As you may have noticed, in the past week two MST militants from the state Mato Grosso do Sul were assasinated. They were Silvio Rodrigues de Souza, who was only 25 years old, and Romildo de Souza, who was 35. The crime is very emblematic of the characteristics of the struggle for agrarian reform in this state.

The men had gone to inspect a farm which had already been disappropriated by the INCRA, but which still awaited transference into the hands of the MST settlement there.

They were abducted at 10 in the morning, tied to a tree, and apparently they were forced to suffer every sort of humiliation before finally being executed at the end of the afternoon by gunshots. Still later, their bodies were left with their hands tied behind their backs in the vehicle which had transported them there.

The driver, taken to be an accomplice to the ambush, has been imprisoned and has confessed the entire plot. The authors of the crime are functionaries of a private security firm, COES Security Ltd., which was organized by farmers of the region in order to act as a cover for their atrocities. It is the same agency which belongs to Mr. Claudio Penhavel, whose arrest warrant has been issued, and who is the husband of the large landowner Laura Costa Brito, niece of senator Ludio Coelho (PSDB-MS), one of the two largest landowners of the state. Over time, he has managed to accumulate more than one hundred thousand hectares of public land.

Given the perversity of the crime and of the political force of its masterminds, we ask that out friends send messages asking for justice to the Minister of Justice, Jose Gregori, and to the governor of the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Zeca do PT (Workers' Party).

Sincerely,

The Sector of Human Rights of the MST