Chico begins organizing against deforestation and starts a war with the local ranching community. Hosts Graham and Jim see first hand what the burning looks like on the ground.
Chico begins organizing against deforestation and starts a war with the local ranching community. The hosts see first hand what the burning looks like on the ground and learn more about the “good guys” and “bad guys” in the complex conflict between rubber tappers and ranchers, as well as the individuals and groups opposed to Chico before his murder. Finally, Chico is put into a leadership role in 1980.
Sources:
Cold Open:
Jim VO: In the Brazilian Amazon, there are a number of Portuguese words for “assassin”.
Pistoleiro, capanga, jagunco (Revkin, The Burning Season). In the 1970s and 80s, these
gunslingers became as familiar of an archetype in the Amazonian frontier as the train-robbing
bandit in the conquest of the American West. They were easy to identify, with a standard
uniform and their own unique accents and lingo (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest).
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“Olha, então... os pistoleiros eles normalmente eram vindos da região do Mato Grosso do Sul,
fronteira com Paraguai.”
Jim Translation: The gunmen were usually from the region of Mato Grosso do Sul, border with
Paraguay.
Jim VO: That’s Gomercindo Rodrigues, the close friend of Chico Mendes and environmental
lawyer who still works in the Xapuri area, Chico’s home town.
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“É tipo assim, usavam chapéus grandes, usavam aquelas/aquele cinturões com aquelas fivelas
grandes,”
Jim Translation: They had a very typical costume, they wore big hats, they wore those belts with
those big buckles,
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“como hoje os peões dos Rodeios fazem.”
Jim Translation: Like Rodeo clowns.
[music]
Jim VO: Gomercindo has had his fair share of run-ins with these gangsters - narrowly escaping
his own assassination a few times (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest). The Amazon was crawling
with them in the mid-seventies, haunting street corners, saloons, ranches - Gomercindo was
even held at gunpoint on a public bus (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest). And the pistoleiros were
always a sign of bigger trouble stirring under the surface, like termites crawling out of the
foundation, foretelling collapse. Organized crime became more and more prominent as the war
for the Amazon ramped up and paved roads like the Trans Amazon Highway began snaking
their way into the forest (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest).
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“A estrada é, digamos assim, são as veias por onde penetra o veneno da devastação.”
Jim Translation: The road is, shall we say, the veins through which the poison of devastation
penetrates.
Jim VO: The gunmen were drawn to the lawless frontier of the Amazon Rainforest as hired
muscle for the ranchers and developers that wanted the forest for themselves (Rodrigues,
Walking the Forest).
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“Oficialmente eles negavam, mas os fazendeiros sempre usavam pistoleiros, usavam jagunços
para expulsar os posseiros das áreas.”
Jim Translation: Officially they denied it, but the farmers always used pistoleiros, used
gunslingers to drive the squatters out of the areas.
Jim VO: While there were many different criminal groups running around the Amazon during
Chico’s life, there was one family in particular that played an important role in his story: The
Alves da Silvas.
The Alves family was a patriarchal crime organization offering services from petty intimidation to
assassination, similar to the mob or a Russian crime syndicate, ruling with brutal force and
available to the highest bidder. They were uneducated and semi-literate, but they had street
smarts, shooting first and asking questions later (Shoumatoff, Vanity Fair: Murder in the
Rainforest).
The Alves family was linked to more than 80 murders throughout Brazil in the 1950s, and openly
boasted about their violent exploits. Similar to the rubber trade being a family business that was
passed down through the generations, the Alves da Silvas had turned their family tree into a
notorious criminal enterprise (Shoumatoff, Vanity Fair: Murder in the Rainforest).
It began with Sebastiao, the proverbial Godfather, who had 26 children with three different
wives. One of whom was Darli Alves da Silva, Sebatiao’s number one, who had 30 children of
his own with his wife and mistresses. Although Darli didn’t appear threatening, with his bony
figure and wispy hair, he was the most ruthless of them all. And finally, there was Darci, the
Alves family’s trigger man - a youngster with a lot to prove to his father and grandfather
(Shoumatoff, Vanity Fair: Murder in the Rainforest).
In the late 1950s, the Alves family was living in Southern Brazil, a town called Ipanema, outside
Rio de Janeiro. After murdering two men over a love affair, they fled further south, to Parana.
Darli quickly gunned down one of their neighbors, and they had to pull up the anchor yet again
(Shoumatoff, Vanity Fair: Murder in the Rainforest)(Rodrigues, Walking the Forest).
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“mataram pessoas em Minas Gerais, lá no início dos anos 50 e 60. Aí migraram para o Paraná,
mataram gente no Paraná. Foram inclusivamente, eu fui assistir o julgamento do Darlí. Que ele
foi condenando por um homicídio de lá. Por causa desse assassinato de lá, eles fugiram para o
Acre.”
Jim Translation: They killed people in Minas Gerais, there in the early 50s and 60s. Then they
migrated to Paraná, killed people in Paraná. They even went to watch Darlí's trial, he was
convicted of a murder there.
