Conflict between farmer and military police in plantation is unrelated to PT government – 05/03/2023 – Power

The video that attributes to the PT government the action of at least three military police against a man in a pineapple field in the municipality of São João da Barra, in Rio de Janeiro, is misleading. In the video, the agents order a tractor to pass over the plantation, while spraying pepper spray on the face of a man, who tries to stop the action. The images were recorded on April 5, 2023 in Água Preta, São João da Barra district.

In the video, verified by Projeto Comprova, it is possible to identify the uniform of the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro by the state flag on the right arm of the agents. The PMERJ (Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro) confirmed that the action was carried out by agents of the 8th BPM (Military Police Battalion) of Campos dos Goytacazes, who were called after a report of non-compliance with a court order on land in the district of Black Water. The site is the subject of dispute between farmers who live in the region and GNA (Gás Natural Açu), a private company that builds a thermoelectric plant in the region.

Contrary to what is stated in the text written on the image, there is no relationship between the action of the police and any PT government. The PM is subordinate to the State, which, in this case, has been governed since 2021 by Cláudio Castro, from the PL, the opposition party to the PT. Rio de Janeiro has not been governed by the PT since 2002, when Benedita da Silva, who was Anthony Garotinho’s deputy, took over after he took leave to run for President of the Republic.

Misleading, for Comprova, is content removed from the original context and used in another so that its meaning undergoes changes; that uses inaccurate data or that induces an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that is confusing, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.

Reach

Comprova investigates suspicious content with greater reach on social networks. As of May 2, this video had reached 213.2k views on TikTok.

How do we check

First, the team transcribed the narration of the video, and identified, in the final seconds, a male voice that states: “The rural producer has no strength in the face of GNA’s money”. The narrator also mentions “police force” and “Porto do Açu”. Therefore, the next step was to search for these terms on Google, associated with the word “plantation”.

The result led to a publication made on April 9, 2023 on the website A Nova Democracia, which showed the same video, denounced an action by the Military Police in the region of São João da Barra and mentioned the company GNA.

The team then searched for reports on the subject and found a publication by Estadão on October 9, 2022 about the expropriations at Porto do Açu, which is in the same region and belongs to the same joint venture, and another on the Ururau website about it. of the police action that was recorded in the video.

Next, the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro, the company GNA and geographer Marcos Antonio Pedlowski, professor at UENF (North Fluminense State University) and head of Leea (Laboratory for the Study of Anthropic Space), who is following up on the case, were contacted. .

The video

The images recorded in the video investigated here were taken on April 5, 2023 in Água Preta, district of the municipality of São João da Barra, in the region of Campos dos Goytacazes, in Rio de Janeiro. At the time, military police from the 8th Military Police Battalion were called by the private company GNA because, according to a report made to the police, a man was preventing the passage of machinery for the construction of a transmission line that will connect a thermoelectric plant to the National Interconnected System, in Sao Joao da Barra.

The region has been the target of dispute for years. On one side is the company GNA, which has already built a thermoelectric plant, GNA I, on the site, and is now building a second one, GNA II, with start-up scheduled for 2025. For the plant to operate, however, it is necessary to transmission lines connecting the thermoelectric plant to the National Interconnected System pass through the site. On the other side of the dispute are the families who own the land through which the transmission lines will pass.

According to geographer Marcos Antonio Pedlowski, a UENF professor who is monitoring the situation, the conflict in this specific case occurs because there is no consensus between the families and the company regarding the amounts paid as compensation for the indefinite use of the land.

“The families that own the properties that were in the path of the transmission towers complain about the low amounts paid by the GNA to prevent the use of the land that are within the easement range. That is why conflicts between the GNA and these families are happening”, he explains. Pedlowski.

GNA informed, in a note, that the company won in court the right to use the right-of-way – the stretch of land next to the electricity towers – for the passage of the transmission lines that will connect the thermoelectric plant under construction to the System National Link. “Owners affected by the right-of-way were offered compensation for access and use of the area. Those who did not accept had compensation deposited in court”, says the note.

Destruction of the crop

According to Professor Marcos Antonio Pedlowski, the court decision that authorized the use of the right-of-way by the company GNA was an injunction issued by a judge from São João da Barra, affecting hundreds of producers, including the owners of the land where the images were taken. . According to him, the owners of the property leased a piece of land to a man who planted a pineapple plantation on the site, but the leased area was precisely within the right of way, which triggered the conflict.

GNA reported in a note that, despite the court decision, in the week of April 5, “the company’s team was prevented from carrying out its activities due to a physical blockade made by an individual who presented himself as the new person in charge of the area and owner of a recent pineapple crop”. Therefore, the Military Police were triggered.

According to the PMERJ, the police from the 8th BPM were called due to a report of non-compliance with a court order on land in Água Preta. “According to the military police who were at the event, there was resistance from people who were at the scene and, at first, disobeying the court order”, said the PMERJ, in a note.

In the investigated video, it is possible to see when one of the police orders a tractor to pass over the plantation, while the man who tries to prevent the action receives what appears to be a jet of pepper spray in the face. The truculent action was news on local websites (A Nova Democracia and Ururau) and the PMERJ reported that “the 8th BPM instituted an internal investigation procedure regarding this occurrence”. The inquiry is ongoing.

no connection

Despite showing a real situation, the video deceives by stating, with a text over the image, that the recorded action is from the PT government, insinuating a relationship with the federal government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In reality, the parties involved in the conflict are a private company, the GNA, the owners of the lands through which the transmission lines of the power plant that is being built pass, and the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro, linked to the state government, and not the federal government.

Since 2021, Rio de Janeiro has been governed by Cláudio Castro, from the PL, a party that opposes the PT. The last time a petista occupied the Guanabara Palace was in 2002, long before the conflict that appears in the images.

What the person responsible for the publication says

The report was unable to contact the profile that posted the video, since TikTok, where the content was posted, does not allow sending messages between accounts that are not followed.

What can we learn from this check

The video shows a conflict between police and a farmer, without saying where or when it happened. However, there are elements in the content that allow us to identify some clues: the narrator mentions the name of a company and talks about the police, but he never refers to the federal government or the PT, which is already an indication that the context may be different. A quick search for videos on the internet that involve the company’s name and a conflict with police quickly leads to the original content, which shows that there is no relationship with the PT government.

why do we investigate

Comprova monitors suspicious content published on social networks and messaging apps about public policies and elections at the federal level and opens investigations for those publications that have achieved greater reach and engagement. You can also suggest checks via WhatsApp +55 11 97045-4984. Suggestions and questions related to questionable content can also be sent to Sheet via WhatsApp 11 99486-0293.

Other checks on the topic

Comprova has already denied content that was misleading about the conflict in the countryside in the Bolsonaro government and showed that the removal of rice producers from indigenous lands had not been a decision by Lula.