The São Paulo company is investigating whether there are masterminds who ordered the attack on the Olga Benário settlement, from the (Landless Rural Workers Movement), in Tremembé (SP), which left six injured, or whether the crime was carried out by the masterminds themselves, with the help of third parties .
The crime, according to the police, residents of the settlement and MST leaders, is related to the occupation of 1 of approximately 50 lots that have an area of 158 hectares (just over four parks in Ibirapuera). The area in dispute is around 5,000 square meters.
The investigation does not yet have a definitive number of members of the attack, which took place on Friday (10). There are reports, heard by police officers, of up to five vehicles used in the attack, including luxury pickup trucks. Therefore, the police do not rule out that the organization may have included criminals with high financial power.
“Both hypotheses are being investigated. If [os suspeitos já identificados] are being seen as principals or participants”, said this Monday (13) delegate Vinícius Garcia Vieira, from the Deic (Criminal Investigations Police Station) of Taubaté, responsible for the investigation.
The lot in dispute had been empty for three years and had been subject to attempts to occupy it by people from outside the settlement. Residents of the area had been trying to stop it.
The two people named by the police as participants in the attack had been identified by the settled residents themselves: Antônio Martins dos Santos Filho, 41 years old, known as “Nero do Piseiro”, and Ítalo Rodrigues da Silva.
Santos Filho, had already been arrested for illegal possession of a weapon, according to the police. His nickname is because he owns a forró in the region, called piseiro, which has been the target of drug trafficking allegations. He was arrested in the act, located by the police hours after the crime. Silva, who was temporarily detained, has no criminal history.
None of the two identified, however, have a history of connection with land grabbing actions, according to the delegate.
“No hypothesis can be ruled out, but there is no indication that it is a faction formed for this purpose. There is an indication, still precarious, that it would be a fight over specific land within that settlement,” said the delegate.