The Port of Açu is located in the north of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, being the largest commercial port in South America and measuring 72 square kilometers. As part of a much larger development project, they have brought materials from the mines in the state of Minas Gerais into a mining pipeline that will link them with the sea and export. It already has a budget of EUR 2.3 trillion.

500 families sent by the government

As if that were not enough, the City Hall of Barra, Sao Joao da, considered that an industrial space should also be created that housed the headquarters of transnational companies and expropriated 6,200 hectares that until then were used for small-scale agriculture. On 31 December, by decree, all these lands were declared unproductive and left without an alternative to 500 families living or exploiting their lands. The public entity CODIN was in charge of expropriation of the land. It granted its inhabitants two reais per square meter of land, which later rented to the Brazilian company LLC for six reais. The company LLC immediately abandoned the project and the land was left to the foreign company PRUMO. Families complain, they didn't want to sell, they didn't want to leave the land, let alone without negotiation or mediation; many of them were thrown without warning. And above all that, they have not yet received the money that is owed to them.

They have repeatedly denounced actions taken against human rights. A group called ASPRIM was created, from where resistance families fight and fight: “Not because we want to negotiate better prices, but in defense of our lands. We don’t want to leave room.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Living and growing: resistance

There are five families who are still living in the area, but the machines have already knocked 120 out of their homes. A woman who lives there told us that 100 police officers were going to throw their houses: they arrived at 5 a.m. and destroyed the house with furniture. On other occasions, the furniture was moved to a warehouse, but, despite the years, they have not been able to recover them. On the intervention of the State, a man told us: “He is the guardian of those lands that were stolen from us, of the robbers.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The company PRUMO has the temporary ownership of the land, which means that the perimeter is fenced and the neighbours cannot access it. However, there is another way of resistance going on, as farmers have the cows inside. This has led to persecution of several neighbours: “I slept and woke up with types of security. I found them at the door of my house. Still, my cows are inside, they eat from there.” The same neighbour has explained that since provisional property is the company that is not taxed, so the family has to face the payment of them.

The struggle is long and the activities that have been carried out have been many, including a camp with more than 100 days of resistance. Among the families that have been shot down, they chose 50 and were taken to a place called Vila da Terra, but even though they were given home and land there, they are not happy. There they live and use the land, but the land is not theirs and they feel vulnerable.

The living conditions of families have worsened, they used to make agriculture in their lands and now they have to rent others. An older man says that the lives of the poor are always harder: “Because we feel shame, the rich don’t, and that’s why it’s harder for us.”

Many of the companies attending to the beginning have surrendered on the road and today there is a very small part of the land occupied. The struggle of families today is a negotiation to reclaim land, but at the moment it is not very successful.

The interviewees say that the struggle has been worthwhile, because what has been learned and what has been gained has been much.