7 April 2010 | News | Human rights
Acts of Cowardice
Another Brazilian leader murdered. Crime still unpunished
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Pedro Alcantara had denounced in December, last year, that he was receiving death threats. Back then, the leader of the Union of Family Agriculture Workers (Fetraf) in Para State, blamed directly local landowners who had confronted him due to his land and agrarian reform activism.
Pedro was shot in the head five times by two men on motorcycles who remain unknown. He was attacked in the afternoon and his wife was with him.
Para is one of the areas with more agrarian conflicts in the country. This new crime took place hours after the suspension of trial of a man accused of murdering US nun Dorothy Stang. She was murdered in 2005 by gunmen hired by local landowners, and since then Stang has become a symbol of the struggle for land in Para.
The killing of the Fetraf leader was rejected throughout Brazil by social organizations. The murder was denounced by a coalition made up by all trade unions and governmental bodies such as the Labour Ministry, the General Attorney´s Office and the Human Rights Secretary, among others.
Last December, the coalition organized a seminar in Belem do Para to denounce death threats against union leaders of the region.
“It is unacceptable that in a democratic society, labour relations, autonomy and union liberties established in our Constitution are blatantly violated”, reads a statement published by the Coalition on April 5th.
The media in Para reports that the Police is working in Redencao municipality, where the murder took place, to find the people responsible, but hasn´t been successful.
The crime was not widely covered at a national level: only Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper made reference to the crime, although it was quoting US New York Times, which linked Pedro´s case with the still unpunished murder of Stang.
