Latifúndio, violência e resistência: dinâmicas globais do capitalismo no campo a partir dos assentamentos rurais em Bituruna/PR (1986-2006)

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to contextualize and understand violence against peasant populations in Latin America as part of a broader global process of capitalist expansion in rural areas. In the late twentieth century, the intensification of neoliberal globalization reconfigured social and economic relations in the countryside, fostering land concentration, the expansion of agribusiness, the expropriation of traditional communities, and the escalation of land conflicts. In response, organized social movements emerged that, beyond demanding access to land and improved living conditions, began to confront multiple forms of violence, both from landowners and their private militias as well as from state agents. To analyze this phenomenon in a comparative perspective, this study examines episodes of rural violence in the southeastern region of Paraná State, particularly in the municipality of Bituruna, between 1986 and 2006, during the occupation of timber-based latifundia by the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), and extends its scope to other cases that took place between the 1980s and 2000s in Latin American countries such as Guatemala, Paraguay, Argentina, and Honduras. The research draws on a diverse range of sources, including reports from national and international organizations (CPT; Observatório da Questão Agrária no Paraná; International Federation for Human Rights; World Organisation Against Torture), archives from the MST office in Bituruna (police reports, documents and press clippings), photographic records, and interviews with former camp dwellers and settlers. The theoretical and methodological framework adopts an approach informed by Global History and emphasizes the dialogue between theoretical frameworks, namely violence, coloniality of power, and experience.