Iraguiar Ferreira da Silva

In 2004, landless rural workers occupied the Nova Alegria farm in the municipality of Felisburgo, Minas Gerais. The farm was supposedly owned by Adriano Chafik, who, unhappy at the occupation of the land, planned to attack the camp.

Around midnight on 20 November 2014, 15 men commanded by Adriano entered the camp and opened fire indiscriminately.

In order to get all the landless together, the men used flares which are commonly used by the landless when they wanted to gather all the people from the camp to a meeting.

In the attack 5 people were killed: Iraguiar Ferreira da Silva, 23, Miguel Jorge dos Santos, 56, Francisco Nascimento Rocha, 72, Juvenal Jorge da Silva, 65, and Joaquim dos Santos, 48. In addition, at least 12 people were injured with bullets , among them a 12-year-old boy who was shot in the eye. The group then burned down the 27 houses and the school of the children of the settlers.

In October 2013, the Minas Gerais Court of Appeals sentenced Adriano Chafik and Washington Agostinho da Silva, the farm manager to 115 years and 97 years in prison, respectively.


If you would like to provide a personal recollection, please email us at: HRDMemorial@frontlinedefenders.org

Region:Americas

Country:Brazil

Department/Province/State:Minas Gerais

Sex1:Male

Age:23

Date of Killing:20/11/2014

Previous Threats:Yes

Type of Work:Community leader

Organisation:MST

Sector or Type of Rights the HRD Worked On:ESC Rights

Sector Detail:Land Rights, Peasant Communities

More information:Front Line Defenders

1This database records an individual's chosen gender identity. If they do not self-identify as male or female they can use the option of recording other/neither or use the term NBGI (non binary gender identity).