One of our speakers, Zé Claudio Ribeiro, was murdered, together with his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo. The couple was on his way home, in a agro-extractivism settlement, in Nova Ipixuna, south of Pará, a state that concentrates a big piece of the rainforest and is neighbor to Amazonas, where our event took place.
Zé Claudio made his living from the extraction of nuts and other fruits and, therefore, always refused to negotiate the trees with woodcutters. The piece of land he lived in was protected by law and the cutting of trees was forbidden. But pressure was big and many settlers had already sold their land, illegally. Zé Claudio repeatedly denounced the crimes and was constantly threatened to death. He told this story during TEDxAmazonia. In his talk, he said: “They want to do with me, what they did to Chico Mendes”, referring to another murder due to land dispute in the forest. Here is a short piece on the NYTimes that tells his story.
It’s worthy listening to Zé Claudio’s talk again, watch it here. If the subtitles are not shown, click on CC down the YouTube bar and they will come up.
We got to know Zé Claudio thanks to Felipe Milanez, who introduced to us his exciting story, his love for the life of men and the life of the forest. But Felipe brought us sad news. The Comission of Pastoral da Terra was at the murder scene - a bridge 8 km from the house of José and Maria. At 7:30 in the morning, they left for the city, probably to denounce the threats. There, they were ambushed by two men using heavy weapons (38 gun and pistol 380). The couple was shot and the murderers even cut off one ear of each to prove the crime. They both fell beside a big tree.
The police arrived around noon, according to the Commission of Pastoral da Terra, they were unprepared to protect the crime scene for the investigation. Zé Claudio and Maria do Espírito Santo were afraid, and they were going to denounce the threats.