Live
Audio Only
Just over a month after the massacre of 10 campesinos in Pau D'arco in the Brazilian state of Para, yet another rural worker has been killed in the same region.
On Friday, 44-year-old Rosenildo Pereira de Almeida was shot and killed as he left a church in Rio Maria which is located 43 miles away from the Santa Lucia farm. According to police investigations, two masked suspects on a motorcycle fired four shots at Almeida at around 10 p.m.
Almeida was a member of the League of Poor Campesinos, according to Diario Online. He helped to reorganize an encampment on the Santa Lucia farm only days after the May 24 massacre of the campesinos.
Jose Vargas Junior, lawyer for the 10 Santa Lucia victims, stressed that Almeida was a leader of the families who returned to set up another encampment. Their aim was to force the government to include the property as part of its agrarian reform program.
Justice Global reported that Almeida, along with three other leaders of the new encampment, were marked for death.
Ten campesinos — nine men and one woman — were killed by Brazil's military and civilian police as part of an eviction order led by state forces.
Para is the same state where Dorothy Stang, a U.S. born, Brazilian-naturalized nun was murdered in 2005 by armed gunmen who were contracted by ranchers. For decades, Stang worked alongside and as an advocate for campesino farmers.
In April, 10 more campesinos, including elders and young people, were murdered in an encampment situated in Colniza in the state of Mato Grosso. According to Mato Grosso's Department of Public Safety, the massacre was committed by “hooded” gunmen.
Newsletter
