Conflicts in the Brazilian countryside: a geographical analysis based on Pastoral Land Commission – CPT data

Abstract

This article analyzes conflicts in the Brazilian countryside based on data organized and published by the Pastoral Land Commission for the period 1985-2023. We seek to develop a geographical analysis of conflicts over land and water throughout the period, also highlighting the actions of social movements in the countryside. In methodological terms, we rely on historical and dialectical materialism. The analysis points to the formation of two patterns of conflict, one in which expropriation processes commanded by capital prevail; and another in which the struggle for land materializes in the conquest of rural settlements, demarcation of indigenous lands and recognition of quilombola territory. Thus, we conclude that violence in the countryside is the result of the expansion of latifundium/agribusiness and not the action of social movements as preached by Brazilian elites.