Why Killings of Environmentalists and Indians Keep Increasing in Brazil: Almost Certain Impunity
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A memorial in honor of Dorothy Stang, a U.S.-born nun killed 15 years ago. Crosses represent murdered and threatened rural workers. Image by Daniel Beltrá/Greenpeace.
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When Jair Bolsonaro took office as president of Brazil at the start of 2019, he ushered in a climate of hostility toward rural activists — Indigenous peoples, environmentalists, advocates for landless workers’ rights, and communities subsisting off the sustainable extraction of forest resources.
In that first year, 31 people were killed in the wave of rural violence that swept Brazil. They have first names, surnames and histories of defending their land. What they do not have is justice.