.
The sentence also recognizes the right to demonstrate and determines that the Brazilian State and Paraná, in dialogue with victims and representatives, carry out a public act of recognition of responsibility for the rights violations in the case. The sentence must be widely publicized by national public authorities.
There is also a determination that the State protect the monument erected on the banks of BR-277, close to the place where the 2000 massacre occurred. The work is designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and was declared intangible heritage in 2023. The decision obliges the adoption of all appropriate measures for on-site preservation, public access and maintenance guarantee.
The Court also ordered compensation for the victims present on the day and also for Antonio Tavares’ family members, with psychological support and compensation for moral and material damages.
Loreci Lisboa is one of the victims of the BR-277 massacre, suffered several injuries and saw the murder of Antonio Tavares up close. “We suffered a lot that day. I hope that with this, not only this government, but others who come, will know what to do with the people who come to demand. Not even animals were treated like us. What they did to us was inhumane,” she says.
She followed the announcement of the sentence also in Curitiba, and was moved when she commented on what she felt: “My heart is still racing. It’s a big victory that we achieved after all these years. There were more than 20 years of battle. We feel like we are human when faced with this decision. This decision, for us who are from the lower class, from the Sem Terra family, is an immense victory. Another victory is that the monument can stay there, and we can visit it.”
Record of the massacre that took place on May 2, 2000 / Photo: Artivo APP-Sindicato
For Roberto Baggio, from the national coordination of the MST in Paraná, the sentence means a victory, in the face of so many years of impunity: “The Court, in its decision, recognizes that fighting for land, organizing is not a crime, it is a people’s right to democratize the land. That the State of Paraná is the author of the violence. The Court recognizes that the Antonio Tavares monument is the memory of the collective struggle in the history of the peasants’ struggle and of everyone who fights for human rights. And it is up to the Brazilian State and the government of Paraná to re-educate public security agents”.
Ayala Ferreira, member of the MST’s Human Rights Sector, emphasizes the importance of the decision, given a history of slowness in implementing agrarian reform, which results in violence: “It is a country that has never implemented a broad and universal policy of Agrarian Reform. And this reality of land concentration creates this scenario of violence of a silent war that is taking place in the Brazilian countryside”. Since 1985, when the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) began to systematize cases of violence in the countryside, more than two thousand people have been murdered.
The conviction is not just symbolic, since the Brazilian State is a signatory to the American Convention on Human Rights and has submitted itself to the contentious jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court. The decision is mandatory and cannot be appealed. The deadline for compliance with the determinations is one year, from the publication of the sentence. In addition to these, two other sentences from the Inter-American Court condemned the Brazilian State for crimes related to the struggle for land.
Members of the group of lawyers working on the Antonio Tavares case / Photo: Barbara Zem/MST-PR
Camila Gomes, international advocacy coordinator for Terra de Direito, emphasizes that this is Brazil’s 13th conviction by the Inter-American Court and the 3rd conviction involving crimes committed by State agents against Landless workers. “The facts happened 24 years ago, but what the Court says today to the Brazilian State is very current. She says that fighting for rights is not a crime and the authorities should, instead of repressing and acting violently, protect people who organize to fight for rights. The Court says that there is enough impunity in relation to police violence”, she emphasizes.
For Glaucia Marinho, executive director of Justiça Global, the IACHR’s ruling gains even greater relevance as it removes responsibility for investigating crimes committed by the police against civilians from the Military Justice. “Brazil’s conviction in the Antônio Tavares case is an important step towards achieving justice, reparation and mitigation of violations against human rights defenders, especially those who work in defense of land and territory. By determining that the Brazilian State changes the competence of the Military Justice and it loses its power to judge crimes against civilians, the Court pushes Brazil to take a decisive step in combating impunity and police violence in the country”, he points out.
Editing: Lia Bianchini
