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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 BRASILIA 000507 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER FARC BR CO
SUBJECT: Got Guerrillas?  The Rise of the LCP in Brazil 
 
¶1.  (U)  Summary:  Following is an Embassy Brasilia translation of 
an article published in the March 26, 2008, edition of IstoE, a 
major Brazilian news magazine.  The article reports that a violent 
leftist guerrilla organization operates in Rondonia state, Brazil, 
and in some ways resembles the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces 
(FARC).  End Summary. 
 
Begin Text 
 
BRAZIL HAS GUERRILLAS 
--------------------- 
 
¶2. (U)  ISTOE enters the base of the League of Poor Peasants (LCP), 
an armed group with 20 camps in three states, that has nine times 
more combatants than the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) had in 
the Araguaia Guerrilla, and whose actions resulted in the death of 
22 people last year. 
 
¶3.  (U)  The noise of two gun shots broke the silence of the night 
in the peaceful rural community of Jacilandia, 38 kilometers away 
from the city of Buritis, state of Rondonia. It was a little bit 
past ten o'clock at night on the 22nd of February when three hooded 
men blocked the dirt road that connects this area of housing to the 
municipality, and coldly executed the farmer at point blank range. 
At 28 years of age, he fell over with 38 caliber shots in the nape 
of the neck. Ten hours after the crime, Garcia's body was still at 
the locale, spread out in the arms of his mother, Maria Tereza de 
Jesus, still waiting for the police. He was the youngest of her 
three sons. A month after the murder, the Chief of Police of 
Rondonia Iramar Goncalves, who investigates the case, concluded: "He 
was murdered by the LCP guerrillas." 
 
¶4.  (U)  The acronym that the Police Chief referred to, with strange 
nonchalance, means Liga dos Camponeses Pobres (League of Poor 
Peasants), a radical organization of the extreme left that adopted 
armed struggle as a strategy to come to power in the country through 
"violent revolution." Paulo Roberto was the most recent victim of 
the LCP that, under the negligence of the federal authorities and 
the silence of the rest of Brazil, installed itself eight years ago 
in the region and is, at every hour, more violent. Just in 2007, the 
group's operations produced 22 victims - 18 farm workers or farm 
owners, and four partisans. Widely known in Rondonia, the members of 
the LCP control 500,000 hectares. They are spread out among thirteen 
bases that extend from Jaru, in the center of the state, to the 
outskirts of the state capital Porto Velho, stretching across to the 
border with Bolivia, in a region where they have just opened a road. 
The purpose of the guerrillas would be to use the road as an escape 
route but, as long as neither the Federal Police nor the army 
bothers them, the clandestine trail is being called the 
trans-cocaine trail - over it, according to the local police, drugs, 
contraband and guerilla arms are smuggled. 
 
 
PROHIBITED AREA 
--------------- 
 
¶5.  (U)  The government authorities don't have access to any of 
these settlements. Under the cover of "agrarian revolution," the LCP 
carries its battle flags against the bourgeoisie, imperialism, and 
large rural landholdings while its activists assault, torture, kill, 
and terrorize in rural cities and zones deep in the interior of 
Brazil. Hooded, armed with machine guns, pistols, grenades and 
AR-15, FAL, and AK-47 rifles, which are supposed to be for the 
exclusive use of the armed forces, they total almost nine times more 
combatants than the 60 militants of the Communist Party of Brazil 
who hid themselves away in the Amazon jungle in the beginning of the 
70s during the legendary Araguaia Guerilla. "Colombia is here," says 
Police Chief Goncalves, in a reference to the FARC. 
 
¶6.  (U)  IN THE HEART OF GUERRILLA TERRITORY Armed with an AR-15, a 
police officer enters into the heart of the territory dominated by 
the LCP and a barrier which prohibits access to the center of 
military training. "We can't see them but we are in their sights," a 
Rondonia State Police sergeant says to the IstoE team of reporters. 
 
