Trench built by private security firm Estrela Guia, hired by Estrondo Estate

A trench three metres deep built by a private security firm hired by Estrondo Estate. The trench is part of a range of tactics also including security cabins, fences and armed security guards used to prevent free passage by local people over community lands in the Estrondo, isolating them from each other and impeding their grazing rights. The area is in judicial dispute but the Cachoeira community’s ownership of the land is currently guaranteed by the courts. However, despite court rulings supporting their land rights, communities all over the Cerrado, a frontier for soya expansion, have faced violence and intimidation as agribusiness expanded across the region.