Dorothy Stang: Monkeys Cry and the Poor Die, Earth Stewardship as Liberation Ecology - Earth Stewardship: Linking Ecology and Ethics in Theory and Practice - page 395

use of forest resources by peasant farmers within legally demarcated areas. These
areas or “reserves” are off-limits to the large lumber and cattle interests. When the
social movements in Anapu adopted the PDS as their preferred land reform model,
the PDS and Sister Dorothy became formidable obstacles to the unhealthy eco-
nomic and political interests of the lumbermen (Lima 2013 ). Sister Dorothy reported
many instances of illegal logging and testifi ed against the loggers in court (Murphy
2007 , p. 116). In retaliation the loggers threatened to destroy bridges and pollute
waterways (Murphy 2007 , p. 120). The confl ict became violent and continued an
established pattern of murder and violence that marked social tensions. 1 On the
morning of February 12, 2005, while Sister Dorothy walked to a meeting with peas-
ant farmers, near Boa Esperança, Pará, two gunmen hired by lumbermen, inter-
cepted her and shot her six times. A little 73 year old nun who anguished over the
pain of monkeys and fallen trees, and who defended peasant farmers and their
rights, had to be eliminated (Murphy 2007 , pp. 107-140; Lima 2013 ).
In Latin America, from the time of the Conquest, the natural environment has
been the source of violent confl ict whenever powerful economic and political inter-
ests have imposed their exploitative projects designed for their own enrichment.
This history continues even today. A recent Report on Human Rights by the
Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR 2011 ) points out that
“increasing number of incidents have been reported involving threats and acts of
violence against and murders of environmentalists owing to their work” (IACHR
2011 , p. 133). “Many” defenders of the environment “have suffered attacks, aggres-
sion and harassment” (IACHR 2011 , p. 133) and suffer violence, including murder
and abduction (IACHR 2011 , p. 138). Environmentalists experience these with
greater frequency “mainly where there are serious tensions between the sectors that
support certain industrial activities, like the extractive industries, which have enor-
mous economic interests at stake, and those sectors that resist the implementation of
projects in order to avoid the forced relocation of the communities that will be inevi-
table if the projects are established or to prevent the harmful effects of the contami-
nation that the industries will produce in the waters, air, soil and subsoil” (IACHR
2011 , p. 133).
Emblematic of this history is the assassination of Dorothy Stang for defending
the rights of the poor and the forests that sustain their livelihoods (Murphy 2007 ).
More recently, also symptomatic is the expulsion and denationalization of the priest
Father Andrés Tamayo in Honduras following the military coup of 2008 because of
his mobilizing the poor against lumber companies that ruthlessly destroy the forests,
thereby reducing options for satisfying vital necessities of the poor communities
(El Heraldo 2009 ).
1 For background on rural violence in Brazil, especially the Amazon Region, see, for example:
Branford and Glock ( 1985 ); for the contemporary situation and years previous, consult the annual
reports, Confl itos no campo Brasil , published by the Pastoral Land Commission of Brazil and
available in PDF format: www.cptnacional.orgbr On the persecution and murder of church work-
ers for their defense of the land rights of the poor and indigenous people, see May 1991 .