The Eldorado do Carajás massacre () was the mass killing of 19 landless

farmers A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...

who were taking part in a peaceful protest. They were shot by

military police Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. Not to be confused with civilian police, who are legally part of the civilian populace. In wartime operations, the military police may supp ...

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

Pará Pará () is a Federative units of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in northern Brazil and traversed by the lower Amazon River. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins (state), Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas (Brazilian st ...

state, Brazil.

Description

On April 17, 1996, 19 members of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless Workers Movement, or MST) were shot dead, and 69 more injured, 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".

Designation as a massacre

The Portuguese word

massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...

(''chacina'') 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.

Conviction

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 The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

Arlindo Chinaglia Arlindo Chinaglia (born 24 December 1949) is a Brazilian politician and former President of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil 2007–2009. He represents the state of São Paulo in the National Congress of Brazil for the Workers' Party Worke ...

, gave a speech to remember the horror of the Massacre de Eldorado de Carajás in

Brasília Brasília ( ; ) is the capital city, capital of Brazil and Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino ...

on 17 April 2008, to mark the 12th year after the massacre.

In the arts

Swiss theatre director and political activist

Milo Rau Milo Rau (born 1977) is a Swiss theatre director, journalist, playwright, essayist, and lecturer. In 2007 he founded a theatre and film production company, the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM), and from 2018 until 2023 was the ...

, then artistic director of NTGent in Belgium, travelled with his team to Pará, In collaboration with the MST, they created a performance called '' Antigone in the Amazon'', an

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughou ...

play about the impact of the modern state and impact on traditional land rights, which causes huge displacements of people and devastation of culture. Scenes were filmed in Brazil, and the performance combines storytelling, music, film, and theatre, to illustrate its themes of

political protest Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of status or resources. The branch of social science that studies poli ...

, state brutality, and heroism, based on

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

' play ''

Antigone ANTIGONE (Algorithms for coNTinuous / Integer Global Optimization of Nonlinear Equations), is a deterministic global optimization solver for general Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs (MINLP). History ANTIGONE is an evolution of GloMIQO, a global ...

''; a Greek tragedy transposed to a modern village in the Amazon. There is filmed re-enactment of the Eldorado do Carajás massacre. The play premiered in May 2023, before going on tour in Europe. The play is performed in several languages, with English subtitles for its 2024 run at the

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, in March 2024.

References

External links

*
"Brasil: Posibles ejecuciones extrajudiciales y temor por la seguridad: Campesinos sin tierra del estado de Pará"
on Amnesty.org Library
Os 20 anos do massacre de Eldorado do Carajás
(video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Eldorado do Carajas massacre April 1996 crimes 1996 murders in Brazil Massacres in 1996 1990s mass shootings in South America 1996 mass shootings Mass shootings in Brazil Massacres in Brazil Pará Police brutality in Brazil Police brutality in South America Crimes committed by law enforcement Massacres of protesters in South America 20th-century mass murder in Brazil