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Brazil 'to step up Amazon activists' protection' | |
(1 day later) | |
The Brazilian authorities say they are ready to offer increased protection to environmental activists considered most at risk after receiving death threats. | |
Ministers held an emergency meeting on violence in the Amazon, where three activists were killed last week. | |
"We will not accept these murders," said Rural Development Minister Afonso Florence. | |
The Catholic Church's Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) has a list of 125 activists who have been threatened. | |
Justice Minister Luiz Paulo Barreto said they would analyse the CPT's information and respond on a case-by-case basis. | |
At their meeting in the capital, Brasilia, on Monday, ministers agreed to increase co-operation between the federal and state governments. | |
"We will intensify monitoring and investigation and strengthen actions leading to sustainable development in the region," Mr Florence told reporters. | |
Threats and violence | |
The talks came after three campaigners were killed in the Amazon. | |
On Friday, rural leader Adelino Ramos was shot dead in Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia. | |
The CPT said Mr Ramos had denounced illegal loggers in the states of Acre, Amazonas and Rondonia. | |
He had survived a bloody dispute in 1995, when some 300 police officers opened fire on a landless workers' camp near the town of Corumbiara, killing at least 10 people. | |
On 24 May, the bodies of Joao Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espirito Santo were found on a nature reserve, Praialta-Piranheira near Maraba, where they had been working for the past 24 years. | |
According to family and friends, the couple had received numerous threats in the past two years for their environmental activism. | |
On Saturday, farmer Eremilton Pereira dos Santos was found shot dead in the same area as the couple. Police said there was no link between the murders. | |
The CPT says that over the last decade, 1,855 people have received death threats. Of these, 42 were murdered and another 30 had actual attempts on their lives. | |
"In the Amazon, killing and clearing (the forest) go hand in hand," the CPT said in a statement, calling on the government to do more to tackle the violence. |
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