| Sumario: | The article focuses on the socioeconomic impacts of the occupation of privately owned land in Brazil by landless peasants between 2000 and 2008. An overview is provided on the history of land ownership in Brazil, including the prevalence of the ownership of large, family-owned estates in the country, the overall inequality regarding land allocation and the contributing institutional shortcomings. The authors discuss the role of population density, politics and poverty on the occupation of land by farmers who do not possess land endowments. The authors contend that the Brazilian government should implement land reform and stricter legal enforcement, which would consequently reduce the power of peasant political movements and reduce the prevalence of the resulting violence.
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