Jose Rodrigues Moreira, a Brazilian landowner who allegedly ordered the killings of Amazon activists Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria, was acquitted this week due to lack of evidence. But, the two men who carried out the assassinations, Lindonjonson Silva Rocha and Alberto Lopes do Nascimento, were found guilty and sent to 42 and 45 years of jail respectively.
In 2011, Moreira allegedly hired Silva Rocha and Nascimento to kill the husband-and-wife activists after the pair opposed Moreira’s efforts to evict three families from his land. Land conflict has become rife in parts of Brazil, often leading to violence and murder. In fact, the case of the da Silvas is more notable because it made international news and actually made it to trial than for occurring in the first place.
Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, who was known as ‘Ze Claudio,’ was a longtime critic of illegal logging and deforestation in the Brazilian state of Pará, which is considered one of the most lawless in the country. His wife and he were shot down on the night of May 23rd, 2011.
Several months before his death, da Silva told an audience at a TED Talks, “I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment…because I denounce the loggers and charcoal producers, and that is why they think I cannot exist, but my fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest.”
The Pastoral Land Commission recently announced that 32 land activists were killed in 2012, a 10 percent increase from 2011 when the da Silvas.
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