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- <text id=89TT0081>
- <title>
- Jan. 09, 1989: World Notes:Brazil
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- Jan. 09, 1989 Mississippi Burning
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 38
- World Notes
- BRAZIL
- A Jungle Slaying
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Francisco Mendes Alves Filho knew he was going to be
- killed. The Amazon environmentalist had already escaped three
- attempts on his life. The fourth, just before Christmas, proved
- fatal. When Mendes, 44, stepped from his house in the Brazilian
- jungle town of Xapuri to take a shower in his backyard, a single
- shot cut him down. Two police guards assigned to protect him
- were in the house with Mendes' wife and two of their children.
- </p>
- <p> Mendes had accused two wealthy landowner brothers, Darli
- and Alvarino Alves da Silva, of plotting to kill him. Last week
- Darli's son, Darci Alves da Silva Perera, 21, confessed to
- assassinating Mendes. Police are convinced that Darci is trying
- to cover up for his father and uncle and have arrested seven
- other relatives and family friends in connection with the crime.
- </p>
- <p> Mendes' death brought to 93 the number of people killed in
- land disputes this year in Brazil. Human-rights groups claim
- that gunmen hired by local landowners are to blame. Many
- victims, including lawyers, priests and union leaders like
- Mendes, had been resisting efforts by some landowners to turn
- large tracts of jungle into profitable grazing land.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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