On December 9, the president of the Rural Workers Union of
Xapuri (Acre), Francisco Mendes Filho, Chico Mendes, member of the Rubber Tapper
National Council and internationally acknowledged by his ecological struggles,
had been in Rio to participate in a round table discussion entitled “
The Amazonian under Iron and Fire ”. On that occasion, he granted an interview
to the JORNAL DO BRASIL, in which he predicted the ambush he would succumb to
13 days later, in his farm in Xapuri, where he was shot by a rifle. In his statement,
Chico Mendes denounced that ranchers and brothers Darly and Alvarinho AIves threatened
to kill him and had ordered the murder of more than 30 rural workers. On that
same day, the congressman João Carlos Batista, from the Brazilian Socialist
Party, declared in the Pará State Legislative Assembly that he too had
received death threats. He was the lawyer of rural squatters and was murdered
on that same night – the sixth of a list of eight doomed to die. His posthumous
statement came out on the December 18 edition of the JORNAL DO BRASIL. The two
histories are chillingly similar. In this page, we report Chico Mendes's interview
in full.
Edílson Martins
- How is the situation in Acre?
- Lately, my safety was reinforced here in Acre, by decision of Governor Flaviano
Melo. He knows that a murder would complicate the State’s situation. Not
that a rubber tapper’s death is something new in Acre. But our movement
has become globally acknowledged, mainly by the authorities of the World Bank
(Bird), the Bank of Interamerican Development (BID) and the American Congress.
Well, you can’t defy those entities. Today my life is in the military
policemen hands. I have carried a friendly relationship with my bodyguards.
- Who else threatens you openly?
- Now there are two ranchers in Xapuri (Acre) threatening me, the owners of Fazenda
Paraná, Darly Alves and Alvarinho Alves. They are brothers and are now
fugitives of justice, under warrant of arrest. Since 1973, those two ranchers
have been wanted by the State of Paraná police. We asked the same warrant
to be transferred to Acre, and trusted, unfortunately, in the Federal Police
superintendent, Mauro Spósito, who did not act on this order for 16 days.
According to the Xapuri District judge, this delay was not accidental. There
was a first supposition: who could have informed the two fugitives of justice?
Today we are absolutely convinced, through information received from the Federal
Police Dept., that both ranchers are friends of the Acre Federal Police chief,
Mauro Spósito. The two brothers are blamed of having murdered more than
30 rural workers.
- Mention some of these crimes.
- On the night of May 27 of this year, they ordered an attack against our workers’
camp, in Xapuri, where two rubber tappers were gun shot: Raimundo Pereira and
Manuel Custódio. They were brutally shot. Right after, on June 18, Ivair
Ginho was killed in an ambush by a 12 gauges rifle, two shots, and eight more
revolver shots. Groups hired by these two ranchers murdered him. Later, in August,
still during this same year, gunmen in Xapuri also murdered another worker,
José Ribeiro.
- What is the reason of these deaths?
- They are cold and coward professional murderers. With this attitude, they
manage to establish panic in the community. They create a climate of intimidation
and fear among the population.
- What is the threat by the two ranchers brothers?
- They would only surrender to justice after seeing my dead body. I doubt they
will surrender. The Acre Military Police knows of the existence of gunmen in
my pursuit, hired by them.
- Where is the greater danger?
- In the airports. It is because I suspect they will catch me. Now in São
Paulo I was guarded by the civil policemen and the state military police. Since
my arrival in Rio, I’ve also been under the safeguard of some friends
and the people from the National Campaign in Defense of the Amazonian Development
(CNDDA).
- When you return to Acre, will your life be in greater danger?
- I am aware that all the popular leaderships, during the last ten years - lawyers,
priests, shepherds, union leaders - all of them were killed, even with the protection
guarantee given by the government. It is not even necessary to mention examples,
since they are alive in each one’s memory. I still hope to remain alive.
It is alive that we can strengthen this struggle. On the contrary, regarding
the state government I have nothing to fear. Now, on the other hand, I am facing
two powerful enemies: the Ruralist Democratic Union (UDR) and the Federal Police
in Acre.
- The Federal Police is now accusing you of being an informer. But the
Press of Rio Branco has already denounced this old tactic, a legacy of the past
dictatorship.
- It is a slander campaign, an attempt of demoralizing me in the region. But
lets suppose I was in fact an informer of the FPD in Acre. Well, the police
superintendent would be making a disservice when getting rid of such a renowned
militant. But this is not all. I am under two fires. On the same date he accuses
me of informer, in 1975, I was being submitted to heavy interrogations, under
the command of this same police officer, in Xapuri.
- Xapuri, municipal district of Acre, is the most advanced front, throughout
the Amazon, in the uncompromising defense of the forest. Is it the most effective
political front of this resistance?
- We could say that it is the Amazonian Green Front. It is the only place, the
only region, in the whole Amazon, where, by 1988, the ranchers were only able
to deforest 50 hectares of jungle. The prevision was to deforest 10 thousand
hectares of primary virgin forest.
- A little bit more than three Tijuca Forest national parks. The forest
tumbles, and so do you. How many fellows did you lose?
- In Acre, six fellows. As an expressive leadership we lost Wilson Pinheiro,
in 1980. This fight against the criminal deforestation began in 1975. It has
been more than 13 years of struggle. The landmark was on March 10 of 1986. That’s
where the first real “empate ” began, in a seringal (rubber tapper
settlement) of Brasiléia, Acre.
- What is a “empate”?
