Farmers Rise Up Against Agribusiness, Face Down Riot Police in Brazil

Thousands of farmers marched on Brazil’s capital Wednesday in the face of riot police, tear gas and rubber bullets, demanding justice for the millions of landless farmers they say have suffered for years under the country’s agricultural policies.

The farmers, organized by the Landless Workers Movement (MST), numbered around 16,000 in the streets of Brasília where they were confronted by riot police in the city center as they headed towards the presidential palace.

Many of the MST protesters today are angry that President Dilma Rousseff is backtracking from the policies of the past two administrations and allowing “agro-business to undercut chances of land reform.”

“Dilma’s government has been the worst in terms of land reform,” said Alexandre Conceicao, a member of MST’s national coordination committee. “She’s done nothing to help Brazil shirk off being a country with one of the most unequal distributions of land in the world.”

MST is marking its 30 years of organizing, protest, and do-it-yourself land reform—decades spent demanding that the government redistribute unused land to farmers in need and occupying large tracts of land when need be.