VIOLENCE AND IMPUNITY IN THE MARANHÃO COUNTRYSIDE: A CASE STUDY OF THE VERGEL COMMUNITY, CODÓ-MA

Abstract

This article analyzes the pattern of violence and impunity in the Maranhão countryside through a case study of the Vergel Community, located in the rural area of the municipality of Codó, state of Maranhão. Through documentary and qualitative research, the study examines an agrarian conflict spanning more than four decades, in which four people were murdered between 2007 and 2021, all relatives of human rights defender Antônio Francisco de Sousa Araújo. The work demonstrates how the absence of land regularization, repeated impunity, and state omission constitute a structural cycle of violence against traditional communities and their defenders. The analysis articulates institutional documents, official letters to the Public Prosecutor's Office, communications to UN Special Rapporteurs, and the Brazilian State's response to the international human rights system. It concludes that the Vergel case expresses, at a local scale, the historical contradictions of the agrarian question in Maranhão and Brazil, revealing the need for an effective, coordinated, and structural state response for the protection of human rights defenders in land conflict contexts.