Eldorado dos Carajas massacre by Latuff2

The Eldorado do Carajás massacre () was the mass killing of nineteen landless farmers who were squatting at a private ranch. They were shot by

military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...

on April 17, 1996, in the southern region of the

Pará Pará is a state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest are the borders of Guyana ...

state,

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. On April 17, 1996, 19 members of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless Workers Movement) or MST were shot by

state

at the "S" curve of highway PA-150 in Eldorado do Carajás municipality, in southern Pará state. These people were part of a demonstration calling for the federal appropriation of a private ranch where the MST had mounted a camp called "Macaxeira" with almost 3000 families. On the orders of the state secretary of public security, Paulo Sette Câmara, the police were ordered to clear the highway "at any cost".Amnesty.org Library
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Designation as a massacre

The

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

word

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

("chacina", which means the same thing basically) has been used repeatedly and consistently in the Brazilian press to describe the shooting deaths of these farmers. There are well over 100 Brazilian news internet sites which use the exact phrase "chacina de Eldorado de Carajás" to designate these killings.

Aftermath

On May 7, 2012, sixteen years after the event, the two commanders of the Eldorado do Carajas massacre, in which 19 people were killed, were finally jailed.

Remembrance

The President of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, Arlindo Chinaglia, gave a speech to remember the horror of the "Massacre de Eldorado de Carajás" in Brasília on 17 April 2008, to mark the 12th year after the massacre. See: "Chinaglia afirma que Massacre de Eldorado do Carajás é o maior contra trabalhadores brasileiros".

References

Amnesty.org Library

Designation as a massacre

Aftermath

Remembrance

References

See also