A permanência na terra como suspeita de atos guerrilheiros em Porto Alegre Do Norte/MT – 1970

Abstract

This article analyses the struggle for land in Porto Alegre do Norte, in the Northeast of the State of Mato Grosso, between 1970 and 1980. The period studied shows that in the Amazon border the public sector was assimilated by the private one, resulting in greater violence against citizens, executed and mutually constituted by both sectors. Our objective is to study the conflicts and violence resulting from the expulsion of squatters by the agricultural enterprise FRENOVA, established in this municipality during the 1970s, with the support of the occupation policies imposed by the dictatorial government for the Amazon. These development projects overlapped with the land of rural workers who had lived in the region since the 1940s and generated disputes over land between squatters and businessmen. In order to prevent the expulsion of squatters, the Prelature of São Félix of Araguaia, under the leadership of Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga, together with the lay and religious pastoral agents, mediated in these conflicts, placing itself between the public authorities (Police, Federal Police and INCRA), rural entrepreneurs and squatters.