Front Line is deeply concerned following the killing of the human rights defender Valmir Mota de Oliveira and the wounding of six people including human rights defenders Gentil Couto Viera, Jonas Gomes de Queiroz, Domingos Barretos, Izabel Nascimento de Souza, and Hudson Cardin, following an attack by armed militia on agricultural farmers on 21 October 2007. Valmir Mota de Oliveira was a member of the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra - MST (Landless Workers' Movement) and a member of Via Campesina, the international peasant movement. MST and Vía Campesina seek agrarian reform and are two of the largest social movements in Latin America.

Further Information

Posted 15/11/2007 Valmir Mota de Oliveira was reportedly shot on 21 October 2007, during a peaceful occupation by Via Campesina, at the multinational company Syngenta’s Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) maize and soy test site, in Santa Teresa do Oeste, Paraná State, southwestern Brazil. At approximately 1.30pm, approximately forty armed men entered the encampment and allegedly began to open fire on the 150 agricultural workers gathered there. Valmir Mota de Oliveira was shot twice in the chest at point-blank range and subsequently died from his injuries. Valmir had been threatened for the previous six months.

Other members of Via Campesina, including Gentil Couto Viera, Jonas Gomes de Queiroz, Domingos Barretos, Izabel Nascimento de Souza, and Hudson Cardin were seriously injured. The gunmen pursued Celso Barbosa and Célia Aparecida Lourenço, both leaders of the MST, but they succeeded in evading capture.

It is reported that the armed men are members of a militia, may be linked to the Rural Society of the Western Region (SRO) and the Movement of Rural Producers (MPR), both involved in the agricultural sector. The employment of armed militias in Western Paraná was discussed on 18 October, 2007 at a hearing of the Commission for Human and Minority Rights of the Federal Chamber of Congressional Representatives (CDHM), in Curitiba, Paraná and an investigation into their activities has been launched.

Front Line is gravely concerned for the safety of leaders of the agrarian reform movement following this extremely violent attack and the death of Valmir Mota de Oliveira and the injury of a number of other human rights defenders.