"Murder of Black community activist, 72, in Brazil prompts calls for action", 21 August 2023

...Maria Bernadete Pacífico, a community and religious leader in the Pitanga dos Palmares quilombo – an Afro-Brazilian settlement of descendants of escaped slaves in the north-east state of Bahia – was killed on Thursday evening.

The 72-year-old, known as Mãe Bernadete (Mother Bernadete), had spent years demanding answers for the unsolved murder of her son Fábio Gabriel Pacífico, who was gunned down outside the community’s school in 2017.

She was killed on Thursday when two men wearing helmets entered her house and reportedly fired more than a dozen shots at her face...

Facing constant intimidation, the Black leader had been included in a state protection programme after her son’s murder, but people close to her say the safety measures provided were inadequate.

In a public statement, the human rights ministry said awarding quilombos land titles was key to staving off violence from these persecuted territories. In the case of Pitanga dos Palmares, located in a rural area on the outskirts of Salvador, this process of legal recognition is still incomplete. Local farmers and speculators eyeing the land were allegedly behind threats to Pacífico.

“The crime was an execution. They executed my brother in 2017, now they’ve executed my mother. This makes me think I am next,” her surviving son, Jurandir Wellington Pacífico, told the Folha de S Paulo newspaper.

Brazil is one of the deadliest countries in the world for land defenders, according to the NGO Global Witness...