Brazil

Front Line is deeply concerned following reports of an attack against human rights defender Welinton da Silva on 11 March 2008 in Maranhão. Welinton da Silva works with the Movimento Sem Terra (MST) (Movement of Landless Peasants) which is a part of the Vía Campesina network that is currently supporting the rights of the communities being affected by the construction of a dam in Estreito, Maranhão.  

Andre Fernandes is a social activist in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. Because of his work he has been targeted with death threats, which forced him into “exile” in southern Brazil. He came back to Rio de Janeiro at the end of 2006. Since his return he has again received death threats and has had to leave Rio de Janeiro for his own safety.  

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.