Pastoral Land Commission – National Secretariat Communication Advisory
On April 23, at 9 am, the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) launched the 39th edition of the publication Conflicts in the Countryside – Brazil, with data on violence and resistance actions in the countryside during the year 2024. From the records of the Dom Tomás Balduino Documentation Center (Cedoc-CPT), it is possible to observe a drop of almost 3% in the number of conflicts in the countryside compared to 2023, with 2,185 conflicts in 2024 against 2,250 in the previous year, according to updated data from Cedoc-CPT.
The year 2023 registered a record in the number of entries in its database since the beginning of the publication and, despite the small drop in 2024, last year still represents the 2nd highest number of conflicts in the CPT historical series. This continuation of conflicts at high levels is directly related to the increase in conflicts over water, in addition to the persistence of the increase in conflicts over land, impacted by the growing number of violence against occupation and possession. There was also a reduction in cases of slave labor and resistance, which contributed to the overall data on conflicts in the countryside in 2024 being lower compared to 2023.
Most of the records continue to be on the axis of violence on the land, with 1,680 cases, representing 78% of the total. Next comes the water axis, with 266, then the labor axis, with 151 cases, and acts of resistances, with 88 entries.
Conflicts over land
There was a total of 1,768 occurrences of conflicts on the land axis. Compared to 2023, when 1,766 occurrences were recorded, hence a slight increase, resulting in the highest number recorded in the last decade. Most of the records on the land axis are of violence – 1,680, while there was a decrease in acts of resistance compared to 2023, both from occupations (from 124 to 78) and encampments (from 18 to 10).
The state of Maranhão leads in the number of records of violence on the land axis, with 363 occurrences in 2024. Also noteworthy are the states of Pará, with 234 occurrences; Bahia, with 135; and Rondônia, with 119 occurrences. It is also important to highlight the role of pesticide contamination in the increase in reports of violence, especially in the state of Maranhão. In the last year, there was a notable rise in the occurrences of this type of violation, from 32 in 2023 to 276 in 2024, an approximate growth of 762%. Most of these occurrences recorded happened in Maranhão (228), where traditional communities are facing serious consequences of aerial spraying of pesticides.
Cedoc-CPT also identified the participation of the “Zero Invasion” group in land conflicts in 2024, with violent attacks in the states of Goiás, Maranhão, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Paraná, Pará and Pernambuco, in which the actions were assumed and/or proven to be attacks by the group. However, in other states such as Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Ceará and Santa Catarina, there were also coordinated attacks by groups of ranchers, following the patterns of action of the “Zero Invasion”. A case that stands out is the murder of Maria Fátima Muniz de Andrade (Nega Pataxó), in January last year, committed by a rancher linked to the “Zero Invasion” group, during the action of the Pataxó Hã Hã Hãe indigenous to retake their traditional territory.
Conflicts over water
The recorded data of conflicts in the water axis – 266– represent the 3rd highest number of cases in the last 5 years. Compared to 2023, the number of conflicts over water rose again, thus indicating a 16% increase in registered cases.
The states that suffered the most from violence in the water axis were Pará, with 65 occurrences, followed by Maranhão, with 45, Minas Gerais, with 30, and Bahia, with 22. Regarding the total number of cases of water-related violence, records in the state of Pará represent approximately 24% of occurrences, while Maranhão represents 17% of violence in the country.
Violations in the “Use and preservation” of water lead the number of conflicts over water, with 70% of the records, followed by “Dams” (23%) and “Water appropriation” (7%). There was also an increase compared to the previous year in “Non-compliance with legal procedures” (from 79 to 84), “Destruction and pollution” (from 59 to 69) and “Pesticide contamination”, being the largest increase (from 26 to 40 records).
Rural Slave Labor
In 2024, there was a considerable reduction in the number of cases and workers rescued from rural slave labor compared to 2023, which recorded the highest number in the last decade – 2,663. Last year, 151 cases of slave labor in the countryside and 1,622 of rescued people were registered. In part, this 40% drop in occurrences (from 251) and 39% in the number of rescued compared to 2023 is due to the strike of Labor Inspectors (AFTs) that began in March 2024.
Minas Gerais stands out among the states with the most cases and also people rescued, there were 37 occurrences and 479 workers rescued. Also noteworthy is the state of São Paulo, with 11 occurrences and 357 workers rescued; and Mato Grosso do Sul, with 19 occurrences and 124 workers rescued
With regard to economic activities where cases of slave labor are concentrated, in 2024 the economic activity where the most people were rescued from the condition of slave labor was coffee production, with 237 rescues. Next comes the onion crop, with 194 workers rescued in São Paulo (121) and Minas Gerais (73). And also livestock, with a total of 137 rescues in several Brazilian states, especially in the Midwest region, with 65 rescues recorded.
Violence against the Person
The year 2024 is marked by a reduction in the number of victims of violence against the person, both in the number of occurrences and in the total number of victims. There were 1,528 cases of violence, against 1,720 in 2023, and 1,163 victims in 2024 against 1,480 in the previous year. There was also a reduction in the number of murders: while in the previous year 31 lives were taken in the context of conflicts in the countryside, in 2024 there were 13 confirmed cases. The drop compared to the previous year was 58% in the total number of murder cases. However, states where there were no murder cases before appear in the 2024 data, such as Pará, Santa Catarina, and Tocantins.
Although 2024 showed a drop in murder records, this does not mean a decrease in violence. This is because in 2024, there was an increase in death threats (from 219 to 272), this being the highest number in 10 years. The year also saw an increase in records of intimidation (192 to 221) and attempted murders (72 to 103), a rise of almost 50%. In the case of attempted murders, 79% of the victims are indigenous, with more than half of them (52%) from Mato Grosso do Sul, with the main perpetrators identified as farmers, in retaken areas.
Resistance actions
In 2024, 649 demonstrations of struggle were registered in the country, including public acts, protests, and blockades of highways and waterways. This data makes 2024 the second year with the lowest number of demonstrations in the last ten years, behind only 2018, when 554 were registered. Despite the reduction in registries of acts of resistance for the third consecutive year, the number of people involved increased compared to 2023, jumping from 111,233 people to 169,998.
The main demands identified in these resistance actions are for land/Agrarian Reform, with the highest number of records, totaling 201 demands; against injustice and violence, 168 records; issues related to the environment, totaling 138 records; and indigenous issues, with 83 records, bringing agendas related to the rights of native peoples, land demarcation and against the Temporal Framework law.
Report – Prepared annually by the CPT since 1985, with the first publication in 1986, Conflicts in the Countryside – Brazil is a source of research for universities, media outlets, governmental and non-governmental agencies. The report is built mainly from the work of pastoral agents of the CPT, in the regional teams that work in rural communities throughout the country, in addition to the investigation of complaints, documents and news, carried out by the team of documentalists of the Dom Tomás Balduíno Documentation Center (Cedoc-CPT) throughout the year.
To request the raw data, contact the Communication Office: comunicacao@cptnacional.org.br
Press Contacts
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- Bruno Alface: +55 (11) 99985-0378