Brazil, almost the size of a continent, is a land of contrasts. As a new international power in a fast-changing Latin America, the country of charismatic President Lula is also one of landless peasants, tired of waiting for reforms that are constantly postponed. Corruption has once again affected the highest level of the federal government, thus weakening a political authority constantly forced to compromise with its political opposition and the business world. In this highly complex context human rights activists are fighting to ensure that the people responsible for the murders of peasant leaders are arrested, brought to trial, sentenced and jailed. The recent escape of the fazendeiros [1] who ordered the murder of João Canuto in 1985, and who were sentenced for this crime in 2003, is a reminder of this reality.

João Canuto was chairperson of the Rural Workers Union in the Rio Maria area, and a candidate in the 1982 municipal elections. His fighting spirit worried the large landowners and João Canuto received several death threats. Although he had asked for police protection, on 18 December 1985 he was shot 18 times, in the street in broad daylight.

On 22 April 1990 three of João’s sons were kidnapped by men claiming to be police officers. The bodies of 28-year-old José and 20-year-old Paulo were later found. Although seriously wounded, 23-year-old Orlando managed to escape.

On 2 February 1991, Expedito Ribeiro de Souza, who succeeded João Canuto at the head of the union, was also murdered by paid killers.

On 4 March 1991, one month after Expedito’s death, his successor Carlos Cabral narrowly escaped a murder attempt.

Legal guerrillas

In Rio Maria [2] and in the State of Pará a legal battle is underway, led primarily by the Pastoral Land Commission and French Dominican lawyer Henri Burin des Roziers. In fact the individuals behind all the above-mentioned murders have been identified. In 1994 the henchmen who committed the murders and assaults all appeared in court. Some received heavy sentences but the people who had ordered the crimes remained free. On 2 June 2000, landowner Jerômino Alves de Amorim was eventually sentenced to nine and a half years in jail for ordering the murder of unionist Expedito Ribeiro de Souza. However, for health reasons his sentence was commuted to house arrest in his luxurious villa, with full privileges.

The police investigation into João Canuto’s murder lasted eight years, until 1993. The State prosecutor then took three years to prosecute the individuals responsible. Finally, the judge started investigating the case in 1997 only, after the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States threatened to condemnsens? the Brazilian government for the excessive slowness of the trial. This threat was implemented in 1999.

The trial of the two wealthy landowners who had ordered the murder [3] finally took place in Belém, capital of Pará, on 22 and 23 May 2003. The two men were sentenced to over 19 years in jail. After losing their appeal in 2004, they lodged a new appeal at the Brasilia court, which they also lost.

Thanks to pressure by civil society, both nationally and internationally, and to the persistence of the Rio Maria Committee chaired by Luzia Canuto, the daughter of João Canuto, warrants of arrest were finally issued on 12 July 2005 for the two criminals. However, they disappeared a few hours before the Military Police arrived at their homes.

The Rio Maria Committee considers that only a team of specialized police can efficiently search for the two fugitives, as in the case of Jerônimo Alves de Amorim, arrested by federal police in Mexico four years after his trial.

Violence and resistance

From 1980 until today, just under 400 rural labourers have been murdered in the south of Pará on the orders of landowners. It was in the same State that 19 landless peasants were killed and 64 injured on 17 April during a demonstration at Carajas [4]. Finally, it was also in Pará that Dorothy Stang, a nun originally from the US, who worked with the landless peasants, was murdered on 12 February 2005 [5].

Thanks to the determination of Brazilian organizations and the international support that they have been able to mobilize, justice has been done and criminals have been punished in a significant number of cases. Réseau-Solidarité, which has been monitoring the case of João Canuto’s murder for many years, has therefore received a new appeal.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

Website: www.riomaria.org/

WHAT TO DO ?

By letter: cut and paste the standard letter below or use your own wording. Send your letter to the address indicated below (in the letter) and remember to add your own name and address and to sign your letter.
Deadline: as soon as you receive this call and not later than 30 June 2005.
E-mail: gabinetemj@mj.gov.br

PROTEST LETTER

Dr. Márcio Tomaz Bastos
Ministro da Justiça
Esplanada dos Ministérios
Bloco T - Ed. Sede - 4° Andar
70.064-900 Brasilia DF
BRESIL

Senhor,

Manifestamos nossa preocupação a respeito da fuga dos dois fazendeiros condenados como mandantes do assassinato do sindicalista de Rio Maria, João Canuto de Oliveira. Esses dois fazendeiros, Adilson Laranjeira Carvalho e Vantuir Gonçalves de Paula, fugiram, em 12.07.05, algumas horas antes que a Policia Militar chegasse às suas residências e fazendas no município de Rio Maria, com os mandados de prisão. Até a presente data, não foram encontrados.

Lembramos ao Senhor que caso semelhante ocorreu com o mandado de prisão do fazendeiro Jerônimo Alves de Amorim, condenado como mandante do assassinato do sindicalista também de Rio Maria, Expedito Ribeiro de Souza, que só foi cumprido, quatro anos depois, em 1999, com a intervenção da Policia Federal, quando Jerônimo foi preso no México, com falsos documentos.

No caso da Irmã Dorothy Stang, em algumas semanas as Policias do Estado do Pará, junto com a Policia Federal capturaram os assassinos e mandantes. Por isso solicitamos do Senhor a mesma diligencia pela captura de Adilson Laranjeira Carvalho e Vantuir Gonçalves de Paula, mandantes do assassinato do sindicalista de Rio Maria, há vinte anos atrás.

Atenciosamente

Translation:

Dear Sir

I wish to inform you of my concern regarding the escape of two wealthy landowners found guilty of ordering the murder of Rio Maria unionist João Canuto de Oliveira. These two landowners, Adilson Laranjeira Carvalho and Vantuir Gonçalves de Paula, fled on 12 July 2005, a few hours before the military police arrived at their farms to arrest them.

I wish to remind you that the same thing happened in the case of the wealthy landowner Jérinimo Alves de Amorim, sentenced for ordering the murder of unionist Expedito Ribeiro de Souza, also from Rio Maria. A warrant of arrest was issued for this person in 1999 only, after four years, and with the intervention of the federal police Jéronimo was arrested in Mexico in possession of forged identity documents.

In the affair of the murder of Sister Dorothy Stang, Pará state police, working with the federal police, found and arrested the murderers and the individuals who ordered the crime, within a few weeks.

I therefore urge you to take the same measures to ensure the arrest of Adilson Laranjeira Carvalho and Vantuir Gonçalves de Paula who were behind the murder of the Rio Maria unionist twenty years ago.

Yours sincerely,

[1] Wealthy landowners.

[2] In the south of Pará State, conflict has always been more frequent and intense than elsewhere, probably because peasant unionism is more active and vigorous.

[3] Adilson Carvalho Laranjeira, former mayor of Rio Maria, and Vantuir Gonçalvez de Paula.

[4] Brazil: military still unpunished / Call 237 of 4 July 2001.

[5] Brazil: no end to impunity / Call 281 of 15 March 2005.