¶7.  (U)  The IstoE reporters entered into that prohibited area. The 
district of Jacinopolis, 450 kilometers from Porto Velho, is the 
heart of the guerrilla zone. According to the secret service of the 
 
BRASILIA 00000507  002 OF 005 
 
 
Rondonia Military Police, that is where the training camp is. "Not 
even with 50 armed men do I have the courage to enter the area they 
invaded," the Police Chief admitted. To walk along the muddy, 
hostile dirt roads is like walking through a mine field. At any 
moment and with anyone that you might talk to, the fear of an ambush 
is constant. The activists have adopted the strategy of blocking the 
roads and of abducting people that transit through the area without 
a verbal safe-conduct pass granted by the LCP. "It is a way of 
combating the enemy forces," they wrote in one of the pamphlets that 
they distributed in the region. "These bandits were very well 
trained by the FARC guerrillas," reveals Major Enedy Dias de Araujo, 
ex-police commander of the Military Police in Jaru, the city where 
the headquarters of the League is located. 
 
¶8.  (U)  In order to get the so-called agrarian "revolution" going, 
according to the LCP documents that IstoE has had access to, the 
main activity of the group is to put into practice the so-called 
"revolutionary violence." And, for the local inhabitants, there has 
been cold and vengeful violence. In the case of its most recent 
victim, what the LCP did was a summary execution after internal 
judgment was brought on by suspicion as to the real purpose of the 
presence of Paulo Roberto Garcia in the region. "They believe that 
the young man was an agent that had infiltrated as a farmer and they 
had no scruples in executing him," the Police Chief said. Of the 22 
deaths in 2007, four were farmers and fourteen were farm workers, 
which the League classifies as paramilitary. On the guerrilla side, 
four partisans were buried - murdered under different circumstances 
by hit men from the farms of the region. 
 
¶9.  (U)  Besides killing, the LCP is accused by the police of 
burning homes, burning machines and equipment, and of devastating 
the Amazon forest. The residents in the community where Garcia lived 
don't know the meaning of class struggle or revolutionary parties, 
and much less what socialism is. But they know very well that, since 
the LCP has been around, there have been more deaths by killing than 
normal deaths. 
 
SIGNS IN THE JUNGLE 
------------------- 
 
¶10.  (U)  The only ones who are able to openly pass through 
guerrilla territory are the clandestine lumber truckers that pay a 
toll of R$ 2,000 per day to the LCP to drive on the dirt roads 
controlled by the militia. In exchange for the toll, the guerillas 
provide armed security for the lumber smugglers so that they can rob 
trees from private property, conservation areas and Indian lands. 
These are lands that the LCP says that it has "taken" - and the verb 
"take," instead of "trespass" or "occupy," as the Landless Worker's 
Movement (MST) prefers, is not mere semantics, but a revelation of 
the bellicose nature of the group. "It is a failure of the Brazilian 
Army that allows these terrorists to occupy our border areas," Major 
Josenildo Jacinto do Nascimento blames. As the commander of the 
Environmental Military Police Battalion, Nascimento is deeply 
affected by the power and arrogance of that armed bandits. 
 
¶11.  (U)  Last year, they tore apart an Environmental Police 
military base and abducted their soldiers. "The tactic used by the 
LCP for ambush is effective," admits one of the military police 
officers who was a prisoner for seven hours. "Because these are dirt 
roads, in the middle of the jungle, they cut down trees that block 
the roads. When people get out of their vehicles to move the logs, 
they are captured," says E. S., an Environmental Military Police 
officer, who prefers to remain anonymous in order to protect 
himself. "This war is a cancer that is spreading through the state," 
Nascimento warns. 
 
