Brazilian prosecutors prepare case in Chico Mendes murder
Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse
December 22, 2001
SAO PAULO, Dec 22 - Prosecutors in the northwestern state of Acre are to reopen the murder case of environmentalist activist Chico Mendes, possibly to charge others implicated in the 1988 killing, local media reported Saturday.
Prosecutor Eliseu Buchmeier said an informant's confession intimated there were potentially more people involved in the death of Mendes, considered a martyr for the forest, the daily Estado said. Mendes was ambushed December 22, 1988 by a group of armed assailants led by Darly Alves who in 1990 was sentenced to 19 years in jail for the crime. He and his son Darcy, the triggerman, escaped three years later and evaded recapture for six years.
The informant suggested a soldier linked to former legislator Hildebrando Pascoal, currently in custody for his alleged involvement with a death squad, confessed that Mendes' murder was planned and was to have been carried out by two military police who have since died.
Francisco Alves Mendes, known as Chico Mendes, was the leader of the rubbertappers union which fought during the 1970s to save the Amazon rainforest from pilfering by timber companies and pastoralists who grazed their cattle beneath the canopy.