Amorim arrested

Rio Maria Bulletin, Vol.IX no.6, December 1999

On November 22 Jerànimo Alves de Amorim, the rancher accused of having ordered the assassination of Expedito Ribeiro de Souza, President of the Union of Rural Workers of Rio Maria, was apprehended by the Brazilian Federal Police in Mexico. The following night he was transferred to a prison in Belém, where he will be tried for murder. He has been a fugitive since 1994.

This is the first time that a rancher will stand trial for ordering the death of a rural worker in the south of the state of Pará, the most violent region of Brazil.

The Rio Maria Committee would like to thank everyone who has participated in the effort of the past eight years to persuade the Brazilian government to bring these assassins to justice. It is our hope that the arrest of Amorim signals the end of impunity for the organized ranchers who order the assassinations of union leaders in the Amazon.

ANOTHER MURDER OF A RURAL LEADER

On October 30 Dorcelina Folador, the Workers' Party mayor of the town of Mundo Novo (in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul), near the border of Paraguay, was assassinated. The thirty-six-year- old mayor was a school teacher, the mother of two children, and an activist for the Movement of the Landless (MST). She was killed on the porch of her home, in the presence of her eight-year- old daughter. Dorcelina had been working for agrarian reform and against corruption and traffic in drugs, weapons, and children in her region. We are asking for letters to the President of Brazil and the Minister of Justice. A sample letter may be found below.

[...]

The criminal could not have been captured in Mexico by the Brazilian Federal Police.

The information that we had received from the central Rio Maria Committee in Pará was the following:

The Minister of Justice decided in August 1999 to give the order to the federal police to arrest Jeronimo and this was done on November 22 in Mexico.

Most likely it was the Mexican government that captured Amorim and then delivered him to the Brazilian government. We are awaiting further information from the committee in Pará.

Madeleine Cousineau,
Coordinator of the Rio Maria Committee of the United States