Police officer who killed landless peasants with a gunshot is sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Fernanda Canofre, On the 21 - On the same day that marked eight years and one month since the death of landless farmer Elton Brum, military police officer Alexandre Curto dos Santos, identified as the perpetrator of the shooting that took his life, sat down to testify before a judge. For about an hour, the defendant answered questions from the judge, the prosecution, and the defense, repeatedly stating that his weapon only had non-lethal ammunition, but it was switched with that of a colleague who had loaded a lethal bullet into his. The weapons were identical, and he never explained when the switch occurred. The defense's argument was that there was no intent to kill.

For the jury, however, by shooting Brum at close range, with the victim's back turned and difficulty defending himself, the police officer assumed the risk and the intention. The judge and the jury – composed of three men and four women – accepted the prosecution's suggested sentence. Also on Thursday (21), after 15 hours of trial, the military police officer was convicted of qualified homicide and sentenced to 12 years in prison, in a closed regime, loss of his position in the Military Police and immediate imprisonment.

In the audience, shortly before the verdict, Elton's widow, Maria Odete, who had attended the entire trial without speaking to the press, declared only: "I hope justice will be done, because I have already left the rest in God's hands."

The Landless Workers' Movement (MST) released a statement asserting that Brum's death, at age 44, is just one chapter in the numerous conflicts in the countryside, a consequence of Brazil "never having implemented agrarian reform on paper." "Enough of impunity in rural conflicts and police violence. We repudiate any type of violence against any worker. We want what happened to Elton Brum to never be repeated. We want the State to rethink its stance on repossession or eviction actions, and not to use its force to kill or repress legitimate struggles," the text emphasizes.

Curto was sent to military prison while awaiting further steps in the process. The decision is still subject to appeal. The case was brought to the Porto Alegre court at the request of the prosecution, citing security concerns and the need to guarantee impartiality.

Shortly before the sentencing announcement, defense attorney Andréia Tavares said she had never witnessed "a defendant with so much truth," bringing "guilt and emotion" to the testimony. The defense's strategy was to prove that the defendant had no intention of killing and was the victim of a fatality, in the accidental exchange of weapons with a colleague who had loaded lethal ammunition.

“The videos show the violence employed that day. [The movement] was bloodthirsty. The prosecutor himself said that they don't invade for property, but to provoke state outrage. And then, that coincides with a situation where a military police officer has been working for 4 days,” said the lawyer.

The defendant stated that the command was aware of the use of lethal ammunition.

Alexandre Curto dos Santos' testimony lasted about an hour. The first question came from Judge Orlando Faccini Neto, who wanted to know what the police officer thought about the MST (Landless Workers' Movement). “Deep down, they have reasons to claim certain things, but today they are being used as pawns. They sent people to be trained in Colombia, with the guerrillas. I know this from military sources (…) A person can make demands, but there comes a point when their right ends and the other person's begins. There are ways to make demands,” the defendant replied.

With over 20 years in the Military Police, Alexandre had been in the Special Operations Battalion for 12 years when he went to the operation to reclaim possession of the Southall farm in São Gabriel. The policeman was stationed in Bagé and had experience in operations involving the movement. In his testimony, he said that it was "inevitable" that the operations would result in injuries on both sides and that he himself had been hit by "several stones".

In the early morning hours when he left for the farm occupied by the MST (Landless Workers' Movement), according to him, he had been working for four consecutive days without sleep. Four hours before hitting the road, he had participated in an operation against strikers in Candiota. His lawyer said he went to São Gabriel because of the R$ 60 bonus.

According to the defendant's version of events, he traveled in a patrol car with four other police officers, drinking chimarrão (a traditional South American infused drink) and stopping three times along the way, a journey that took six hours. Alexandre maintains that it was during one of these stops that he and his colleague, soldier Cortez, exchanged weapons. Despite instructions from the BM command and the planned reintegration operation, Cortez decided to insert a lethal round among the others.

“Cortez told the lieutenant [in charge of the operation] that he was going to load a lethal bullet because something could happen, from Bagé to São Gabriel. He said he would remove it when he arrived [at the farm]. They don't know [when the switch occurred] because the weapons are identical,” says the defense attorney, Jabs Paim Bandeira.

Alexandre reiterated in his testimony that, despite orders to use only non-lethal ammunition, which would be the norm in cases of repossession, his colleague had chosen to load a lethal ammunition cartridge, with the commander's approval. Neither Cortez nor the lieutenant responsible for the operation were indicted or investigated in the case. Because he had a clean record in the corporation, Alexandre was exonerated in the administrative process that evaluated his conduct that day.

“It was an accident. I took my weapon, loaded it only with riot control ammunition, and kept it with me the whole time. My colleague, who went along, took the same weapon, the same color. The weapons are identical in color, shape, same brand. We were three patrol cars to travel to São Gabriel. Each patrol car holds 5 people. If he had been in another patrol car, I wouldn't have switched places with him,” he stated during the trial.

The version about the death

The prosecution, however, insisted on other holes in the police officer's story. For example, the fact that Alexandre did not provide assistance to Elton Brum when he realized the ammunition fired was lethal. Or the fact that the distance he claimed to be from the victim – between 8 and 10 meters – did not match what was found by experts who examined the wound on the body – consistent with a short distance, between 3 and 5 meters. Or even why the police officer took six days to present his version of the facts.

According to Alexandre's version, he entered the Southall farm through a side gate, in a line with 15 other soldiers. With wooden shields positioned to protect the entrance, he fired three shots to clear a path. All with non-lethal bullets, consistent with what he had loaded into his own weapon.

