In this thesis, we study the influences of Liberation Theology (LT) in the region of the
Diocese of Porto Nacional, in the state of Tocantins, Brazil, in the final years of the Civil Military Dictatorship (1978 to 1985). Therefore, we approach the changes that have occurred
in the structure of the Catholic Church since the 1960s, with the completion of the Second
Vatican Council and with the approach of the so-called progressive wing of this institution
with social movements fighting for freedom and rights, in countries that suffered the scourges
of dictatorial governments, particularly Brazil. We start from the hypothesis that with the
expansion of agribusiness in the region where the diocese is located, which occurred in the
1970s and 1980s, some members of the Catholic Church acted in accordance with the ideals
of LT, seeking to prepare poor populations to counteract the exploitations caused by this
expansion. To achieve the objectives arising from this hypothesis, we used the methodology
of bibliographic and documentary research in the analysis of the construction of the
environment in which LT emerged in Latin America. For this, readings about the influence of
theologians such as Gustavo Gutierrez, Leonardo Boff, Hugo Assmann and their assertions
close to Marxism were important. We also used the method of oral history from the
perspective of Paul Thompson to examine the memory of priests and nuns who acted in
affinities with this theology in the ancient north of Goiás, Brazil, today Tocantins, Brazil. We
observed that, in order to bridge the gap from the theoretical to the practical universe, LT
agents such as bishops, priests and religious, made use of various popular and social
organisms that already existed in organized society. In the Diocese of Porto Nacional,
conjectures with Liberation Theology were verified in the performance of its members in the
Pastoral Land Commission and in the Base Ecclesial Communities, together with religious
agents were able to act in the mobilization of peasants in the struggle for the right to remain in
the land
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