Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

After the recent assassination of four activists, the Brazilian government is offering police and army protection to Amazonian environmentalists “deemed to be in the greatest danger.” Members of Brazil’s cabinet decided on the dramatic measures at an emergency meeting on May 31. The latest of the four Amazon activists to be killed was Adelino Ramos, a farmer and leader of the Corumbiara Peasant Movement in the state of Rondonia, who was gunned down on May 27 as he was selling roadside vegetables. José Claudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife, Maria do Espirito Santo da Silva, were murdered in the state of Para, and the farmer Eremilton Pereira dos Santos was found shot to death in the same area. Police have found no link between the killings, which occurred as lawmakers debated changes to Brazil’s forest code. The church’s Pastoral Land Commission maintains a list of 125 people who have received death threats.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Despair is easy for anyone who takes seriously the call to love your neighbor as yourself. But hope can come in two ways.
Thomas J. ReeseJuly 16, 2025
A Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinJuly 16, 2025
The majority of survey respondents cited their Marian devotions as having played an important role in the discernment and living of their call to religious life.
A young woman kneels and prays at a pew, looking toward the altar of a Catholic church. (iStock/roman_sh)
I have questioned the ethical implications of belonging to an institution with so many members sympathetic to MAGA politics. But I can still rediscover the hope of the Eucharist in my parish.
Kathleen BonnetteJuly 16, 2025