- It’s a form of fight we devised to avoid deforestation. It’s a
peaceful form of resistance. In the beginning, we were not effective. The deforestation
started and we would naively go to the Justice, to the Brazilian Institute of
Forest Development (IBDF), and to the newspapers to denounce it. It didn’t
work. In the “empate”, the community organizes itself in a group,
under the Union leadership, and, in a collective effort, goes to the area that
will be deforested by the cattle ranchers. We stand before the workers and the
gunmen, with our families, women, children and olds, and ask them not to deforest
and leave the location. We explain to them that, as workers, their future is
also threatened. And this touching speech always brings results. Especially
because the one who deforests is the simple worker, defenseless and unaware.
- But does it fail sometimes?
- Yes, the rancher appeals to a judicial order and, supported by the policemen's
force, executes the deforestation. I hope that with the new Constitution this
absurd situation will not continue. Anyway, our movement continued growing,
without great drawbacks. In 1980, this rubber tapper movement, the “empate”,
was spreading throughout the whole region. Until that moment, Wilson Pinheiro,
president of the Rural Workers Union of Brasiléia (State of Acre), led
the fight. He was a very courageous man committed with the forest defense.
- Do you mean this fight began in Brasiléia?
- It started in Brasiléia. But, in 1980, Wilson Pinheiro was murdered
inside of the Union, treacherously, while watching a television program. His
murder was ordered by the ranchers. There was a ranchers’ meeting, on July
of 1980, in which they decided that the way to stop the rubber tapper movement
was through killing the main leaderships. In the night of July 21, 1980, Wilson
was shot in the headquarters of his own Union. Our movement suffered a great
shock, but it soon emerged again in Xapuri, less than 100 kilometers from Brasiléia.
And Xapuri, thanks to the Union, began to lead all resistance operations - being
worth telling the resistance is peaceful, but still a resistance. When we take
our families to the “empates”, we make it clear the movement is
peaceful. Nobody goes to war taking women and children.
- What are the results of this forest defense resistance?
- Well, from March of 1976 until now we have already accomplished 45 “empates”,
suffered 30 defeats and achieved 15 victories.
- What is the objective of the “empates”?
- To create a political statement. Even more: to expropriate the area and finally
create the Extractive Reserve.
- Is the Extractive Reserve your creation?
- Look, until 1984, we accomplished the “empates”, but we were not
clear enough about our objectives. We knew that deforestation would destroy
us and all living beings existent in the jungle. But it stopped there. People
used to say " You want to stop the deforestation and transform the Amazon
in a sanctuary? Untouchable?” That is where the impasse was. The answer
came through the Extractive Reserve. Let’s use the jungle in a rational
way, without destroying it. The rubber tappers, the Indians, the river people
have occupied the forest for over 100 years. They never threatened its existence.
The ones who threaten it are the agricultural and cattle raising projects, the
logging companies, the hydroelectric stations with their criminal floods. With
the extractive reserves, we can commercialize and industrialize the products
that the forest generously offers us. In the forest we have the abacaba, patoá,
assaí, buriti, pupunha, babassu, tucumã, copaíba, honey,
things that not even the scientists are aware of. And all this can be exported
and commercialized. The University needs to come over here and follow closely
the Extractive Reserve. We are open to it. The Extractive Reserve is the only
way out to avoid the vanishing of the Amazon. And more: the reserve won't have
owners. It will be the community’s common wealth. We’ll have the
use of it, not the property.
- Who approved the idea first?
- Amazingly enough it was the foreign countries. We’re sorry it happened
this way. In January 1987, we received a UN commission, in Xapuri. They saw
our struggle. On March of that same year I was invited to participate in a Bank
of Interamerican Development (BID) meeting, in Miami. Why was I among the bankers?
Because those are the banks that are financing the destruction of the Amazon.
During that meeting I was interviewed several times by the international press.
Not a single Brazilian journalist looked for me. Right after that, I went to
the Congress and spoke for the American Congress members.
- What accusations were made?
- The projects financed by the international banks in the Amazon. These projects
are destroying all life forms in the last green reserve left on Earth.
- The Rondônia government doesn’t seem to like your actions,
which would have helped in the suspension of a US$ 200 million project financed
by the World Bank (Bird). Is it true?
- The Rondônia government had announced a project with more than 1 million
hectares for the creation of extractive reserves. All lies. We denounced it.
I sent Bird a letter, alerting them about the importance of the project. From
then on, the loan was suspended.
- Was Rondônia devastated?
- It was the biggest victim of all those development projects. There is nothing
similar happening in the world in terms of destruction in such a short time
span. Fertile lands transformed in pastures, burned forest, and rubber tappers
expelled. An apocalypse.
- How many extractive reserves have been already created in Acre?
- The governor has approved the São Luís do Remanso reserve, with
40 thousand hectares; the Santa Quitéria, in Brasiléia, with 40
thousand hectares, is on the way; and the Seringal Cachoeira, with 25 thousand
hectares, in Xapuri, thanks to our fights, “empates”, and resistance;
and Macauã, in Sena Madureira, with more than 50 thousand hectares. We
are aware Governor Flaviano Melo is also under the ranchers' pressure.
- Governor Flaviano Melo had already been threatened with kidnapping
by the loggers.
- He tried to regulate the deforestation. He stirred up a hornet’s nest.
Today there is a smoke corridor from Mato Grosso do Sul up to Acre, from August
to September. After 50 years of Amazon, I had never seen so many forest fires
like in this year. They are burning everything. Last year, all airports were
closed for one week. This year, the interdiction lasted over a month. In this
period, the Amazon, seen from above, is pure smoke. And how painful this is.
- Have you won two awards?
- The 500 Global Prize, from UN, and a medal from the Society for a Better World,
in New York, besides one in England and other in the United States.
- With awards and international recognition, would your death be a delicate
matter?
- If a heaven’s messenger came down and guaranteed me that my death would
strengthen our fight it would even be worthwhile. But the experience shows us
the opposite. Therefore I want to live. A public act and a big funeral won't
save the Amazon. I want to live.
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