(In Portuguese with English Subtitles) The Campaign to STOP Genetically Engineered Trees recently organized an international delegation to Chile to investigate the impacts of industrial timber plantations on communities, forests and water. Three of the delegation participants came from Brazil: One was MST militant and agroecology professor Eliane Oliveira Kai, and another was Ivonete Gonçalves – a member of CEPEDES, the Brazilian network for Environmental Justice, and the Permanent Campaign against Agrotoxins and for Life.
Both Eliane and Ivonete are featured in the short video below, filmed during the delegation, which speaks about political repression in Brazil against those who fight to take back the land from industrial tree plantations.
About the situation in Brazil:
In 2015, the Brazilian government gave tree plantation company Suzano the green light to commercially plant genetically engineered eucalyptus trees. This came despite fierce opposition from environmentalists and rural communities led by the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST).
Since last year’s right-wing coup in Brazil, the MST has faced an escalating campaign of repression with the aim of eliminating opposition to the new government’s neoliberal reforms. MST members and supporters have denounced the criminalization of popular movements and the arbitrary arrest of militants, especially the 22-year-old comrade Fabiana Braga, unjustly imprisoned since November 2016.
In this short video, Eliane and Ivonete share Fabiana’s story and call for her freedom.
Take action to free Fabiana and the political prisoners of the MST!
1. Sign the petition here: https://manifesto.meucrim
2. Take a photo with the words “Free Fabiana” and share on social media with the tags #LibertemAFabiana and #Mu
For more information and updates, follow:
https://www.mstbrazil.org/ (Fri
https://www.mst.org.br/ (MST website, in Portuguese)
Filmed by Keith Brunner, Biofuelwatch and Global Justice Ecology Project