|
|
20 years ago the Amazon lost its strongest advocate Rhett A. Butler mongabay.com commentary December 22, 2008 Twenty years ago ago today, Chico Mendes, an Amazon rubber tapper, was shot and killed in front of his family at his home. He was 44.
People like Mendes continue to fall with the trees. According to the Catholic Land Pastoral Commission (Comissao Pastoral da Terra), a Brazilian human rights' group, more than 1,100 activists, priests, judges, small landholders and rural workers have been killed in the region since Mendes' death. In 2005 the murder of Dorothy Stang, an American nun who had worked more than 30 years protecting land rights of poor farmers, made headlines around the world (like Mendes' murder) and triggered a massive response from the Brazilian government, which sent in the military to re-establish some form of control in deforestation hotspots and announced the establishment of millions of hectares of protected areas. Three years after the murder, Regivaldo Galvao, the rancher suspected of orchestrating the killing, filed documents claiming he owned the land Stang had died defending. Galvao will likely escape punishment -- only 15 of the men behind the 1,100 slayings in the region since 1988 have been found guilty of their crimes, according to the Associated Press.
Stang's life is the subject of a new documentary: They Killed Sister Dorothy. Mendes' life is the subject of The Burning Season, a book by Andrew Revkin (now of the New York Times); a disappointing movie of the same title; and a 2008 documentary film, Children of the Amazon, by Denise Zmekhol. Mendes' aspirations live on through his children — Elenira Mendes is president of the Instituto Chico Mendes, an organization that fights for social justice and environmental protection in the Amazon. Let's hope his dreams are not forgotten. ** Update 12/22 ** The 20th anniversary of Chico Mendes' assassination is getting a lot of coverage:
SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing
|
|
|
MONGABAY.COM
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER INTERACT
STORE SHIRTS HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS
CALENDARS
CANVAS BAGS
| | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright mongabay 2009 |