“There was a lot of noise from fireworks, a lot of smoke, a lot of burning trash all around, everything was very chaotic. I turned to the right, saw a colleague on horseback in the background, and saw a figure of a person going towards the horse's reins. I thought that if he grabbed the reins he would throw my colleague off, he could cause a fracture. Since I knew I had my weapon, that I only had non-lethal ammunition in it, the shots I fired before were like that, I fired again,” he reported.

At the moment he fired, he says the gun recoiled more strongly and he knew the ammunition was lethal. “Then I opened the gun to see what ammunition was being used and saw that it was lethal. At that moment, it was as if I had switched off. I didn't hear anything else, I didn't see anything else. I turned my back and left, that whole scene, I was no longer able to be there,” he replied when asked why he didn't help Brum or ask others to take over the case. “I was motionless because I was stunned by the situation. I had no idea what had happened. I was in no condition to.”

The prosecution questioned Alexandre about whether the victim had his back turned when the shot was fired. The military policeman, who reaffirmed that he only fired because he saw the farmer "with his arm raised, towards the horse," replied that he couldn't see because there was a lot of smoke in the area. "I don't know if he was facing forward or backward. I didn't aim, I just put the gun at my waist and fired."

According to the prosecution and assisting lawyers, the statement is inconsistent with a soldier with over 20 years of service and top marks in several shooting courses. The jury was also presented with a video, recorded by the Military Police during the operation, which contradicted the soldier's statement. Brum appeared surrounded by police horses with his hands in his pockets at the moment the shot was fired.

The soldier, who was promoted to sergeant two years ago, also said that he "thinks about what happened every day." "It's something that still haunts me to this day. I didn't want that to happen. I still carry that weight, the weight of someone's death."

The order was fulfilled before the deadline set by the court.

Before the defendant's testimony, the jury heard from the then-prosecutor for Children and Youth in São Gabriel, who oversaw the execution of the repossession order. In her testimony, she stated that the court officer had attempted to read the judicial order three times before entering the encampment. The prosecutor was unable to answer the question posed by the MST's lawyer, Emiliano Maldonado, regarding why the repossession was carried out on August 21st if the judge's decision gave the landless workers August 22nd as the deadline for peaceful departure.

“The eviction itself was very quick, it took about 5 minutes. Afterwards, [the police] were identifying people. I only learned about the death in the afternoon, when I arrived in the city. [While still at the scene], I remember seeing a man being carried out on a stretcher, right at the beginning of the operation,” she stated.

The prosecutor also commented on having given statements to the press at the time, defending that there was no excess on the part of the Military Police. “I didn't see what happened inside that camp because it was guarded, with security. I'm referring to the operation as a whole. The preparation of the operation seemed very professional to me,” she said. The prosecutor, however, also stated that she would not be able to assess the individual conduct of the police officers involved in the operation.

The MST had 31 members injured. Reports of abuse – including cases of people allegedly being placed on top of anthills – were attached to a report by the State Committee Against Torture and referenced in Carlos D'Elia's testimony on Thursday morning.

The accusation that the MST (Landless Workers' Movement) had received training from the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and was preparing a guerrilla war in Rio Grande do Sul was even presented as a complaint to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), at the request of a colonel from the Military Brigade, as recalled by the assistant prosecutor, Leandro Scalabrin. However, the courts confirmed that the claim was unfounded.

The prosecutor, Eugenio Amorim, stated before the jury that he is a right-wing person and that he always tended to side with the military police. “I have been an opponent of the left since I was very young. I will accuse the defendant because the life of someone who thinks differently politically is no less valuable than mine.” Amorim concluded his argument by reading the poem “The Death of Pedro Ninguém” by Luiz Menezes: “Oigatê, how harsh this month of August is! (…) The man who is born poor / is like a wild horse / He is fought by life / suffers the taming of sorrows.”

Check out the MST's statement in full:

MST statement regarding the outcome of the Elton Brum da Silva case trial.

More than eight years later, justice was served. The military police officer who shot and killed the landless worker Elton Brum da Silva in the back was convicted. Alexandre Curto dos Santos, at the time a soldier and then a 3rd sergeant in the Military Brigade, was sentenced by a jury to 12 years in prison, to be served in a closed regime. The sentence also included loss of office and immediate imprisonment of the defendant. The trial took place this Thursday (21) at the Central Forum I of the Porto Alegre District, and lasted about 12 hours.

The police officer was convicted of aggravated homicide, meaning he was found guilty of preventing the victim from defending himself. Elton Brum was cowardly executed with a point-blank shot to the back during a violent and arbitrary repossession of the Southall Farm, in the municipality of São Gabriel, on the western border of Rio Grande do Sul, on August 21, 2009.

The Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), throughout its decades of existence, has seen the struggle for Agrarian Reform as the way to a more just and egalitarian life in the countryside. Unfortunately, this public policy is viewed with disregard by our government. The numerous conflicts in the countryside, which are now recorded annually by the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), are consequences of a great social debt that Brazil has for never having implemented Agrarian Reform. Often, this results in the deaths of innocent workers, who suffer criminalization simply for being landless.

This was also the reality for Elton Brum da Silva, who at 44 years of age became part of the statistics of deaths occurring in agrarian conflicts. Another worker was cowardly killed by the excessive force of the State, which should be helping to build alternatives so that everyone has the right to land, not killing.

Enough of impunity in rural conflicts and police violence. We repudiate any type of violence against any worker. We want to ensure that what happened to Elton Brum does not happen again. We want the State to rethink its stance on repossession or eviction actions, and not to use its force to kill or repress legitimate struggles.

The MST will continue fighting for a Popular Agrarian Reform that keeps workers in the countryside and guarantees better living conditions for the Brazilian people.

For our dead, not a minute of silence, but a lifetime of struggle!
Elton Brum da Silva, present! Elton Brum lives!

State Directorate of the MST/RS
September 22th, 2017