Brazil: Murder of a Quilombola Leader

As A Nova Democracia reports, Raimundo Cearense, leader of the quilombola community in Santa Cruz, in Capinzal do Norte, was murdered on May 27. According to the neighbors, there were death threats against him.

Raimundo is the twelfth murdered leader in Maranhão between 2020 and 2024, when he was murdered, the irregular sell of the land by INCRA and the lack of interest of the authorities to solve the problem was being denounced, because today more than 400 quilombolas have their processes paralyzed. Days after the murder, on May 30, a landowner and his thugs humiliated, threatened, shot firearms and beat two elderly residents of Quilombo Onça, located in the municipality of Santa Inês. This is not the first attack, earlier on April 19, 2024, hooded gunmen invaded the quilombo, gun firing at the population and destroying their crops.