Brazilian Landowner Convicted in Killing of U.S. Nun

c. 2007 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Lawyers representing the family of a slain American nun say Tuesday’s (May 15) conviction of a Brazilian landowner was a key victory, but have already set their sights on one more conviction, a “bigger fish to fry.” Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura was given a 30-year sentence for ordering […]

c. 2007 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Lawyers representing the family of a slain American nun say Tuesday’s (May 15) conviction of a Brazilian landowner was a key victory, but have already set their sights on one more conviction, a “bigger fish to fry.”

Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura was given a 30-year sentence for ordering the killing of Sister Dorothy Stang, 73, in 2005. The sentence in the two-day trial is the maximum penalty in Brazil, which does not have the death penalty.


Moura’s was the fourth conviction in this case, which has been investigated and tried piece-by-piece for more than two years.

But there’s more work to do, said Jeff Hsu, a lawyer with the Washington-based law firm Heller Ehrman. Another landowner, Regivaldo Pereira Galvao, whom Hsu alleges is “the mastermind” in the killing, must still be convicted to close the case.

Galvao was brought into a Brazilian court and released last summer in the northern region of Para, where Stang was gunned down two years ago. He is thought to be living in Rio de Janeiro.

“In terms of the food chain, he’s much closer to the top,” Hsu said of Galvao. “He owns more land and is much more powerful. There is a small cadre of leaders who grab land and take it away from the landless workers who actually have a right to be there.”

Stang, a native of Dayton, Ohio, lived for decades in the northern Amazonian region of Brazil working to defend the rights of poor and landless peasants crowded out by development. Her work infuriated landowners and developers, who repeatedly threatened her, but made Stang a hero among the poor people she represented.

Stang is one of 773 rural workers or rural supporters murdered in Para in the past 33 years, according to the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights.

Only four people have been convicted for ordering the murders of idividuals viewed as being in the way of land development. Typically, those convicted are the hired gunmen, or “pistoleiros.”


Two gunmen and a middleman have already been convicted for their roles in Stang’s murder.

The guilty verdict for Moura, a rancher, was “a signal to the rest of them that it’s not justice as usual,” said Hsu. “The trial and sentence is a signpost down the road, a warning sign.”

Jeffrey Buchanan, a member of the RFK center, said the Moura trial was “a landmark case. It’s really a turning point for Brazilian justice … now is the time to turn things around.”

According to the Pastoral Land Commission, the social justice arm of the Brazilian Catholic Church with which Stang worked, 39 workers were killed in land conflicts between January and August last year.

“These killings are still happening and they still need vigorous prosecution,” Buchanan said.

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Para is a region that Hsu likened to the old Wild West in the United States. He said there is a disconnect between that part of Brazil and the southern region, which is home to larger urban areas.

Stang’s murder received ample media coverage and inspired human rights organizations to get involved.

“The international attention really got the Brazilian justice system focused on prosecuting this trial,” Buchanan said. “Human rights groups have been there every step of the way.”


Hsu said he was confident that Galvao will be taken into custody and tried as soon as July or August.

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A file photo of Stang is available via https://religionnews.com

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