Under protection: The environmentalist’s widow in Brazil who had to disappear to survive
At around 1 a.m. on April 29, 2026, in a courtroom in Maranhão’s Bom Jardim district, Judge Philipe Silveira da Cunha publicly decided the fate of former military police officer Francisco da Silva Sousa. “The defendant is sentenced to 35 years and four months in prison, to be served initially in a closed facility,” he […]
In the early hours of April 29, 2026, in a courtroom located in Maranhão’s Bom Jardim district, Judge Philippe Silveira da Cunha delivered a verdict that would alter the life of Francisco da Silva Sousa. The judge sentenced the 66-year-old former military police officer to 35 years and four months in prison, with the initial phase of his sentence to be served in a closed facility.
The trial had spanned over 16 hours, commencing the previous day. A jury found Sousa guilty of orchestrating the murder of 54-year-old environmentalist and farmer Raimundo dos Santos Rodrigues, as well as the attempted murder of his wife Maria, who was 37 at the time of the incident. The crime occurred on August 25, 2015, within the Bom Jardim district, nestled within the revered Gurupi Biological Reserve in northeastern Brazil.
This protected area, overseen by the federal agency Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), had become the home of Raimundo, Maria, their six children, and approximately 38 other peasant families since 2009. They eagerly awaited the regularization of their status as formal settlers, either on their designated site or an alternative plot of land.
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