Amazon rainforest activist killed after ambush

Six months after predicting his own murder, a leading rainforest defender has reportedly been gunned down in the Brazilian Amazon.

José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo, are said to have been killed in an ambush near their home in Nova Ipixuna, in Pará state, about 37 miles from Marabá.

According to a local newspaper, Diário do Pará, the couple had not had police protection despite getting frequent death threats because of their battle against illegal loggers and ranchers.

On Tuesday there were conflicting reports from about whether the killing happened on Monday night or Tuesday morning. A police spokesperson said there were reports of a "double homicide" at the settlement called Maçaranduba 2.

In a speech at a TEDx event in Manaus, in November, Da Silva spoke of his fears that loggers would try to silence him. 'I could be here today talking to you and in one month you will get the news that I disappeared. 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. [People] ask me, 'are you afraid?' Yes, I'm a human being, of course I am afraid. 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.'

Roberto Smeraldi, founder and director of the environmental group Amigos da Terra, who worked with Da Silva in the Amazon, said he had been in a meeting with Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, discussing changes to the forest code when the news broke of Da Silva being killed. 'He was convinced he would be killed one day,' Smeraldi said. He added that Da Silva had been "very active" in the fight against illegal forest burning and logging.

According to Brazilian media reports, Rousseff has asked her chief of staff, Gilberto Carvalho, to offer support to the murder investigation.

'We now have another Chico Mendes,' said Felipe Milanez, an environmental journalist from São Paulo, referring to the Amazonian rubber-tapper who became an environmental martyr after his murder in 1988. Milanez said that in a recent phone conversation with Da Silva's wife she had suggested the situation was 'getting very ugly'. Milanez added: 'He knew the threats were very real. He was scared.'

A 2008 report compiled by Brazilian human rights groups listed Da Silva as one of dozens of Amazon human rights and environmental activists 'considered at risk' of assassination.

This article is reproduced courtesy of the Guardian Environment Network

	READ MORE...
	NEWS ANALYSIS Indian activists risk death to expose illegal logging, pollution and mining The recent death of Indian environmentalist Amit Jethva was the latest in a growing number of disturbing incidents of brutality and violence against activists, report Ambika Hiranandani and Tom Levitt
	NEWS ANALYSIS 'Do you want to die?': environmental activists at risk Recent abductions and threats against activists trying to prevent logging in South-East Asia are part of a worrying trend of violence against those exposing environmental issues
	COMMENT Determination in the face of destruction What do you do when your faith, identity, independence and livelihood are all endangered by a mine that has the backing of a multi-billion pound company and even your own government? For the Dongria Kondh hill tribe of Orissa, India, there is only one answer: you stop them.
	INVESTIGATION UK companies linked to devastating Indian mine Plans to bulldoze an Indian mountain sacred to local people were controversial enough...before shareholder data revealed that a raft of UK household names, ranging from Jaguar cars to the Church of England, own shares