Brazil Dispatches Elite Police Force To Combat Violence Aimed At Environmental Activists

SAO PAULO -- An elite police force arrived in northern Brazil on Wednesday to help local law enforcement combat violence aimed at anti-logging and land rights activists in the Amazon rain forest.

Paulo Silber, a spokesman for the Para state government, said the 60 officers were deployed to three cities. He did not provide further details.

The force has members from the federal police, the military and regular police forces.

President Dilma Rousseff ordered the unit sent to the Amazon region following the recent killings of three activists and one witness in the states of Para and Rondonia.

According to the Catholic Land Pastoral watchdog group, more than 1,150 rural activists have been slain in Brazil over the past 20 years. The killings are mostly carried out by gunmen hired by loggers, ranchers and farmers to silence protest over the illegal cutting of forests.

On Thursday, the justice, human rights and agrarian development ministers are scheduled to begin a visit to the states of Para, Amazonas and Rondonia to discuss with local authorities ways to confront the violence.

Comments

[JOHNSPEAKS]

08:28 AM on 06/10/2011

Does -Brazil- have -Oil-? If not who cares what happens???

[Lloyd Cata]

12:50 AM on 06/10/2011

You have to understand that these Indigenous Peoples have no land rights, not even those rights that Brazil has agreed in international treaties to uphold. After millennia of self-reliance with the land, Brazil and that wicked Dilma would remove these people to create more favelas of poverty and despair.

Brazil's history does not include these people, so why should they own anything. Yet, any rancher, with the manpower, guns, and connections, can run these people off their only piece of survival on Earth....but that is how the American West was won, so it angers the Brazillian 'elites' when they are castigated on this practice.

Of course, 150 years later, we now call it genocide....and I suppose that's progress, but we are still powerless to stop it; anywhere in the world.

[pot roast]

12:29 AM on 06/10/2011

Imagine a government who takes up arms AGAINST corporate interests for the greater good.

[Neil Pharr]

06:14 PM on 06/09/2011

A good use of the military.

[cwaged1002]

04:58 PM on 06/09/2011

The US Government declared green activists "Eco Terrorists."

[MMRDO]

05:46 PM on 06/09/2011

Just the one's who use arson as a means.

[George Broadway]

11:04 PM on 06/09/2011

Isn't that kinda redundant? To start a fire which could potentially destroy what you are trying to protect?

[Tuigim]

02:50 PM on 06/09/2011

Thank you for this story.
About time.
Now can we have some real news in the US
about the abuses of magor corporations worldwide
and can we let people know how they are killing people
so our world view is not skewed
by the mindless materialistic propaganda we see daily here in the U.S?

Well done to those who risk their lives for justice and many no more lose them.
They need support from us.
That only happens when we get to see the atrocities and when people report the madness.

Also, getting democracy back would help lot. Sigh.

[George Broadway]

11:12 PM on 06/09/2011

Great post, but how can we get democracy back when we never truly had it? Plus, can democracy really work? Have you read Heinlin's book 'Starship Troopers'? Fantastic. Yes, there were several movies which took the name and major story line of alien insect wars with planet earth, BUT THAT IS IT...

My point, and his, is the fundamental question; can a democracy for all work, when there is no effort required by the individuals to earn the privilege of a voice in politics. In the book, only those who have served their country, can vote or run for political office. How many of the wars the US has been in since WWII would we still have entered, and lost American lives in, if the people making those decisions where veterans of WWII? Great book and something I think you would enjoy based on your comment.

[hedah]

01:52 PM on 06/09/2011

YES. U go Dilma ! be the 1st 2 dare applying JUSTICE and other countries will follow, hopefully. Blessed be (gutsy) Great President Dilma Rousseff !

[JustThinkingaBit]

05:51 PM on 06/09/2011

I make your words mine.

[hedah]

07:15 PM on 06/09/2011

And i'll be your 1st fan.

[capnamerca]

06:39 AM on 06/10/2011

This is merely a political ploy by Dilma. No way 60 men can make much difference in an area as large as the Amazon Basin. And that would be if they truly wanted to make a difference. If Dilma was serious about protecting the activists, she would send troops to the Amazon to stop the illegal logging. And that's not going to happen. These corporations know who's palms to grease.

So . . . hurrah for the theatrics, but until they do something to stop the logging, this battle will continue unabated. The activists are still on their own.

[hedah]

08:07 AM on 06/10/2011

capnamerca, all of your saying had crossed my mind already; and i don't think only 60 men would make much difference, even if they're armed 2 their teeth (lol) but at least she's trying !

[xerocada1]

01:24 PM on 06/09/2011

Having lived in Brazil for eight years, qualifying Brazilian police with the adjective "elite" is stretching it. Unlike the police of the US or most European countries, the mission of police in Brazil is not serving and protecting the public, it is maintaining order and that is done very often by repressive means.

