Brazil police detain rancher linked to US nun's death for allegedly falsifying land titles

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Brazil police detain rancher linked to US nun's death for allegedly falsifying land titles
By MARCO SIBAJA | Associated Press Writer
7:46 PM EST, December 26, 2008

BrBRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian police on Friday detained a rancher suspected in the slaying of rain forest activist Dorothy Stang for allegedly illegally acquiring titles to land the U.S. nun died trying to defend.

The detention of Regivaldo Galvao at his home in the Amazon state of Para could lead to the reopening of the case in the death of Stang, who was shot in 2005 amid a dispute with ranchers over land she wanted brought under federal protection.

A police report seen by The Associated Press says Galvao was detained Friday in Altamira after a judge ordered his capture in an investigation into whether he forged titles to land where the 73-year-old nun was killed.

Prosecutors contend that Galvao and another rancher hired men to kill Stang over the disputed Amazon land. Galvao was arrested in 2005, but he was freed on bail by Brazil's Supreme Court in 2006 and he has since used appeals to avoid trial.


Read more: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-brazil-missionary-killed,0,6880706.story

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http://marianist.com.nyud.net:8090/nlimages/stang-dorothy-v5-02.jpg http://www.aleac.ac.gov.br.nyud.net:8090/aleac/edvaldomagalhaes/images/stories/fotosdodia/dhoroty.jpg http://www.greenpeace.org.nyud.net:8090/raw/image_big_teaser/usa/photosvideos/photos/74-year-old-american-born-miss.jpg

http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2005/02/13/international/brazil.184.1.jpg

Paulo Santo/Associated Press
A crowd gathered as local people
and police officers carried a
coffin with the body of Sister
Dorothy Stang to waiting car
in Anapu, Brazil, Sunday.

http://www.vocation-network.org.nyud.net:8090/images/articles/2006/dorothy_stand_%20lead_3.jpg

Story published immediately after her murder:
Brazil Promises Crackdown After Nun's Shooting Death
By LARRY ROHTER

Published: February 14, 2005


IO DE JANEIRO, Feb. 13 - An American nun and environmental activist was shot to death in the Amazon jungle on Saturday, heightening tensions between land speculators and peasant settlers in the region and bringing a government pledge to crack down on lawlessness.

The nun, Sister Dorothy Stang, 74, was shot four times in the chest and head by a pair of gunmen while visiting a remote rural encampment near the Trans-Amazon Highway in Pará State. She was renowned throughout the Amazon region for her work with the poor and landless and for her efforts to preserve the rain forest.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/14/international/americas/14brazil.html?_r=1

More articles, photos:
http://images.google.com/images?ndsp=18&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-37,GGLD:en&q=Dorothy+Stang&start=0&sa=N

[Judi Lynn]

1. Photos of the two "hitmen" hired to destroy this dedicated environmentalist:

http://cache.daylife.com.nyud.net:8090/imageserve/0adcciYeKr5LU/610x.jpg

Raifran das Neves Sales, gold shirt, Clodoaldo Carlos Batista to his left

[dcsmart]

2. Thanks for the news :kick:

this is good news. it was terrible when i read about her death. I don't know if you read, "Martyr of the Amazon," by Roseanne Murphy, but it is a good book about her life. Greed and oppression against the poor is part of this "filthy rotten system" as Dorthy Day said referring to capitalism. Stang is a martyr along with Arch Bishop oscar romero and the Salvadorian missionaries that we killed years ago. Many people suffer and die for justice and are examples of the ultimate price paid for truth. Martin Luther King jr. is another one. Evil kills that which reveals it....that is its only response when it sees what it is. Thanks again for the news. Jon Sobrino is a jesuit theologian that has written some powerful books about justice for the poor. Especially, "No Salvation outside the Poor".


EDITOR
PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY
http://timetofight.tumblr.com/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVaqqPURp1U
video about her

[Sarah Ibarruri]

3. Where are photos of the ranchers? Those are the real criminals here nt

[Judi Lynn]

5. The media totally protected them, apparently. I just haven't found any photos of them anywhere,

and I've been watching for this story since the murder happened.

As we've seen in Abu Ghraib, etc., etc., the ones who take the fall are always the ones who can't afford any elaborate defense, and who have NO friends in high places to help pull strings.

[Judi Lynn]

9. You won't believe this stunt. Just found it:

Used the google translation tool. Here's the text of this pathetic attempt to cleanse his name:

http://www.regivaldoinocente.com.br.nyud.net:8090/figuras/topo2.jpg

http://www.regivaldoinocente.com.br.nyud.net:8090/figuras/regiv.jpg

http://www.regivaldoinocente.com.br.nyud.net:8090/figuras/regiv2.jpg

Testimonials
Regivaldo
Always tried to solve all my life with peace and justice, I am a man of peace, I believe in God and in justice and also trust in the justice of men. I know that soon the eyes of Justice will open and the real culprits will be punished and I will be inocentado this terrible episode.

