The experience of the camp Tiago Campin dos Santos in Rondônia in the light of critical criminology

Abstract

The present work intends to briefly tell the history of repression and resistance of the Tiago Campin dos Santos Camp, located in the rural area of ​​Porto Velho/RO. The Camp, organized by the LCP (Liga dos Camponeses Pobres de Rondônia e Amazônia Occidental) has more than 700 families, who occupy the area, which in turn is public land illegally occupied by the biggest land grabber in the region, known as ''Old Rooster''. After systematically suffering several attacks from the State police forces, in fulfillment of illegal Repossessions, violations of rights were reported by local peasants, committed by police with gunslinger hired by the land grabber, which culminated in physical violence, psychological violence, destruction property, humiliations, evictions and murders. Since its formation, in 2020, 11 murders have already been recorded as a result of these reported attacks. Secondly, it is intended to use the example of the Camp to reflect on the system of control and penal selectivity that place an impoverished peasant mass under the ‘’sight’’ of the State, who struggles for democratic access to land. The repressive and classist character of the State and consequently of the Judiciary leads it to face a social problem, which is the poor distribution of land in Brazil, as a public security problem, individualizing the agents of this conflict, criminalizing them, intentionally suppressing the dimension social conflict. In the essence of the Maximum Penal State model, the management of poverty through the penal control system, especially through the selective and neutralizing use of prison, makes it unnecessary to discuss structural problems, such as the social ills generated by the capitalist system on the use of the land, heightened in the latifundist production model. The agrarian question starts to be colonized by the performance of penal control over “invaders” and, with very little frequency, over landowners, land grabbers, and gunslinger.