Word: da
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...stunning admission came as Darci Alves da Silva, 23, and his rancher father, Darly Alves da Silva, 54, went on trial in the Amazonian town of Xapuri last week for the murder of Francisco ("Chico") Mendes, the Brazilian rubber tapper and defender of the rain forests who became an environmental martyr after a single shotgun blast killed him in 1988. Asked by the judge if he "carried out" the murder, Darci answered, "I confirm...
Meanwhile, justice has moved relatively slowly in Xapuri. Though the Da Silvas were arrested within weeks of the murder, the case was delayed as the defense made a variety of motions and investigators questioned more than 50 people, accumulating some 2,200 pages of statements. Almost all those involved in the case -- including the judge, Mendes family members, seringueiro leaders, the lawyers and the Da Silvas -- have received death threats...
...dozen people expected to testify during the trial, the key prosecution witness is 16-year-old Genesio Barbosa da Silva (no relation to the defendants), a former Da Silva ranch hand. He told police that he overheard the younger Da Silva plan and then boast of Mendes' murder. Several other people have said they heard both Da Silvas threaten Mendes and the seringueiros. And the son confessed to the shooting, although he later retracted the statement...
...that he is preparing an appeal. "It is going to be impossible to have a fair trial," Leal says. "With the eyes of the world on Xapuri, what you are going to witness is two men who had nothing to do with the killing being sacrificed." If convicted, the Da Silvas could receive sentences of 12 to 30 years...
That will not satisfy the seringueiros, who think Mendes' death was the product of a conspiracy that included some of the region's more powerful landowners and politicians. "Putting the Da Silvas in jail is not the solution," says Rosa Maria Roldan of the National Council of Rubber Tappers. "The only real way justice will be served is if the government gets to the roots of who was behind Chico's death." Roldan and others fear that once the trial is over and the spotlight gone, the violence against rubber tappers will resume...