 |
|
http://www.huffingtonpost.com Jose Claudio Ribeiro Da Silva And Maria Do Espirito Santo Da Silva, Environmental Activists, Shot And Killed In
SAO PAULO -- An activist fighting to protect the Amazon rain forest from loggers was shot and killed with his wife, Brazilian authorities said Wednesday. The killings occurred just hours before Brazil's lower house of Congress passed legislation environmentalists warned will increase deforestation in the region. Rubber tapper Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife were ambushed by gunmen Tuesday in an interior city in the jungle state of Para in northern Brazil, police said. Authorities were investigating the crime and no arrests had been made. The Catholic Land Pastoral, known as CPT, a watchdog group that tracks violence against environmental activists, said more than 1,150 activists, small farmers, judges, priests and other rural workers have been killed in disputes over preserving land since the 1988 murder of Brazil's renowned rain forest protector Chico Mendes. Most of the killings go unpunished, especially in the Amazon region where there is little government presence and where local governments are easily swayed by powerful loggers, ranchers and farmers who illegally clear forest to make way for more crop and pasture lands. Federal prosecutors say the violence usually is ordered by rich producers who contract gunmen to kill anyone standing in their way. Of the killings since 1988, fewer than 100 cases have gone to court, according to the CPT. About 80 of the hired gunmen have been convicted. About 15 of the men who hired them were found guilty, but just one is serving a sentence today, a man found guilty of ordering the assassination of a U.S. nun. In the most recent case, the CPT said that the gunmen cut off Silva's ear, likely to use it as proof to whoever hired them that they indeed killed the activist. "The state will not tolerate this type of violence in our territory," Para state Public Safety Secretary Luiz Fernandes Rocha said in a statement. "We've mobilized a team to investigate what happened and detain those responsible for the crime." |
| top |