During the four years of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s rule, from 2019 to 2022, at least 169 human rights defenders were killed in Brazil.
The tragic balance was published this Wednesday by the two organizations, Justiça Global and Terra de Direitos, responsible for the survey, which mentions 1171 violations of various types of human rights confirmed during this period, including threats and aggression.
Of the total death toll, almost a third, 50 people, were indigenous rights activists, one of the most hostile segments of the Brazilian population during Bolsonaro’s rule, namely by encouraging gold mining on indigenous lands, encouraging the development of agriculture and animal husbandry in the Amazon that still survive, and the deliberate absence of a state presence, be it the police, the military or the environmental inspectorate, in these vast regions.
After Indigenous people, who accounted for 29.6% of people killed in defense of rights, the group in which the most activists were executed were black human rights activists, at 17.8% of those killed, who were 41 years old on average.
However, according to partial data from a report released this Wednesday, in 34.3% of the cases, the victims were killed with a single shot to the fatal area, head or heart, indicative of the actions of professional hitmen, but in another 29% of the executions, the victims were killed with multiple shots, in some cases riddled with bullets, to serve as an “example” and dissuade other activists, and 11% of the deaths showed signs of torture.
All 27 Brazilian states recorded killings of human rights defenders in these four years, including agrarian reformers, women and gays in addition to indigenous and blacks, but the states of Para and Maranhao held the record for the most deaths, followed by other states in the north of the country, such as like Amazonas and Roraima, but summary executions also took place in other regions such as Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, respectively in the center-west and south of Brazilian territory.
Author: Domingos Grilo Serrinha This Correspondent in Brazil
Source: CM Jornal
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