Estado, mídia e criminalização do MST: um estudo a partir do caso de Pocinhos (PB).

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to study the process of criminalization of the social movements, especially the Landless Rural Workers' Movement (MST, from the Brazilian acronym). We stem from an emblematic case of criminalization of the MST, which occurred on May 1st 2009 in the municipality of Pocinhos, State of Paraíba, Northeast of Brazil. We have analyzed that the active subjects of this criminalization were the State, with its coercive and punitive institutions, and the mass media, by means of an ideological criminalization. We investigated this case seeking to conceptualize the criminalization of the social movements, and trying to study the bonds that link the land owners, who promote violence against the members of the MST; the State; and the Media. We claim that the process of criminalization of the MST and its members, in this particular case, involves land owners, the police, the Judicial Branch, the Public Ministry, and the local media. These actions were gradually complemented by the ideology. Thus, we defend the hypothesis that it is through ideological mechanisms that the speeches and the criminalizing violences homogenize themselves against the MST. We carried out this study mainly by means of interviews, documental analysis and bibliographical research.