Raimundo dos Santos Rodrigues
Raimundo dos Santos Rodrigues was a prominent environmental rights defender in Brazil. He was a member of the Conselho Consultivo da Reserva Biológica do Gurupi – ReBio (Advisory Council of the Biological Reserve of Gurupi) and was well-known for his work to promote the preservation of the Amazon rainforest and the rights of the members of the Brejinho das Onças Community (Comunidade Brejinho das Onças), who have suffered harassment and intimidation by landowners of the region and logging industries who have been trying to force the local communities out of their own lands. Raimundo dos Santos Rodrigues was one of the advisors for the Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade – ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation), which works denouncing environmental crimes and defending the Amazon biodiversity. The human rights defender had been denouncing environmental crimes committed by landowners and logging industries, such as the illegal logging in Pindaré Valley (Vale do Pindaré) in Maranhão, for which he received numerous threats. On 25 August 2015, unidentified individuals attacked and killed human rights defender Mr Raimundo dos Santos Rodrigues. The individuals attacked him while he was returning to his home in Bom Jardim, in the state of Maranhão. He was shot and also attacked with a machete and died as a result of the injuries he sustained.
The challenges and threats faced by human rights defenders in Brazil remain very high, particularly for those working on issues of land, environment, indigenous peoples, LGBTi rights, corruption and impunity. Many HRDs have experienced death threats, physical attacks, arbitrary arrests and lawsuits. The high number of killings is of particular concern and takes place against a background of widespread impunity.
