On June 16, 2016, 56-year old Valdomiro Lopes de Lorena, popularly known as Tié-Tié, was shot dead by two gun men in the District of Paranorte, near the municipality of Juara, State of Mato Grosso.

Valdomiro was a member of the Movimento dos Sem-Terra (Landless Worker’s Movement – MST) and was fighting with his community for the legalization of a rural area in the city of Nova Bandeirantes where the Açaraí and Matrinchã/Gleba Japuranã farms were located. This area was of interest to a logging company in the region. The dispute has been going on for 11 years, and about 43 families are still awaiting the right to own the land on which they live and produce.

In July of that same year, the two individuals accused appeared to the police in the company of a lawyer. They were arrested and questioned, the firearm was found by the police and seized. One of the defendants was released after finding that he had not pulled the trigger on the gun, so he would not qualify as the perpetrator. The other accused was arrested but released a few days after.

The State of Mato Grosso is the sixth largest in the number of families living in areas of land conflicts. In the year 2016, the numbers reached 6,601 families, most of them belonging to the Xingu National Park, in the municipalities of Querência, Canarana and São Felix do Araguaia.

Elton Lima, a close friend of Valdomiro, expressed his indignation at the crime on his Facebook account: “A working father, a good friend, a victim of the cowardice and of the lack of justice that takes over our country “, he said.