Inter-American Court condemns Brazil for death of MST member

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) condemned Brazil for the death of a member of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) by military police, in 2000, and for the PM’s action, known as Operation Castelinho, in São Paulo, carried out in 2002. The Court issued the sentences in November last year, but the decisions were only released this Thursday (14).

In the first case, Antônio Tavares Pereira, 38 years old, member of the MST, was shot dead during a March for Agrarian Reform, in the region of Curitiba (PR). The Court considered Brazil “internationally responsible for the disproportionate use of force” used by the PM at the time. The report pointed out that more than 100 movement workers participated in the demonstration and several were injured during the action.

The Commission indicated that “there is no dispute about the fact that Mr. Tavares’ death was caused by Military Police officers carrying out their duties.” According to the IACHR ruling, the agent “did not use the firearm in self-defense, but rather to intimidate the protesters” and the shot was fired when Tavares was unarmed.

“These elements allowed the Commission to conclude that the agent’s action did not have a legitimate purpose and was not appropriate, necessary or proportionate. As for the injuries caused to the 184 alleged victims of the present case identified in the Merits Report, the Commission concluded that they resulted from the excessive use of force by the State, without any satisfactory explanation”, says the document.

For the Court, Brazil violated the “rights to life, personal integrity, freedom of thought and expression, freedom of assembly, children, movement and residence, judicial guarantees and judicial protection”. The Court determined that Pereira’s family should receive compensation totaling US$400,000, approximately R$2 million. Furthermore, Brazil must carry out “a public act of recognition” for the violations committed and preserve a monument built by the MST at the protest site in 2001.

Operation Castelinho

The Court also condemned Brazil for the “extrajudicial execution” of 12 people in the case known as Operation Castelinho, in 2002. The action had as its starting point the temporary release from prison of three inmates with authorization from the Court. According to the Court, they informed a group of 12 people about false news that a plane with R$28 million would land at Sorocaba Airport, in the interior of São Paulo, on March 5 of that year, and incited the group preparing to steal the aircraft.

In the sentence, the Court reports that agents intercepted the group, which was on its way to the airport in four vehicles, and fired shots for approximately ten minutes. Twelve people were killed due to internal bleeding caused by gunshot wounds from police officers.

When analyzing the case, the Court found that the information about the valuables transport plane was a “fiction created by the Group for the Repression and Analysis of Intolerance Crimes (Gradi)”, linked to the Public Security Secretariat of the State of São Paulo, to incite robbery and attract the group. The three inmates left prison with the aim of collaborating with Gradi, infiltrating supposed factions of the PCC.

“There was no exchange of fire between the police officers and the 12 people killed, since most of the evidence indicates that the alleged victims were not armed at the time of their death. Therefore, the court concluded that the deprivation of the lives of the 12 people during Operation Castelinho resulted from an action planned and carried out by state agents to extrajudicially execute those people,” said the Court.

In the sentence, the Court pointed out that there was no punishment for those involved in the case. The operation was investigated by the Military Police and archived in January 2004. The Public Ministry of the State of São Paulo indicted 55 people for 12 crimes of qualified homicide. In 2014, the Court declared the request for punishment unfounded, a decision that was confirmed, in February 2017, by the Court of Justice of the State of São Paulo, reported the Brazil Agency.

The Union is expected to compensate the families of those killed with around R$5.4 million. Furthermore, the Court ordered the Brazilian State to take reparation measures, such as the creation of a working group to clarify Gradi’s actions, including the circumstances of the “extrajudicial execution” of the victims; the provision of medical, psychological and psychiatric treatment to family members, the carrying out of a public act of recognition of responsibility and the adoption of necessary measures to suppress the competence of the Military Police to investigate crimes committed against civilians.