On August 25, 2015, the environmentalist and human rights defender couple, Raimundo dos Santos and Tereza Rodrigues da Silva, was severely attacked. Raimundo was killed and his wife suffered serious injuries. Raimundo was a local leadership, representative and chairman of the Association of Small Farmers (Associação dos Pequenos Produtores Rurais) of the community from Rio da Onça II, in the region of the Biological Reserve of Gurupi, in the city of Bom Jardim, Maranhão, Brazil. He was also a board member of the Advisory Council of the Biological Reserve of Gurupi (Conselho Consultivo da Reserva Biológica do Gurupi – ReBio Gurupi) and one of the advisors for the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade – ICMBio). He was known for his work in reporting environmental crimes such as illegal logging of the environmental reserve and indigenous territory. Unfortunately, reports of violence against human rights defenders in the region are frequent and associated with their work reporting environmental crimes by loggers, ranchers and land grabbers. Below are articles reporting the death of Raimundo and attack to his wife, the violence in the region against defenders, including against families and rural workers.

To read this story in Portuguese, please see here.