Syngenta Pollutes, Persecutes and Murders Peasants in Brazil

In October of 2007, Valmir Mota, a member of La Via Campesina Brazil, was murdered in Santa Tereza do Oeste municipality, in Parana state. Nearly 50 gunmen hired by Syngenta corporation entered a peasant camp and murdered Mota in cold blood, also injuring other seven rural workers. The company is also being accused of intoxication and death for pollution with one of its products, Paraquat agrotoxic, banned in several European countries. Syngenta also illegally cultivated and patented GMO in Brazil.

Syngenta has and illegal GMO testing field in Santa Tereza do Oeste, near Iguazu National Park, in the Park's buffer zone. Cultivating GMOs in buffer zones has been banned in Brazil since 2003. Small ecologic farmers of the region reported the situation with Terra de Direitos in Feburary of 2006. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources carried out a control operation in Syngenta's field and verified illegal GMO plantations. So it fined the company for a million reais.

In March 2006, La Vía Campesina occupied the plot of land to expose the illegal activity of the Swiss corporation and to demand the payment of the fine. After 16 months the families of La Via Campesina left the land and with it 40 hectares planted with organic food and native trees. In October of 2007, Syngenta announced it would resume the GM tests in its tract of land in Santa Tereza do Oeste. Subsequently, La Via Campesina peacefully occupied the tract once again, which seems to have been reason enough for the company to wage an armed assault against the peasants, ending in the murder of Valmir Mota.

La Vía Campesina Brazil and the organization Terra de Direitos are accusing the Swiss corporation before the PPT for the serious human rights abuses and violations of the national laws in the country.

Besides Mota's murder, the company is also responsible for intoxication with Paraquat or Gramoxone (an agrotoxic manufactured by Syngenta), which according to the World Health Organization is the most toxic agrochemical produced nowadays. It was banned in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and Malaysia. In the lawsuit filed before the PPT,65 cases of intoxication are reported between 1998 and 2000, besides 3 deaths in 2002.

Syngenta is one of the world's largest transnational corporations devoted to agribuiness. It is well-known for its production of agrochemicals and GM seeds. The company makes a yearly profit of 800 million US dollars from selling agrotoxics and GMO in Brazil, representing 10% of its global profits.

Syngenta has violated the country's Federal Constitution, the environmental laws, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other national and international laws.

The Brazilian justice system has not held Syngenta accountable for the murder of Valmir Mota. Quite on the contrary: it convicted two peasants, identifying them as members of the peasant movement. This actions show the justice system acted to secure the privileges and immunity of the transnational corporation by criminalizing the peasants and violating their rights. For this reason, the case is filed before the PPT.

Key issues: Criminalisation of resistance and use of violence

Denouncing organizations: Terra de Direitos y Via Campesina (Brasil).