Eduardo Soares da Costa was the rural worker tortured and murdered in Fazenda Serra Norte, in Eldorado dos Carajas, in the same municipality where 21 years ago, the military police murdered 19 MST members, an event known as the Eldorado dos Carajas Massacre. Soares was not member of the MST, but he was a landless peasant and was fighting for land in a resistance process at a campsite in Eldorado dos Carajas.

The other worker murdered was 43-year-old Kátia Martins, a worker and union member who was shot five times in an ambush inside her own home, at 1° de Janeiro settlement, located in the metropolitan region of Belem, the state´s capital.

Real World Radio interviewed Ayala Ferreira, of the MST-Pará, who explained the situation: “This is all linked to the increasing violence against workers and activists throughout Brazil. Her death is linked to the conflict over land, to struggle processes for the rights of workers of the region, that once they have the land, they begin other processes to ensure roads, schools, technical assistance, access to credits. She was the head of the rural workers union of her community and organized workers to continue demanding the improvement of their living conditions. All the information we have is that she was murdered in this context of resistance”.

In the press statement, the MST-Pará reminded that the problems experienced by workers and families of different settlements of Pará State were already denounced at a hearing in Belem in April 27, with the Public Security and Social Defense secretary of Pará, Jeannot Jasen.

“In this historical period of struggle of classes, faced with the failure of federal and state governments to adopt measures favorable to the Agrarian Reform, the MST commits to continue denouncing the arbitrariness and violence of large estate forces, private mining companies and the State in Pará”, concluded the MST.