Featured image: Gabriel Pimenta. Source: A Nova Democracia (AND).

18th of July 2024 marked the 42nd anniversary of the murder in Maraba, Para, of the people’s lawyer Gabriel Pimenta, who was murdered when he was 27 years old. A text shared by AND states that “he acted in support of the peasant struggle in defense of the workers rights with the Union of Rural Workers of Maraba, founded in 1980 with a strong actuation in the region of Morada Nova, Murumuru y Pau Seco, were the most advanced mobilizations in the struggle for land took place, which were lead by Antônio Chico, Chicó, Higino, João do Cupu and others.”

His role stood out. He was very active against the military dictatorship from that time in Brazil. He was formed as a lawyer at the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), and he moved to Maraba (PA) were he joined the struggle for land. Within this context, Gabriel Pimenta was not afraid by the threats from big landlords and waged several struggles clashing with its interests. He even inflicted several defeats to the latifundium.

Gabriel Pimenta was murdered on July 18, 1982, in Maraba by the goon José Crescêncio de Oliveira, hired by José Pereira Nóbrega, partner of the big landlord Manuel Cardoso Neto, know as “Nelito”. The peasants of Maraba were occupying his lands since many years and were carrying out a harsh struggle against him.

Gabriel Pimenta was murdered but his struggle remains alive: lawyers as José Batista struggled to remember his murder and to held accountable the responsible for this murder and the old Brazilian State was condemned to take actions to compensate the murder of Pimenta. His example remains in the mind of many progressive and revolutionary intellectuals who are nowadays joining the peasant struggle in Brazil.

In,