A questão agrária no oeste maranhense durante a Ditadura Civil-Militar: a atuação dos órgãos estatais no processo de expropriação rural a partir da documentação do Serviço Nacional de Informação (1969-1979)

Abstract

Since the 1964 civil-military coup in Brazil, numerous social and institutional transformations have occurred in response to the new needs of the Brazilian state. Among the demands observed, development emerged as one of the urgent priorities for the authoritarian governments. Some actions taken by the repressive regime violently impacted the countryside, a space already fraught with issues and complexities, under the justification of occupying and developing free and "stagnant" areas. Thus, in the context of Maranhão, some measures stand out, such as Law 2,969, instituted in 1969 by the state government during the Sarney administration, as well as the creation of state agencies to coordinate and conduct land policies in Maranhão. Following the ideals of “development” and “industrialization,” the Sarney Land Law, as it became popularly known, vigorously supported these land agencies that aided in the criminal practices of land grabbing and expropriation, in addition to intensifying violence in the countryside. Regions such as the Pindaré Valley and Imperatriz, the focus of this work, were intensely affected by these problems due to their location and environmental characteristics, considering the area known as the Legal Amazon. Therefore, autonomous agencies such as the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), as well as other state-level agencies such as the Maranhão Colonization Company and the Department of Agrarian Development, through the State Secretariat of Agriculture, acted impartially, assisting in maintaining the irregularities that occurred in the Maranhão countryside, which, contrary to their initial objectives, contributed to the intensification of conflicts in the countryside.