The May 11 attack on farmers living on plot 96, in Anapu, Pará, followed the same modus operandi of actions for which delegate Ivan Pinto da Silva, responsible for the Agrarian Conflict Police Station (Deca) in Altamira, is being investigated. .
Repórter Brasil found that the Civil Police chief is the subject of investigations on suspicion of conducting at least eight illegal evictions against settlers, without judicial determination and with the use of violence, in just over two years. The investigations are in progress at the Civil Police Internal Affairs, the Functional Crimes Division of the State Public Ministry and at the Secretary of Public Security and Social Defense of Pará.
In the May 11 attack, armed and hooded men set fire to two settlers’ houses on plot 96. This is an area destined for agrarian reform, but the subject of a dispute over ownership with the estate of a São Paulo farmer. The episode is being investigated by the Federal Public Ministry. The gunmen, who have not yet been identified, told the peasants that they were carrying out a repossession action, which was a lie.
In February, the same place had been the scene of the irregular performance of the person responsible for Deca de Altamira. At the time, Pinto da Silva tried to repossess lot 96 without a court order. According to reports from residents, the delegate personally participated in the operation and even shot towards settlers who were working in the fields and building a house.
The action led six public defenders from Pará to send a document to the state’s Secretary of Public Security and to the delegate himself asking him to refrain from “promoting repossession without a court order”. In the reply sent to the defender’s office, Pinto da Silva promised not to carry out further investigations in the area, justifying that the action was not a repossession, with the objective of “establishing public security in the locality”.
The case was recalled in the most recent attack by the judge of the Vara Agrária de Altamira, Antônio Fernando Carvalho Vilar, who issued an order on May 11 to reinforce that there was no order for repossession in that location. In the document, Vilar mentions that, after similar complaints received in February, he requested steps to be taken by the Civil Police Internal Affairs.
The Civil Police of Pará confirmed that the delegate responds to the internal investigation. In a statement sent by its advisory, the agency states that “the conduct of the police officer is being investigated, on a confidential basis, by the institution’s internal affairs department”. Repórter Brasil requested an interview with the delegate and sent questions about the reported cases, but the request was not granted. “The Civil Police reiterates that it does not tolerate misconduct and that cases like this are duly investigated and, if proven, the perpetrators are punished as provided by law”, the note adds.
In addition to the February episode, Pinto da Silva is also investigated for at least seven other illegal evictions, six of which took place in the Marabá region when he was the holder of the local Deca.
Open way for gunslingers
The delegate continued to act irregularly even after the beginning of the investigations, which were opened after pressure from organized civil society. The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) and ten other entities published a note in April 2021 denouncing Pinto da Silva’s recurrent attacks against the settlements and accusing the delegate of acting in collusion with the landowners. “Faced with a situation of occupation, recent or not, the landowners have been looking for the delegate and, together, they are planning the operations”, says the statement.
Repórter Brasil questioned the civil police office of Pará if the delegate’s actions were in the interest of anyone, but received no response.
The complaint made by the social movements detailed how the modus operandi works in illegal eviction actions. According to the entities, “the delegate travels to the place with his team, accompanied by vans, minibuses, pickup trucks, tractors and, on the spot, threatens the families, arrests some and transports a large number of men, women and children to a police station”.
After the families are taken, according to the document, the ranchers order the settlers’ houses to be burned and put in armed gunmen to prevent the residents from returning.
The entities pointed out that this type of conduct had never been adopted by any other delegate who worked at Deca de Marabá and that “it directly contradicts the objectives for which these specialized police stations were created, among them: not allowing the body to be used for defend the interests of farmers and reduce the violent actions of the police against rural workers who fight for the just right to land”.
After the publication of the note, the Human Rights and Consumer Protection Commission of the Legislative Assembly of Pará investigated the delegate for having acted with brutality against children and women settled on the Triângulo farm, in Goianésia do Pará, in April 2021.
The 27-page report produced by the commission mentions that six residents of the settlement, four men and two women, were arrested and taken to the Jacundá police station, 80 kilometers away from the camp, in a group that also had two children and two adolescents. The transport was made in the bed of a pickup truck and under torrential rain. According to the document, the children “were exposed to rain, lack of water and food, for too long, [e] the women were handcuffed and handcuffed (with five-point cuffs), without any justification for applying such a severe restraint measure”.
The illegality of the action is highlighted by the document, which mentions that, in the case of the Triângulo farm, the only repossession order that existed was against the farmers. The land should be earmarked for agrarian reform.
The commission also states that the incident was not an isolated case, citing the episode at the Pau Preto camp, located on the Araçagi farm, in which “the police authority forced men, women and children into the vehicles and took them to the Tucuruí police station. “. According to the report, after giving evidence, the rural workers had to arrange transportation on their own to return to the farm, where “they were shot at” and “forced to hide in the bush”, leaving “only the clothes on their backs”, since the camp “was destroyed by the gunmen”.
The commission’s investigation led to the delegate being transferred from Deca de Marabá to that of Altamira, being responsible for the region where Anapu is located. However, shortly after the move, in January 2022, Ivan Pinto da Silva tried to make another repossession without a court order, in the Divino Pai Eterno complex, in São Félix do Xingu, according to a complaint by the Pastoral Land Commission and the Paraense Society. Defense of Human Rights, which asked for an investigation of the excesses practiced by the Civil Police team headed by the chief.
