Illegal loggers have murdered a sixth person in the Brazilian Amazon for opposing their logging practices, reported BBC. Obede Loyla Souza, 31, a rural worker from the state of Para, was shot dead on Wednesday.
His body was found in a dense forest near his home. Souza had been marked for and threatened with murder after getting into disputes with loggers from the region.
He was one of 125 people to receive death threats from illegal loggers, according to the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).
“There is in this region a really dangerous group of loggers,” CPT’s Hilario Lopes Costa told the Associated Press.
At the end of last month, the Brazilian government said it would boost efforts to protect environmental activists from such acts of violence. Officials held emergency meetings in the last week of May after three activists were murdered for speaking out against logging practices.
“We will intensify monitoring and investigation and strengthen actions leading to sustainable development in the region,” Rural Development Minister Afonso Florence said at a meeting at the capital last month.
His body was found in a dense forest near his home. Souza had been marked for and threatened with murder after getting into disputes with loggers from the region.
He was one of 125 people to receive death threats from illegal loggers, according to the Catholic Church’s Pastoral Land Commission (CPT).
“There is in this region a really dangerous group of loggers,” CPT’s Hilario Lopes Costa told the Associated Press.
At the end of last month, the Brazilian government said it would boost efforts to protect environmental activists from such acts of violence. Officials held emergency meetings in the last week of May after three activists were murdered for speaking out against logging practices.
“We will intensify monitoring and investigation and strengthen actions leading to sustainable development in the region,” Rural Development Minister Afonso Florence said at a meeting at the capital last month.
