Sister Dorothy, born in Ohio but a naturalized Brazilian, had been an advocate for the rural poor since the early 1970's, helping peasants make a living by farming small plots and extracting forest products without deforestation. She also sought to protect them from criminal gangs after their land.
The public murder of an American nun is not just a ghastly crime - it's a message. Land-grabbers are telling the government that they run Par�. Brazil's government has fought back with resolve, but it remains to be seen whether the government is strong enough to prove Par�'s land-grabbers wrong.
Violence in Par� is not new, but it has intensified because a stretch of highway is about to be paved to create an all-weather road to carry products to markets. The value of land has suddenly soared, and land-grabbers are killing peasants and burning their houses to seize their property. They cut down trees for the timber and sell the cleared land to cattle ranchers or soybean farmers.
In the days since Sister Dorothy's murder, the government has sent 2,000 troops to keep order in Par�, announced a ban on logging in 20 million acres along the new highway and established two more federally protected parts of the forest. The challenge will be to make these changes stick. The additional troops should not be a short-term gesture, but the start of establishing the rule of law. Enforcing forest protection will be difficult because loggers have long done as they pleased. It is also hugely important to establish clear land titles.
Finally, the g"
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