In addition, the police are underpaid, poorly trained and feared, even by the law-abiding middle class.

[Anne Mccormick]

11:08 AM on 06/09/2011

where exactly is Brazil's military on this?

[Edison Saldano]

10:58 PM on 06/09/2011

At the beach.

[capnamerca]

06:40 AM on 06/10/2011

Brazil's military is primarily preparing to defend their recent oil discoveries from the pending U.S. invasion.

[KarlaElisa]

10:27 AM on 06/09/2011

over 1,100 dead activists in 20 years and they're just NOW sending 'help'?

i'd worry these special forces are corruptable and wind up taking bribes from the loggers and farmers engaging in these activities. better to arm the environmentalists and teach them to defend themselves.

not to say the gov't shouldn't participate in shutting this crap down, which they could if they intercepted these trees coming down the rivers, which is pretty much how they get them to port to ship off all around the world. kill the market that way and you solve the problem.

[piul05]

11:39 AM on 06/09/2011

KarlaElisa, it may be 1,100 dead activists in 20 years but, for most part, the governments during that period AND the period before - because the real drive for clearing land for logging, cattle ranching and monocultures was in the 70's - were complicit in allowing national elites and international corporations turning not only the Amazon, but also the Pantanal and the NorthEastern Ãtlantic Forest into their personal fiefdom.

Lula, on his part, had to spend a lot of political energy during his first term dispelling the myth of being a "red menace", a "radical" and carefully picking his fights in order not to have his term cut short by these same elites. Nevertheless, he was still able then, and in his second term, to revert many of the damage caused by the third-way-free-market nonsense. left by FHC. The political clout he deservedly gained for having addressed the many social inequalities which plague the country, whilst at the same time, making it prosper at a time when the rest of the world struggled with recession, has made it possible for his successor, Dilma Rousseff, who rides in the wave of his success and approval rate, to take more pro-active measures towards very powerful lobbies.

Whichever way you look at it, things are improving on the enviromental/sem-terras front, albeit at a slower pace than would be desired.

[JustThinkingaBit]

05:56 PM on 06/09/2011

Congrats, you said everything that is relevant to the matter in very concise words. Your comment was spot on. Foreigners have no idea whatsoever of how to tackle deforestation in the Amazon due to its complexity and cost. They think it is as easy as a trip to the supermarket. How stupid.

[satanlite]

10:10 AM on 06/09/2011

The environmentalists need to arm themselves and be ready to fight back and protect their activities which may well entail guerilla tactics in the forest. Depending on an external force - who'se true allegiance may well be in question - is theater and may even be more dangerous than what is happening now. TheSarge, below, has the right idea.

[KarlaElisa]

10:22 AM on 06/09/2011

fanned, faved and totally agree.

[Anne Mccormick]

11:21 AM on 06/09/2011

right, you could do that and the place will become a bloodbath on both sides. it should be obvious that the approach being used to get through to these people is not working; it's time to try a new one. all these ranchers there can see is the economic value of clear cut land and the money to be made from the cut down trees. so help them to see the economic advantages of leaving the Amazon in place and not destroying it. give them the financial incentive to be part of the solution.

[satanlite]

11:32 AM on 06/09/2011

It's already a one sided slaughterhouse. I'd prefer the bloodbath and fighting back to this current state of affairs. However I do agree it is the economcs at the base of the problem. Remove economic incentive (Mcdonalds beef, Japanese hardwood industry, and others) and you can stop this.

[LaoShur]

09:41 AM on 06/09/2011

They can "confront" the violence by jailing the criminals that are killing people and destroying the environment.

[TheSarge]

09:37 AM on 06/09/2011

You can count my emails and phone calls, I offered to fly to Brazil and teach them how to fight back.

[satanlite]

10:11 AM on 06/09/2011

fvd.

[capnamerca]

07:12 AM on 06/10/2011

Sarge, private ownership of guns is prohibited in Brazil. And the police will arrest innocent, basically non-violent protesters if they find them with guns. The criminal faction has all the money behind them, and pays off the corrupt police, hence they are allowed to be armed. I agree with you, but the the truth is, it's money and guns against activists who really have no financial backing. This war is not going to be won by the environmentalists, and this deployment of an "elite" police force is only going to bring the police some extra cash. Part of the problem is, they don't pay the police enough that they have any incentive to do the job.

[TheSarge]

09:49 PM on 06/10/2011

Figures! Just when you guys turn a Conservative into a rabid defender of Nature, I cant take my firearms to Brazil.

[ibreathe4u]

09:30 AM on 06/09/2011

Day late and a dollar short I'd say.

[Parkite]

10:07 AM on 06/09/2011

Better late than never.