MST leader Cícero Guedes killed

A leader of the landless movement MST (RLA 1991), Cícero Guedes, was shot dead on Saturday January 26, 2013 in Brazil.

He was killed near a former sugar plant which has been at the centre of a long-running legal battle between the landless and the heirs of its deceased owner. MST activists said Mr Guedes, a sugar-cane cutter, had led the occupation of the Usina Cambahyba sugar plant in Campos, 285km north-east of Rio de Janeiro.

Though the number of landless activists killed over the past years has fallen, the CPT (RLA 1991) says conflicts over land in Brazil have risen and the number of activists receiving death threats has tripled between 2010 and 2011.