44 year-old peasant leader Ademir de Souza Pereira was shot dead in the afternoon of the 6th of July 2017 at approximately 3PM, in a car wash located at the corner of the streets Algodoeiro and Viçosa in the Conceição district, in the southern part of Porto Velho, capital of Rondônia state.

According to witnesses, Ademir was at the car wash, when two criminals arrived in a model Focus car of a dark colour and the passenger came out of the vehicle with a gun in his hand. When he realised that he was going to be executed Ademir tried to run but he was hit by two shots in the back and after falling on the ground, he was executed with a shot in the neck. He died before receiving medical care from an EMS unit. The suspects fled the scene without leaving a trail. Units of the military police were called on the scene. At least three bullet shells of 40 calibre were found on the scene. Agents from the Homicide precinct are investigating the crime.

Ademir Pereira – who was an activist from Liga dos Camponeses Pobres de Rondônia (League of Poor Peasants of Rondônia) in Ariquemes and a leader in the land occupation Terra Nossa (Our Land) 1 and 2 in Cujubim – was in the state capital together with his wife and three other colleagues, in order to take part in a meeting with Cletho Brito, superintendent of the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA).

According to Ademir Pereira’s wife, the assassination might be related to threats that came from a land owner in the Vale do Jamari region. According to testimonies received at the A Nova Democracia newspaper office, when the leader’s wife and other activists were holding a wake for the body of Ademir, a motorbike arrived at the place and asked for the peasant leader’s wife. Before she arrived at the gate the driver went away leaving a note to the people that were in front of the house, the message of which was clearly a death threat to all of Ademir’s family.