In the midst of rising violence in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, an American nun was shot dead by what are believed to be contract killers. Dorothy Stang, a 74-year-old missionary living in Brazil for 30 years, worked to defend the forest and peasant farmers from illegal ranchers, loggers and landowners.
Police reports say the Ohio native was shot in the back three times and once in the head while working at a settlement near the town of Anapu in Para state. Thousands of the peasants she assisted and struggled with over the decades attended her funeral on Feb. 15, three days after her death. They complained about what they think to be minimal government reaction to the tragedy.
The area has come to be called Brazil's Gaza strip. Fighting for land is at the crux of the conflict. Brazil had its worst rural violence in 2003 — Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's first year as president — when land was promised to 400,000 poor families. Current landowners at the time readied their guns to protect their land from migrating peasants who were looking to claim the government offer.
Since then, little has been done to punish lawbreakers, and Stang's murder has increased the fighting. The president sent 2,000 army troops to Para to help quell the conflict, and called for a federal crackdown on the illegal actions taking place in the region. An investigative team was also deployed to probe the nun's death. Police, however, are pessimistic about finding her killers.
AM
