Oliver Balch

Cold-blooded murder in Amazonia

Criminal syndicates, corrupt officials and faceless assassins now control the increasingly depleted rainforest, killing or enslaving all who stand in their way

Slash and burn: catastrophic deforestation in the Amazon for cattle ranching. [Alamy] 
issue 04 February 2023

Around dinner time on 21 November 2000, a nervous 19-year-old man knocked on the door of Maria Joel Dias da Costa’s house, located in the backcountry Amazonian town of Vila Rondon. The unknown man asked to see her husband Dezinho, a union leader, but he was out. She invited the visitor to wait, which he did for a while, but then he got up to go.

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