Brazil: Rancher found guilty in killing of Amazon defender, US nun Dorothy Stang

Brazilian rancher guilty in US nun’s murder

RIO DE JANEIRO — A Brazilian rancher was sentenced to 30 years for ordering the murder of U.S. nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang, making him the only “mastermind” behind any of the hundreds of activists killed in the last two decades currently in jail.

After 15 hours of deliberation, jurors in the jungle city of Belem found late Monday that Vitalmiro Moura engineered the 73-year-old Stang’s killing in 2005 because she blocked him and another rancher from taking over land the government gave to farmers. Moura denied any involvement in the killing and said he didn’t know the victim.

The case was seen as a test of Brazil’s ability to battle the near absolute impunity that reigns in the Amazon — whether it be the murder of activists or illegal deforestation.

More than 1,200 people have been killed in the last two decades in land conflicts across Brazil, mostly in the Amazon, according to Catholic Land Pastoral, a watchdog group that tracks rural violence in Latin America’s largest nation.

Yet while 80 gunmen — who were paid by powerful ranchers to kill activists, landless farmers and others defending the rights of the poor — are behind bars, none of the so-called masterminds of the crimes aside from Moura is in jail, Catholic Land Pastoral said.

The sentence was celebrated by family members of Stang, supporters and activists who had camped and prayed outside the court during the deliberations.

“Justice has been made. My sister would be very happy,” David Stang said from Belem. “She believed in the Brazilian judicial system.”

A native of Dayton, Ohio, and a naturalized Brazilian citizen, Dorothy Stang worked for three decades to preserve the rain forest and defend poor settlers’ land rights.

“We’ve waited so long for this verdict,” said nun Rebeca Spires, who has worked in Brazil for four decades and knew Stang for 35 years. “This conviction sends a strong message to the other masterminds that the impunity is ending.”

Spires said it was a milestone victory for environmental and other activist groups in the Amazon. Because there is an “endless supply” of gunmen available for hire, it will take convicting the ranchers behind the killings to end the violence, she said.

Moura was previously convicted of Stang’s murder and then acquitted in an automatic retrial. That decision was overturned last year on a technicality, however.

Confessed gunman Rayfran das Neves Sales is serving a 28-year sentence for the crime.

Regivaldo Galvao, the other rancher who prosecutors say helped orchestrate Stang’s murder, is scheduled to face trial at the end of this month.