Adelino was murdered Friday 27 May when he was selling vegetables in Vista Alegre do Abuna neighborhood, Porto Velho, the capital of Rondonia state, reported the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).

“Dinho” was one of the survivors of the historical massacre of April 1995 in Corumbiará, state of Para. He had recently exposed the action of wood companies in the bordering region between the states of Acre, Amazonia and Rondonia, according to CPT information published on Brasil de Fato.

Adelino demanded the granting of lands in that region for the installation of a landless rural workers’ settlement. The Brazilian state had seized livestock from individuals who were in the lands of the reserve.

In July of 2010, the leader of the Corumbiará Peasant Movement had reported before the National Agrarian Observer, Grecino Silva, in a hearing in Manaos the threats he received against his life.

Three days before the crime, in the Amazon state of Para, Jose Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo were murdered. They were renowned environmental activists in the region and former leaders of the Rural Landless Peasant Movement.

That very same day, the Brazilian Parliament passed an amendment to the Forestry Code, which pardons all crimes against the Amazon committed until 2008.

Once again it is clear who rules in Brazil when the interests of large estate owners are at stake. The result of the controversial vote of the Forestry Code are eloquent: 410 to 63.

Although the bill still needs to go to the Senate, the lobby of agribusiness corporations has been strong at all levels. Social, peasant and environmental organizations question Dilma Rouseff’s claims about a possible veto to the law in case it is passed.

Photo: Greenpeace