21 Workers Killed, But Not Forgotten: The Massacre Still Shaping Brazil’s MST

In 1996, Brazilian military police opened fire on a peaceful march of landless workers – killing 21 people in what became known as the Eldorado do Carajás Massacre.

Thirty years later, justice is still incomplete. Most of those responsible were never held accountable, and the deeper forces behind the violence – political elites, landowners, and corporate interests – remain largely untouched.

But the movement they tried to destroy didn’t disappear, it grew.

BreakThrough News traveled to the state of Pará in northern Brazil to follow members of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) as they marched for four days—retracing the same road where their comrades were killed.

This march is more than a memorial. It’s part of a nationwide mobilization known as “Red April,” where thousands organize, occupy land, and demand agrarian reform as a solution to hunger and inequality.

Along the way, we hear from survivors, youth organizers, and current members of the movement—who say the same conditions that led to the massacre still exist today:

Extreme land inequality

Violence against rural workers

Expansion of agribusiness and mining into peasant land

And a justice system that protects the powerful

For the MST, memory is not just about the past—it’s a tool for organizing in the present.

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