I have several witnesses to prove that I prefer to lose those lands that were acquired legally that need to go through a conflict for possession of them. I also have witnesses who went by the INCRA and offers access to 1,000 hectares of road to be implanted the PDS, I am not grileiros land as proof of the documentation I have.

All the land that I have been acquired legally, because they paid after research showed that the authenticity of documentation.

I deeply regret this whole tragedy, but I'm being a victim of tudo.Estou through the worst moment of my life, a great humiliation, beyond the suffering that it is causing my family, I have more faith that all this is clear. I know that sensationalism will not succeed, because "there are no arguments against facts." The accusation that I was imposed, the prosecutor himself did not tolerate the injustice done to me and I was innocent, but I repeat, I believe that soon the company and the Brazilian will see that I do not have any fault in this brutal crime such as money or land and paid some reason! "I am innocent, never told anyone patches or stain their hands with any crime" Whoever knows me knows this.

I pray to God every day that the violence that devastates the Pará and even other states in terms of land ends and people realize that life is the greatest asset that the man has.

I have faith in Jesus and comfort me in this stretch of the holy book "Blessed those who suffer persecution for cause of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" Matthew. 5:10.

Regivaldo Pereira Galvão
Belém, 17 July 2005.
Center for Recovery of Coqueiro.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grotesque piece of work, isn't he? Gotta be a Brazilian Republican.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Here's the rancher's own creepy website he created to show what a nice guy he is.

This is truly amazing. Here's the page with little "family" photos taken to show the world what a heck of a family man he is, how he is not someone who would hire two hitmen to slaughter an environmentalist who has given her entire life to her work:

http://www.regivaldoinocente.com.br/poderia-ser-voce.htm

This page shows a tiny town with a rally to support Regivaldo, cars driving down the street with "Regivaldo is innocent" signs on them, etc.:

http://www.regivaldoinocente.com.br/galeria/galeria.asp?cod_album=2&pasta=Carreata&desc=17/03/2006%20-%20Carreta%20de%20Inauguração%20do%20Comitê%20Regivaldo%20é%20Inocente

Home Page:
http://www.regivaldoinocente.com.br/default.asp

[Judi Lynn]

6. Thanks for the video, excellent link to explore, and the info. on the book.

Since you mentioned Arch-Bishop Romero's assassination by SOA-trained killers, I'd like to add that most of us never heard what happened at his funeral, something I stumbled across somewhat recently, which absolutely floored me, as well. From Wikipedia:

Romero is buried in the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Salvador (Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador). The funeral mass (rite of visitation and requiem) on March 30, 1980, in San Salvador was attended by more than 250,000 mourners from all over the world. Viewing this attendance as a protest, Jesuit priest John Dear has said, "Romero’s funeral was the largest demonstration in Salvadoran history, some say in the history of Latin America."

During the ceremony, a bomb exploded on the Cathedral square (Plaza Gerardo Barrios) and subsequently there were shots fired that probably came from surrounding buildings. Many people were killed during the following mass panic; official sources talk of 31 overall casualties, journalists indicated between 30 and 50 dead.<8> Some witnesses claimed it was government security forces that threw bombs into the crowd, and army sharpshooters, dressed as civilians, that fired into the chaos from the balcony or roof of the National Palace. However, there are contradictory accounts as to the course of the events and "probably, one will never know the truth about the interrupted funeral."<8>

Twenty-five years later, the BBC recalled the horror:

"Tens of thousands of mourners who had gathered for Romero's funeral Mass in front of the cathedral in San Salvador were filmed fleeing in terror as army gunners on the rooftops around the square opened fire. ... One person who was there told us he remembered the piles of shoes left behind by those who escaped with their lives."

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Romero#Assassination_and_funeral

Isn't it hideous, that the churches which pander to the Latin American right-wing elite view the clergy in the SAME church who spend their lives trying to protect and raise awareness and conscience concerning the suffering of the poor, as "radicals," and "the enemy?"

