Amazon killings go on despite Mendes' legacy

Acts of self-defense?
Those convicted or suspected in the killings say they are acts of self-defense as the activists foment or engage in violence. Stang was accused of arms trafficking by her opponents.

Under local conspiracy theories, nonprofit Amazon groups are fronts for foreign nations that want to invade the region.

Loggers and farmers also say the issue of violence in the region is overblown.

"What exists are a few isolated cases that ended in conflict. You see a lot more violence in Rio and Sao Paulo," said Luiz Carlos Tremonte, one the top loggers in Para and a former head of an influential wood industry association.

Elenira Mendes, Chico's daughter, was just 4 years old when she watched her father bleed to death in the family's small home. She says the global attention devoted to his killing resulted in concrete changes in Acre state, which now registers the lowest rate of activist killings in the Amazon region, according to the CPT.

"The world was looking at Xapuri because my dad was a great leader before he was brutally murdered," Mendes said. "So there was less of a chance for this impunity to continue here."

Amazon destruction continues
Meanwhile, Mendes' associates went on to win the governorship of the state and other elected posts. A fellow union organizer, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is now Brazil's president. A tree tapper's daughter from Acre — Marina Silva — was Brazil's environment minister until last spring.

But Amazon destruction continues. The government' new mapping system shows a 66 percent increase in areas partially destroyed in 2008 compared to 2007.

Stang's brother, David, says it is bewildering that the slayings still go unpunished. He recently accepted the U.N. Prize in the Field of Human Rights for his sister, who spent more than three decades working for the rights of the poor in the Amazon.

Using one of her nicknames, he said: "What does this impunity do for the poor there? Do you think they are not afraid of these people who can even kill the 'Angel of the Amazon' and get away with it?"

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