Quilombola climbs on Lula’s stage, cries and asks for help – 05/12/2023 – Daily life

In tears, the quilombola Rose Meire Silva tried to deliver a document to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) during the signing event of the Paulo Gustavo Law, in Salvador, on the night of this Thursday (11).

After insistence, she managed to go up to the stage where the petista was with the first lady, Janja da Silva. “Lula, for God’s sake. Our people are dying Lula,” she said.

Rose was hugged by Lula. Then, crying, she knelt down and repeated the sentence she had just said.

She is the coordinator of the Associação dos Remanescentes do Quilombo Rio dos Macacos, a community located on the border between the municipalities of Salvador and Simões Filho, in Bahia.

Quilombolas claim access to basic rights. According to residents, the place has no running water or public lighting, nor health services. Another reported problem is the slow pace of work on the road that will provide access to the territory.

The most serious report, however, is that leaders were being murdered due to their political activities.

After being embraced by Lula, the leader handed the president a document in which the community reports on the problems it faces.

“We lost several people due to lack of access to the territory. Even Samu himself could not enter the community due to lack of access. When people are sick, they have to walk 3.5 km to the main entrance”, says an excerpt from the document. “Women have given birth in mud.”

In another stretch, the quilombolas claim that school transport cannot enter the community, which forces children to walk 7.5 km to study.

“I’ve already handed the letter to Lula two or three times,” Rose told Sheet. “The municipal, state of Bahia and federal governments know what’s going on. It’s not new that we deliver this documentation, but nothing has been resolved.”

Quilombo Rio dos Macacos has been in a decades-long dispute with the Navy over land ownership.

In February 2014, officers were caught on security cameras attacking Rose Meire and her brother Rosinei dos Santos at the entrance to the naval base. At the time, the Navy issued a note in which it said it repudiated acts of violence.

The clash dates back to the 1970s, when the Navy installed a village to house 500 military families in an area where descendants of enslaved people already lived. The dispute over land ownership ended up in court.

The only road that leads to the quilombola area is interrupted by the watchtowers of Vila Naval, where the entrance is controlled by Navy guards. From the sides, access is through dense forest, which can only be traversed on foot.

It is in this isolated place where 85 families live in makeshift houses — some of them made of wooden boards and asbestos roofs.

“I hope that God touches Lula’s heart for him to bring public policies [para o quilombo]because we pay a very high tax and the Brazilian government owes a lot to our people”, said Rose.

The community was recognized as a quilombola in 2015, in the last months of the administration of then-President Dilma Rousseff (PT).

Of the 301 hectares of land, 105 were demarcated as quilombola territory, and the other 196 were under the responsibility of the Navy.

The design of the demarcation, however, restricted access to the Macacos River, the region’s main source, where the quilombolas fished and collected water for their own consumption and that of animals and irrigation of plantations.

The Quilombos do Brasil project is a partnership with the Ford Foundation