RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – At least 23 Brazilian human rights activists were murdered in 2019, placing Brazil in 4th position among the most violent countries for those working with civil society.
The data is part of the annual report released by the organization Frontline Defenders published on Tuesday, January 14th, which compiles global reports of attacks against activists,.
Latin American countries take up four of the five most dangerous places. Colombia leads the ranking, with 106 murders reported. In second place comes the Philippines, with 43 dead, followed by Honduras, with 31, and Brazil and Mexico, tied with 23 cases. Fifth place goes to Guatemala, which recorded 15 deaths.
The Brazilian data is compiled from information collected by ‘Pastoral da Terra’ (“Pastoral Land”), a Brazilian church organization that deals with land conflicts. According to the report, Brazilian data from 2019 may still change.
For the most recent edition, the Gay Group of Bahia also cooperated, accounting for the number of murders of LGBT+ people.
The dispute over rural and indigenous areas, in addition to confrontations for environmental reasons, are responsible for 40 percent of the murders compiled by Frontline Defenders.
The Brazilian list includes the case of two Guajajara leaders murdered in December, the former Worker’s Party (PT) alderman in Pará and Paulo Anacleto, LGBT+ activist Sandro Cipriano and Bahian environmentalist Rosane Santiago, who died almost a year ago.
In the general scenario, women represent 13 percent of deaths. The organization further reports that, for 85 percent of the 304 victims, individual or group threats were made.
“Land, the environment and the rights of indigenous people continue to be the most dangerous sectors of action in human rights defense due to the economic exploitation of natural resources, combined with rampant corruption, weak governments, and systemic poverty,” points out the report.
Brazil has been at the top of the ranking for at least five years, but it has already recorded even more alarming numbers than it did last year. In 2017, for instance, there were 67 victims, seven more than in 2016. In 2018, when the country was still in prominence as dangerous to those fighting for activist causes as a result of Marielle Franco’s murder, there were 23 deaths – the same number as in 2019 until now.
Marielle’s case is highlighted as an example of what the report points to as a norm in all countries – impunity for crimes.
Marielle, who was a PSOL city councilor in Rio de Janeiro, was killed on March 14th, 2018 after a round of gunfire struck the car she was in. At the time, her 39-year-old driver Anderson Gomes also died.
“In Brazil, while two suspects were arrested earlier this year and are undergoing legal proceedings for being the potential perpetrators of Mariele Franco’s murder, so far the investigation has not determined the motives or those directly responsible for the murder,” the organization says.
The report also highlights the departure of academics from the country because of personal threats, including researcher Débora Diniz and former federal deputy Jean Wyllys.