Sister Leonora Brunetto only travels with bodyguards. She’s received numerous death threats because of her work with the landless poor and several of her colleagues are now dead. “They were caught by surprise and executed”, she laments. All over the Amazon, conflicts like this are being fought. On the one side are the impoverished farmers supported by the Catholic Church; on the other, the big ranchers determined to evict them and steal their land. “It’s very hard to face the struggle 24 hours a day”, explains one settler. Were it not for Sister Brunetta, she would have given up long ago. The Amazon was settled so quickly and haphazardly that few people have secure titles to their plots of land. With no proof of ownership, farmers can easily be evicted. Since the 1970s, when the first roads were built into the Amazon, Brazil has been rapaciously developing its vast rainforest. Environmentalists fear that things will only get worse following the announcement of plans to build the first paved highway. As Father Amoro questions: “Will things always be the same or are more people going to die?”

ABC Australia