Daniella Jinkings Reporter Agência Brasil

Brasília - The funerals on May 26 of José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo, in Marabá, in the state of Pará, turned into a protest demonstration by some 5,000 people against land ownership conflicts and illegal deforestation. Members of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (“MST”) and other social groups (“ligadas à luta na área rural”), such as Via Campesina and the local Federation of Farm Workers (“Federação dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura – Fetagri”), closed a bridge and barricaded railroad tracks by setting fires with tires and timber.

Jose Claudio and Maria do Espirito Santo, who were married, were well-known environmental activists and farm worker leaders (“extravistas”), associated with the National Council of Rubber Tappers (“Conselho Nacional dos Seringueiros”) who were shot by assassins on Tuesday, May 24, near an agricultural settlement (“Projeto de Assentamento Agroextrativista Praialta- Piranheira”), that was part of a community known as Maçaranduba 2, located in a remote part of southeastern Pará, in the municipality of Nova Ipixuna. The couple were whistleblowers who denounced illegal logging in the area.

“We are protesting the assassinations. Their names (Jose Claudio and Maria do Espirito Santo) were on a list of people receiving death threats,” declared Maria Raimunda Cezar, a member of the MST, who attended the funerals. “We blocked traffic but our protest was not violent. As soon as we finished our march, traffic was freed.” [the list Ms Maria Raimundo referred to is probably one kept by the Catholic social action organization, “Comissão Pastoral da Terra – CPT,” that the police are supposed to be aware of]

Speaking of the police, Brasilia is concerned with the spike in land conflict deaths (four of them in less than ten days: three in Pará, and one in the region in the western part of the Amazon near the border with Peru and Bolivia, where the states of Acre, Amazonas and Rondônia converge). As a result, the Brazilian FBI (“Polícia Federal”) and federal government attorneys (“Ministerio Público Federal”) have been ordered to accompany the investigation into the assassinations. The government has also set up an interministerial group to examine the problem and authorized R$500,000 for travel expenses of officials to be sent to the region.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English – content modified

Link - Execução de casal de extrativistas provoca protesto de movimentos sociais no Pará