Conflitos agrários no Médio Mearim-MA (1970-1990): memória e experiência da luta pela terra no Povoado Aldeia

Abstract

From the 1960s, thousands of peasants were expelled from various rural areas of Maranhão and other states of Brazil such as Pará, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas. At the end of the 1960s in Maranhão, with the Land Law of 1969, conflicts in the countryside intensified, with the privatization of public lands, the encouragement of agricultural and agroindustrial projects and, later, the introduction of extensive livestock farming. In the Middle Mearim, which is a spatial description of this work plan, the conflicts began to intensify in the 1970s and 1980s. The Aldeia village, as an example of this reality has its experience marked by intense agrarian conflicts, was invaded twice in the 1980s In view of the ongoing transformations in the countryside, the Catholic Church in the 1950s and in the following decades also interfered in Maranhão in the harvest of the struggle for land. Some members and agencies linked to the Church and inspired by Liberation Theology, turn to the defense and political affirmation of the peasantry. Movements of resistance and political mobilization of rural workers are organized with the support of CEB's, CPT and ACR. We propose to analyze allegations of violence against peasants in the struggle for land, through the press, interviews and the production of Frei Adolfo Temme (composed of a diary of relief and chronicles), a Franciscan who acted in the political formation and defense of the peasantry in the Middle Mearim 70s and 80s.