Word: chicos
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EVERYONE KNEW THAT CHICO MENDES WAS A marked man -- long before the leader of the Amazon rubber tappers and champion of rain-forest preservation was killed in 1988. Little was done to protect him from hostile ranchers bent on stripping the forests. When his assassins, Darci Alves Pereira and his father % Darly Alves da Silva, were convicted two years later, it was an unprecedented strike for justice that triggered a steady decline in local violence...
Peralta, and fellow student Chico Perancen, said they made the trip to America partly because heightened tensions have made the country unsafe for activist leaders...
...Chico Mendes, the Brazilian organizer who was assassinated in 1988 by ranchers for trying to preserve the Amazon forests for small-scale rubber tappers, remains the best known of the ecomartyrs, but his case is far from unique. In many countries, crusaders bring down the wrath of private interest groups, government agencies and even fellow citizens, and endure abuse ranging from intimidation and arrests to beatings and murder. "It's not at all unusual to have someone threatened or harassed in some way," says Pat Costner, director of toxics research for Greenpeace U.S.A. "It happens more often than...
...other interests. On top of all this, activists contend, the justice system serves only the interests of the rich and powerful. In February a state appeals court in Acre overturned -- on grounds of insufficient evidence -- the conviction of rancher Darly Alves da Silva for his participation in the Chico Mendes murder and ordered a retrial. "The conviction was the first time an executor of a crime against an activist was brought to justice," says Sueli Bellato, one of the prosecuting attorneys in the Mendes case. "The reversal is an incentive to continue the killing...
...fratricidal political atmosphere. Cristiani's ruling ARENA party, founded in 1981 by right-wing extremists, has moved closer to the center since he took office in 1989. Unfortunately, the party has few leaders suited to take the President's place when his term expires in 1994. Vice President Francisco ("Chico") Merino has aligned himself with ex-Major Roberto d'Aubuisson, ARENA's infamous far-right patriarch. D'Aubuisson, 48, implicated in numerous human-rights abuses, has terminal cancer...