¶12.  (U)  As can be seen in the League's pamphlets, the guerrillas 
post men at bases on the hilltops with binoculars and firecrackers 
to announce an "invasion" of their area by "enemy forces." After 
being closely monitored by motorcycle groups along the 38 kilometers 
that took us an hour and a half to travel across the LCP territory, 
we heard a volley of firecrackers announcing our presence. We were 
close to a base. The alert also serves the purpose of having armed 
men fan out into the jungle to occupy barricades set up around large 
trees near the camps. 
 
DEATH IN THE CAMP 
----------------- 
 
BRASILIA 00000507  003 OF 005 
 
 
 
¶13.  (U)  The farmer Garcia (on the right) was killed by two shots 
in the nape of the neck. "The guerrillas thought that he was an 
agent in the guerrilla area," Police Chief Iramar Goncalves said. 
The LCP leaders accused of the murder are Russo (on the left) and 
Caco, who remain at large. 
 
¶14.  (U)  "The fact is that we cannot observe them, but we are in 
their sights," the Environmental Police military officer 
accompanying us warns. The truth is the Environmental Military 
Police is the only state force whose presence is tolerated by the 
guerrilla. The explanation is simple: With only eight agents to take 
care of almost 900,000 hectares in that region, they represent no 
threat to the group. On the contrary, they would be easy prey if the 
activists so desired. 
 
THE BASE 
-------- 
 
¶15.  (U)  Right away the noise from the firecrackers reverberates 
throughout the immensity of the jungle, women and children put on 
their hoods and take their positions along the front line. When we 
get to the top of a hill, after passing through a barricade 
constructed with a huge tree trunk with the League's inscription on 
it, a red flag is seen flapping at the edge of a grouping of houses 
in the camp with thatched roofs. Just a little farther, another 
barricade and then we come to an obligatory stop. On the other side 
of the gate, the following dialogue took place with a raggedy 
dressed, hooded, and unsociable band. 
 
- What have you come here for? - An angry, masked representative 
asked. 
- We are journalists and we want to know what you all have to say 
about agrarian reform and the League of Poor Peasants. 
- You can go now, we don't have anything to say. You only get in the 
way. 
- How many families are in this camp? 
- 300. 
- May we speak with your leader? 
- There is no leader here, we are all the same. 
- Why are you masked? 
- The mask is our identity. 
- Do you believe that you can carry out a revolution? 
- We don't have to answer to any bourgeoisie press. 
- Who do you receive support from? 
- None of your business. 
- Can we enter into the camp? 
- No way. Get out of here! 
 
¶16.  (U)  With bullet proof vests on under our shirts, we left the 
camp gate out of a matter of safety. We drove back in our vehicle 
over the precarious road another hour and a half until the first LCP 
toll point. "Last year, we were taken prisoner by them, we were 
eight military policemen, and they were more than 50 men armed with 
machine guns," the police sergeant says. "There is just no way, to 
solve the problem with this band only a joint action by the army, 
federal police and state forces." 
 
¶17.  (U)  TERROR Farm owner Sebastiao Conte (on the left) had his 
main building, tractors and management plan burned up. The 
guerrillas didn't even spare the Environmental Police post, which 
was destroyed. In the camps, they put children on the front line and 
they use hoods. 
 
¶18.  (U)  Back from the area dominated by the LCP, it becomes 
obvious by the reserved conversations with the few residents that 
are willing to say something, that the terror disseminated by the 
guerrilla is measured by the silence of these country folk. The 
rebels control people's lives, besides investigating who is who in 
the region. Whoever does not "collaborate" with them - by providing 
money, livestock or a part of the production - becomes the target of 
cowardly attacks. Stories of farm workers in the area that were 
placed naked over ant hills, or beaten until they abandoned the 
area, are very much present in the minds of the residents. The 
torture carried out against rural workers make it difficult to hire 
manual labor in the region. "Nobody wants to work on my farm 
anymore," admits Sebastiao Conte, the owner of 30,000 hectares of 
land. He had part of his land "taken" two years ago by the LCP, and 
 
BRASILIA 00000507  004 OF 005 
 
 
the main building was burned, as were his tractors, the worker 
housing and the forest management area. The farm owner, accused by 
the League of being a large rural property owner, is proof that the 
guerrilla terror is the same for everyone. According to him, over 
the last two years, he had to bury three of his hired hands. "All of 
them were murdered barbarously," Conte tells. "I am asking for help. 
I don't know who to turn to." 
 