[dcsmart]

7. you r welcome

and thank you for the link. i did hear about that. The latin american church, where liberation theology began, was definitely trouble for the institutional catholic church. it still is. a Christianity of liberation will always scare mainstream pauline christianity. Liberation Theology resembles the actual work of jesus, as expressed in mark, matthew, and luke. that is definitely not what people want to hear about. Another prophetic group is the Catholic Worker, started by Dorthy Day. They really try to follow a liberation Christianity along with catholic social teaching. other than that, they are far left of rome...for the most part..
take care



EDITOR
PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRACY
http://timetofight.tumblr.com/

[Judi Lynn]

4. Suspected killer of rainforest activist arrested in Brazil

Saturday, December 27, 2008
Suspected killer of rainforest activist arrested in Brazil

Brazilian police detained a rancher suspected of the murder of rainforest activist Dorothy Stang for allegedly acquiring titles illegally to land that the United States missionary died trying to defend.
The detention of Regivaldo Galvao at his home in the Amazon state of Para could lead to the reopening of the case in the death of nun Ms Stang, 73, who was shot in 2005 amid a dispute with ranchers over land she wanted, brought under government protection.

Prosecutors say Galvao and another rancher hired men to kill Ms Stang over the disputed Amazon land. Galvao, who denies any role in Ms Stang’s death, was arrested in 2005, but he was freed on bail by Brazil’s Supreme Court in 2006 and he has since used appeals to avoid trial.

Galvao has denied any role in Stang's death, arguing he had no interest in the lands Stang was defending.

But prosecutors say that in November he went before Brazil's Incra land reform agency to present documents showing he owns the disputed land and wants it back — casting doubt on one of his main alibis.

http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=15642&formato=HTML

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Story from November, this year:

Brazil rancher claims land U.S. nun defended
by Marco Sibaja / Associated Press
Tuesday November 11, 2008, 11:10 PM

BRASILIA, Brazil -- A Brazilian rancher suspected in the slaying of a U.S. nun now claims he owns land she died trying to defend, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

The action by Regivaldo Galvao appears to cast doubt on one of his alibis in the 2005 slaying of Dorothy Stang: Galvao long insisted he had no motive to kill Stang because he had no interest in the plot of Amazon rain forest he now seeks.

Prosecutor Felicio Pontes told The Associated Press that Galvao went before Brazil's Incra land reform agency last week to present documents showing he owns the disputed land deep in Para state.

Incra sent The Associated Press an e-mail confirming that Galvao presented a claim on the land.

Stang, 73, was born in Dayton, Ohio, and spent three decades trying to preserve the rain forest and defending the rights of poor settlers who confronted powerful ranchers seeking their lands on the Amazon's wild frontier.

More:
http://www.cleveland.com/world/index.ssf/2008/11/brazil_rancher_claims_land_us.html

[Judi Lynn]

8. Brazil Arrests Suspected Murder of US Nun, Charges Him with Land Grabbing

Brazil Arrests Suspected Murder of US Nun, Charges Him with Land Grabbing
Sunday, 28 December 2008

A Brazilian rancher suspected of the murder of rainforest activist Dorothy Stang, an American missionary, was detained by the police in Brazil for allegedly acquiring titles illegally to land that the United States religious woman died trying to defend.

The detention of Regivaldo Pereira Galvão, aka as Taradão (Big Pervert), 42, at his home in -Altamira, in the Amazon state of Pará, could lead to the reopening of the case in the death of nun Ms Stang, 73, who was shot in February 2005 amid a dispute with ranchers over land she wanted, brought under government protection.

Prosecutors say Galvão and another rancher hired men to kill Ms Stang over the disputed Amazon land. Galvão, who denies any role in the missionary's death, was arrested in 2005, but he was freed on bail by Brazil's Supreme Court in 2006 and he has since used appeals to avoid trial.

Galvão has denied any role in Stang's death, arguing he had no interest in the lands Stang was defending.

But prosecutors say that in November he went before Brazil's Incra land reform agency to present documents showing he owns the disputed land and wants it back - casting doubt on one of his main defenses.

More:
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/10435/

[Judi Lynn]

11. Brazil arrests man in nun's killing

Brazil arrests man in nun's killing
Published: Dec. 29, 2008 at 3:21 PMO

DENVER, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Brazilian prosecutors allege a documentary film has undermined the alibi of a rancher suspected in the killing of Sister Dorothy Stang.

Regivaldo Galvao was arrested last weekend at his home in the Amazon state of Para, The Denver Post reported Monday.

Prosecutors allege Galvao masterminded Sister Stang's execution in February 2005 and then forged land titles to the property where she died, the Post reported.

Sister Stang was fatally shot on public rain-forest land sought by ranchers for cattle grazing and timber cutting. The nun, who had lived with Brazil's poor for 30 years, had contended the land was protected federal land.

In the critically acclaimed film "They Killed Sister Dorothy," Galvao's lawyer mentions his client has legal ties to the land Sister Stang died defending, which undermines Galvao's initial claim that he had no interest in the land, the Post reported.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/12/29/Brazil_arrests_man_in_nuns_killing/UPI-36911230582063/