If before Sister Dorothy’s death, threats were made even by the local radio, giving the names of the people who would be the next victims, today there is another way. It is hidden, inhibited by the presence of the Army and the Federal Police, who were installed there after the crime. But the insecurity of rural workers in the region is still the same. Impunity is the main reason for this situation. All the murderers who shot Dorothy may be convicted, but few believe in convictions for those who ordered the crime.  

Workers linked to Sister Dorothy are still frightened by the violence of the ranchers in Anapu

Evanize Sydow[1]

It’s been ten months since Sister Dorothy Mae Stang was murdered with nine gunshots in Anapu. However, the historical violence of the local ranchers is still threatening workers and religious people who worked with Sister Dorothy.

Unknown people show up all the time at the house of the Sisters with whom Dorothy lived. They ask for information about the “dead nun.” Others surround the church, wanting to know how the case is going. There are even attempted break-ins at the house of a priest who lives next door to the sisters, and who also works on projects that Sister Dorothy was involved with.

If before Sister Dorothy’s death, threats were made even by the local radio, giving the names of people who would be the next victims, today there is another way. It is hidden, inhibited by the presence of the Army and the Federal Police, who are installed there after the crime. But the insecurity of rural workers in the region is still the same.

Impunity is the main reason for this situation. All the murderers who shot Dorothy may be convicted, but few believe in the convictions of those who ordered the crime. According too Sister Jane Dwyer, a North-American nun who worked with Dorothy in Anapu, the State collaborates with the situation of insecurity since it tries to criminalize activists. Sister Jane thinks that even with so many promises by the government, the agrarian conflict in the region was not solved.   

In May of this year, the process to investigate the crime seemed to be suffering a turnaround. The judge of the local court of Pacajá, Lucas do Carmo de Jesus, incited by the city’s police chief, Marcelo Ferreira de Souza Luz, announced the preventive jailing of six people, including witnesses of the prosecution. The announcement of the preventive imprisonment on April 13, 2005 was only released on May the 3^rd, when Luis Moraes de Brito was imprisoned. He was a rural worker who had his shack torn down and set on fire by the murderers Rayfran das Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista, days before Sister Dorothy’s murder. This fact caused the nun to make what would be her last trip to the Civil Police of Anapu. She went with Luis Moraes de Brito to denounce the occurrence, which also motivated Dorothy to complain that the Civil Police didn’t give any security to the workers. 

The chief of police, the same who was accused by Sister Dorothy of absenting himself in the case of Luis Moraes de Brito, asked for and got from the judge the preventive jailing of some people who were accused in the case, by mentioning them as: “Luis so-and-so”, “Claudio so-and-so”, “Felix so-and-so” and “Mundão so-and-so.” It gave the chief of police the possibility of choosing whoever fit the arrest warrant.  Therefore, not even the last names of those people were necessary for them to be accused in the case. Likewise, the arrest of Geraldo Magela, also a witness for the prosecution, was announced.

Sustainable Development Project

Sister Dorothy worked to set up the Sustainable Development Project (PDS). The PDS combines the development of productive activities, such as the growing of cacao,  coffee, pepper and urucu, with the settlement of local populations in sustainable development projects.

On November 13, 2003, the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) created sustainable development projects in Anapu, with the commitment of immediately settling 600 families. INCRA would follow this process through the Settlement Development Plan, which encompassed technical assistance, financing, and infrastructure.

A study of the situation was produced and signed by Sister Dorothy with the representatives of the Rural Workers’ union of Anapu, the Sustainable Development Project and the city officials of Anapu. It explains what happened after the publication of the INCRA’s ruling:  “At the same time, SUDAM – the Amazon Development’s Superintendence – offered the possibility of many projects in the county, which added up to more than a hundred million reais. It attracted new interests in the lands of Anapu, and the area of the Sustainable Development Project started suffering invasions.”

Those invasions are described, case by case, in this document, which also gives some historical background about Anapu.

The territory that nowadays is part of the municipality of Anapu is originally the property of the State and is divided into three parts of three thousand hectares, which in the 1970s were the object of Contracts of Alienation of Public Lands agreed to by INCRA and private parties for the period of five years, whose objective was to establish rural enterprises, making the land productive. In case the objective was not reached, the contract would be cancelled, and the land would revert to the State to be designated for agrarian reform.