Posted on 17 June 2011
As deforestation escalates in the Amazon,
so is murder - with five rural workers killed
in the last three weeks. But the assassinations,
which appear linked to opposition to illegal
logging, are likely to join hundreds of
other unsolved cases.
The first murders in the current spate of
violence took place on May 24 - the day
the Brazilian National Congress was voting
on proposed changes of Brazil's Forest Law,
which would have
the effect of slashing forest protections
and provide extensive amnesties for illegal
clearing.
Married extractive workers Maria do Espírito
Santo da Silva and José Cláudio
da Silva, community leaders in the extractive
settlement Praia Alta Piranheira, in southern
Pará state, were killed in an ambush.
The area has been rife
with vicious conflicts involving land grabbers,
loggers, extractive workers, and farmers.
Maria and José Cláudio denounced
rogue logging activities and were being
threatened with death.
Four days later (on 28th May), the police
found the corpse of farmer Herenilton Pereira
dos Santos. Herenilton is supposed to have
witnessed the crime. Covert investigations
on his death are being conducted.
On the previous day,
farmer Adelino Ramos, aka Dinho, was shot
to death while selling vegetables in Vista
Alegre do Abunã, in Rondônia.
Adelino was whistleblowing about illegal
logging and was being threatened by large
property owners. Civil Police has indicted
a man as the perpetrator, but has not named
the masterminds.
The fifth victim was Obede Loyola Souza.
The corpse of this rural worker was found
on Saturday 11th June in Pacajá (PA),
with a hole in his ear, supposedly cause
by a rifle.
According to the Civil
Police force, Obede’s death could be associated
to disputes over land between the residents
themselves in the Esperança camping
site, where he used to live. However, according
to activists from the Catholic Church, the
crime could be associated to the rogue logging
business.
The Federal Government
was taken off-guard by the murders, but
its response was simply to send 30 police
officers from the National Squad to the
area and resolve that the Federal Police
would take part in the investigations.
Crimes such as these usually go unresolved
in Brazil. Over the past ten years, 219
people were murdered in Pará’s jungles.
Out of this total, only four cases made
it to the courts.
WWF-Brazil repudiates violence in the rural
areas and the murder of rural and extractive
workers.
“As a Brazilian, I feel
embarrassed and sad when I hear such news
and because these people are getting away
with it. It is unacceptable that the State
will not ensure physical integrity of its
citizens, and that people threatened of
death have to seek to be always in evidence
as a way of trying to protect themselves",
explained Carlos Alberto de Mattos Scaramuzza,
WWF-Brazil’s Head of Conservation.
“While crimes of this sort continue to go
unpunished, this kind of vicious violence
will continue to take place, thereby denting
the reputation of Brazil’s history. The
masterminds and perpetrators should be identified
and punished swiftly and strictly”, he added.