¶19.  (U)  Far from there, in the city of Cujubim, the rural workers 
that are employed on the farms can't walk around unarmed. "Around 
here, either you go armed, or you're dead," M.L. says. The farm 
foreman and his son have already lost count of all the times they 
have traded shots with the masked ones that tried to invade the 
farm. Treated as if they were paramilitary, the farm workers are 
favorite targets for attacks from the League, after the owners 
themselves. Nelson Elbrio, the manager of the Mutum Farm, had the 
bad luck of falling into the hands of the "organization." He was 
taken prisoner exactly like the Environmental Police military 
officers and remained a prisoner under the watchful eye of one of 
the armed men for six hours. "Right when I came around the curve in 
the dirt road I came face to face with fifteen hooded and heavily 
armed men. They pulled me out of the car and then I went through 
hell," Elbrio tells. "They wanted me to tell the secrets of the 
farm: How many people worked there, where the fuel tanks were, and 
if there was armed security." The worker's suffering went on until 
the end of the afternoon, when the group dragged him to the main 
building of the farm, shooting off a shotgun right next to his ears. 
Right after, they forced him to watch them burn the property and the 
tractors. "I never slept well after that," Elbrio said. 
 
¶20.  (U)  With death at every step, fear has transformed entire 
districts into unpopulated zones - true ghost towns - and has 
created a mass of refugees from their own land, expulsed by 
guerrillas. In Jacilandia, of the 25 wooden houses on the only 
street in the town, only eight are occupied. Even the church closed 
its doors. "The people went away out of fear of the guerrillas," 
said one of the residents, and old man who only agreed to be 
interviewed anonymously. "Here, we can't say anything. To remain 
standing, you have to learn how to live," said the old farmer. The 
silence and the abandonment of the land are the hardest translation 
of this new way of living. Maria, the mother of the murdered farm 
worker, did not wait for the seventh day mass of her youngest 
offspring. She left her 100 hectares behind her, where she had 100 
head of cattle and a recently built house. She left for an unknown 
place under the protection of other son. 
 
THE SILENCE 
----------- 
 
¶21.  (U)  On that piece of land, the few that remain in spite of 
everything are faceless and nameless. When they are interrogated by 
the police during criminal investigations, they also become blind 
and deaf. "There is no witness to anything," complains Police Chief 
Goncalves. The reason why the police investigations are fruitless is 
because the insurgent prisoners are easily freed by the courts. 
"Because they employ the guerrilla tactic of using masks in their 
activities, we have our hands tied and cannot punish them. We never 
know who actually killed," the Police Chief complains. The only LCP 
leaders to go to jail because of murders were Wenderson Francisco 
dos Santos (nicknamed Russo) and Edilberto Resende da Silva 
(nicknamed Caco), who is at large. The two were accused of 
participating in the murder of the rural worker Antonio Martins, in 
¶2003. Russo was absolved in trial court and the public prosecutors 
appealed the decision to the Superior Court of Justice. 
 
FEAR OR CAUTION? 
---------------- 
 
¶22.  (U)  "Not even with 50 armed men do I have the courage to enter 
and invade their territory," Police Chief Goncalves says. 
 
¶23.  (U)  THE BRAZILIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (ABIN) KNOWS 
This tension is the backdrop of a psychological war that the 
ideologues of the organization deem to be an ideal instrument so 
that the area will be abandoned by the farm owners. "The best way of 
having the area unoccupied is by destroying the large rural 
property," told us one of the masked men, called Luiz by a 
colleague. According to the logic of the LCP, the farm owners have 
 
BRASILIA 00000507  005 OF 005 
 
 
to always lose money, or else they won't abandon the land. At the 
head of the 300 families that occupied the Catanio Farm, a 25,000 
hectares property, partisan Luiz defends the confiscation of cattle 
to satisfy the hunger of the squatters and thinks that "taking over" 
the land is a legal way of carrying out an "agrarian revolution." 
"If we wait for the courts, then we'll wait here forever," he says. 
 
