The CPT denounces that indigenous territories have been the most affected by conflicts, especially in the Amazon area. | Photo: Twitter: CPT National.

Brasilia, May 31 (RHC)-- Brazil's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) revealed in its report "Conflicts in the Countryside of Brazil: 2020" that the South American country reports the highest number of land conflicts, land invasions and murders in conflicts in that area recorded by the CPT since 1985. 

According to the report, the number of incidences increased from 1,903 in 2019 to 2,054 in 2020, and involved almost one million people.  Of this total, 1,576 occurrences refer to land conflicts, which is equivalent, they report, to a daily average of 4.31 land conflicts, for a total of 171,625 Brazilian families, in a context of severe pandemic caused by COVID-19.

According to Paulo César Moreira, member of the CPT: "The fundamental objective of the report is to open wide the territorial injustices in Brazil, and in addition to the attacks against communities and peoples, also to expose the wounds that economic and political power has caused to the country." 

Moreira reveals, likewise, that "now, during the Bolsonaro government, having seen the profound denial of the truth, which hides data from the population, we believe that this report is of inestimable importance for us and for society."

In the case of families whose territories were invaded, there was an increase of 102.85 percent from 2019 to 2020. Of 81,225 families who had their lands and territories invaded in 2020, an estimated 58,327 of these families are indigenous, or 71.8 percent.

Of the assassinations registered by the CPT in the context of conflicts in the countryside, 7 were of indigenous people, 39% of the victims.  Among the 35 people who suffered assassination attempts, 12 were indigenous, 34% of the victims. Of the 159 people threatened with death, 25 are indigenous, 16%. 

Indigenous peoples also stand out, in a negative way, in relation to the number of murders recorded. Of the 18 murders recorded in the context of conflicts in the countryside, seven were indigenous, 39 percent of the victims. Of the 35 people who suffered attempted murder or homicide, 12 were indigenous, 34 percent of the victims. As for death threats, of the 159 people threatened, 25 were indigenous, or 16 percent of the victims.

The Pastoral Land Commission reveals that most of the events involving indigenous peoples occurred in the Amazon, even in territories already demarcated years ago. Under the discourse of "passing cattle", according to Moreira, the government of Jair Bolsonaro consolidates the region as a new agricultural frontier and intensifies conflicts.  

The CPT also documented and systematized 1,576 occurrences of land conflicts in 2020, the highest number since 1985, when the report began to be published, 25% higher than in 2019 and 57.6% higher than in 2018.