BRAZIL - some 200 agricultural workers; killed: Valmir Motta de Oliveira (known as Keno) (m), community leader
- The lives of around 200 agricultural workers occupying a farm near the town of Santa Teresa do Oeste in Parana state, southern Brazil, are in imminent danger. The group was attacked by armed men on 21 October, leaving two men dead and one woman in a coma.
Early in the morning of 21 October, members of the Via Campesina and the Movimento de Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra(MST), both landless workers’ movements, occupied the 127-hectare farm. The land is owned by a multinational company that had used it for field trials of genetically modified crops. The use of the land is presently being contested both because it potentially contravenes an environmental zoning law and has been identified as a possible site for land reform for the settlement of landless agricultural workers.
Hours after the occupation, 40 armed men entered the farm and shot dead MST leader Valmir Motta de Oliveira (known as Keno) in the chest at point blank range. One of the armed men was also killed. Initial reports suggest he was shot accidentally by one of the other gunmen. Eight others were injured in the attack, including MST member Izabel Nascimento, who was beaten unconscious and is now in a coma in hospital, in a critical condition.
Two other MST leaders, Celso Barbosa and Celia Aparecida Lourenco, were pursued by the gunmen but managed to escape. “We are sure that they came here to kill Keno, Celinha and me,” said Celso Barbosa, who added that they had received death threats and intimidation since the beginning of the year.
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