On the 27th of September 2016, Sebastião Pereira dos Santos was victim of an attack at his doorstep, in the municipality of Vale do Paraíso. The farmer was shot six times and  although he was assisted and taken to a hospital unit in Ji-Paraná, ended up not surviving the injuries and passing away on the morning of the 28th.

Sebastião, 39 years old, was part of the settlement Jhone Santos de Oliveira, of the LCP (Liga dos Camponeses Pobres), in Ji-Paraná, state of Rondônia. Brazil.

The defender of the right to land was fighting for the expropriation of the Amarilina farm, together with other families of rural workers.

Rondônia is the  Brazilian state with more verified killings linked to the fight for land. According to the LCP, the military police has been serving, in the area, as the private security body of landowners. The League denounces, too, the cessation of the agrarian reform in the country, the increase of land concentration and the growing repression against rural workers tied to the defence of the right to land.

His wife, who witnessed the attacked, declared that the criminal, after shooting her husband, pronounced the words “You were warned we would kill you one by one”.

Sebastião Pereira dos Santos had already received death threats and, nevertheless, did not manage to escape the sad fate that seems to be written for many of those who persist fighting against corruption and the defence of the most vulnerable.

He was a defender to be remembered for the restless fight for land that has not died with him.