¶24.  (U)  The LCP militants are so audacious that, last year, more 
than 200 of them marched hooded through the streets of the town of 
Buritis, 450 kilometers from Porto Velho, until they stopped at the 
gates of the police station, where they demanded the exit of Police 
Chief Goncalves from the district. The reason: He had arrested one 
of the leaders of the guerrilla faction. Not yet satisfied, the 
bandits beat on the doors of the Public Prosecution Office and of 
the courthouse demanding that the heads of these government bodies 
also step down. This was reported to the Ministry of Justice, to 
President Lula and to the state government. Until now, there has 
been no response. "Nobody takes our accusations seriously. They 
think that we are joking, that accusing guerrillas is something 
delirious," says the outraged Police Chief Goncalves. "This is going 
to end up in a tragedy of alarming proportions, and then the human 
rights defenders will show up," he criticizes. It is exactly because 
the accusations are not taken seriously on the part of the public 
prosecutors, judges and the military that the League gains strength 
and grows with impunity. 
 
¶25.  (U)  As tragic as the terror that this armed group imposes on 
the rural communities is the fact that the state and federal 
governments know of the existence of this armed band - and don't do 
anything. According to the LCP Dossier, a confidential, 120-page 
Rondonia police report, sent last December to the Brazilian 
Intelligence Agency (ABIN), to the Army, and the Ministry of 
Agrarian Reform, the armed group, besides committing every kind of 
barbarity, is financed by illegal loggers. According to the 
document, the LCP controls an area estimated at 500,000 hectares, 
where it indoctrinates more than 4,000 poor peasant families spread 
out among more than 20 agrarian reform camps variously placed in the 
states of Minas Gerais, Para, and Rondonia. "They are going against 
the grain of what is contemporary. But, in fact, they formed a 
'parallel' state," says Oswaldo Firmo, a judge of law at the bench 
specialized in agrarian conflict in the state of Minas Gerais. 
 
TASK FORCE 
---------- 
 
¶26.  (U)  Documents in the possession of IstoE prove that federal 
government authorities have turned a deaf ear to the problem. On 
January 11, 2008, the Federal government agrarian ombudsperson, the 
Appellate Judge Gercino Jose da Silva Filho, received the 
accusations sent to him about the illegal activities committed by 
the League of Poor Peasants. Once again, nothing was done. "They say 
that they are aware of everything, but where is the action?" wonders 
Major Nascimento, the commander of the Environmental Military Police 
in Rondonia. "This situation here will only be solved together with 
other military forces," the major admits. That is what happened in 
the state of Para last November, during the so-called Peace in the 
Countryside Operation, when an action involving the Army, civil and 
military police, and federal police expelled LCP squatters that had 
occupied the Fourkilha Farm, in the southern part of the state. With 
two helicopters, 200 men and 40 police vehicles, the task force 
surrounded the area and arrested almost 150 militants and recovered 
a true war arsenal. "We need the iron hand of the state. Here we are 
treated as if we were marginal citizens," added the farm owner 
Sebastiao Conte. 
 
End text. 
 
¶27.  Comment.  IstoE is a left-of-center Brazilian newsweekly, third 
in national circulation, and while it is generally accurate and 
fair, its reporting is more uneven than that of circulation leader 
Veja.  Neither the political section nor the regional affairs office 
had previously heard of the LCP, but the report is plausible given 
Brazil's size, the occasional appearance of rural criminals and 
guerrillas in the past, and the inaccessibility of remote areas. 
 
SOBEL