From the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA):
More than six thousand women from Vía Campesina and the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) participated in protests across Brazil on March 9. The direct actions were in celebration of International Women’s Day, and against the government’s continued support of multinational agribusiness in the country.
The protests took place in more than eight Brazilian states. In Brasília, 800 women marched on the Ministry of Agriculture. In the state of Rio Grande do Sul, another 700 occupied a plantation owned by the Votorantim paper pulp corporation. In Espírito Santo, nearly 1,300 women gathered at an export port of the paper pulp company, Aracruz. And in São Paulo, close to 600 women occupied the Cosan plantation, which holds the largest agro-ethanol factory in the world.
One day into the Votorantim plantation occupation, the National Guard arrived to break up the protest. Authorities arrested hundreds of woman from Vía Campesina and the MST. The activists were held without food, while troops destroyed their impromptu encampment.
Authorities registered the women’s personal information, leading to fears the government could use the information in the future to persecute the activists or their families. A spokesperson for the MST in Rio Grande do Sul says the arrests are part of an intensifying campaign of repression directed by state governor Yeda Crusius of the centrist PSDB party. In fact, the criminalization of the movement reached new heights last June when Rio Grande do Sul’s Justice Department called for the movement’s “disbanding” throughout the state, labeling it a “threat to national security.” The repression continues.
The women arrested at the “Ana Paula” plantation occupation were released later the same evening. The following day, they carried out a defiant march in the nearby city of Bagé, where they distributed fliers about the negative effects of monocultured eucalyptus, the paper pulp companies, and Brazil’s agroindustry.
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