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“Por causa desse assassinato de lá, eles fugiram para o Acre.”
Jim Translation: Because of this murder there, they fled to Acre.
Jim VO: The Alves family left a trail of death and destruction in their wake all across Brazil - a
criminal pedigree that would eventually lead them to Acre, in the deepest corner of the Amazon,
chasing rumors of criminal impunity and the “wild west” of Brazil (Revkin, The Burning Season).
This brought them to the small town of Xapuri - and the doorstep of Chico Mendes (Shoumatoff,
Vanity Fair: Murder in the Rainforest).
[music hit]
Introduction:
Graham VO: Welcome to season two of Wildfire, a podcast series about fire in our world’s
natural spaces, hosted by Jim Aikman and me, Graham Zimmerman. In this season, we’re
talking about the Amazon Rainforest and the raging fires that have been burning in one of our
planet’s most important ecosystems.
In the last episode, Jim and I learned the fascinating history of the rubber trade in the Amazon
and the rural workers who harvested it - the rubber tappers. We heard from historians and
modern rubber tappers about the oppressive system that kept them in poverty, and the early
years of Chico Mendes who was born into this world of strife. But later, in his teenage years and
early twenties, Chico found a mentor, a communist rebel hiding out in the woods that taught him
the ways of organized resistance. And then, just when Chico was making some progress
creating new schools and educating the tappers, his mentor disappeared and the fires arrived in
the forest he called home.
In this episode, number three in a series of six, we’ll be learning more about the 1970s, when
the conflicts between the rubber tappers and ranchers really escalated. We’ll take a closer look
at this conflict, trying to understand the motivations of both sides: Chico and the rubber tappers
who needed the trees to survive, and the developers who wanted the trees gone - as well as
their gunslinging enforcers, the Alves family.
A perfect storm was brewing - and it was all converging on Xapuri, the small town in the forest
that Jim and I were quickly approaching.
Thanks for joining us on Wildfire.
Body 1
Jim VO: As we got closer to Xapuri to meet with locals and Chico’s friends, I’ll admit that I was
nervous. We were showing up with questions about murderers and criminal families, scratching
at old wounds and asking tricky questions, knowing that the town was still embroiled in many of
the same conflicts that it was in the seventies and eighties (Brown, Morte Entre Muitas, 2020)…
It was nerve wracking.
[music transition]
In 1970, Chico was still working full-time as a rubber tapper, toiling sleeplessly on his rubber
estrada to feed his family. But the rubber industry was bleak, having moved well beyond the
Amazon to plantations all over the world, which were more productive and less expensive
(Revkin, The Burning Season). After his mentorship with Tavora, Chico understood how difficult
the path ahead would be. I’m sure he wondered at times if he should just keep his mouth shut.
And then, everything changed.
Chico started to see developers, ranchers, and farmers arriving in Xapuri from the South of
Brazil to burn the forest and stake their claim - to destroy the trees that he relied on. These
ranchers were desperate, fleeing poverty to exploit the promised land of the Amazon (Revkin,
The Burning Season).
200309_003 - Adriana Ramos 1:
Graham: “Yes, we are rolling.”
Jim: “Okay. Okay. Again, Adriana, thank you so much for having us.
Adriana: Yes. Thank you.”
Jim VO: That’s Adriana Ramos, an environmental lawyer from Brazil who’s been fighting against
deforestation from the legal side. She told us about the various vested interests, from the small
farm workers to the well funded agricultural industry.
200309_003 - Adriana Ramos 1:
“So what happens is that there isn't any equality in the struggle because the community that
depends on the forest, they do not have support to keep their activities. And at the same time,
the agribusiness sector that wants to increase the deforestation area to produce more mainly for
exportation is being highly subsidize. So that's brought us into a situation that there is a lot of
conflicts in the land.”
Jim VO: I was beginning to understand what a behemoth Chico was up against. At the age of
35, he had yet to transform into the power broker that he was at the time of his death. He was a
poor public speaker, overcome by his modest nature and unassuming posture, and struggled to
unite people behind his cause (Revkin, The Burning Season).
And at first, his revolutionary ideas were met with skepticism in Xapuri - many considered him
“too radical” (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest). Not only that, the tappers were hard to organize
and labor unions hadn’t yet arrived in Xapuri (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest). And at this point,
he was still only concerned with protecting the rubber tappers - he’d yet to incorporate a broader
view of preservation or environmentalism that could recruit broader global support (Rodrigues,
Walking the Forest).
On top of all of this, he still had to work full time. It was hard to do it all. Chico’s inner demons
smoldered as he chain smoked his way through his thirties, worried about how he would feed
his family, let alone save his home from annihilation (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest).
[music transition, intense]
Over the next few years, the conflicts in the Amazon went from a simmer to a roaring boil
(Revkin, The Burning Season).
From 1970-1975, Acre and Xapuri were under siege. The amount of deforestation and
development in Acre increased exponentially (Revkin, The Burning Season). The number of
cattle went from 7k to 50k (Revkin, The Burning Season). 180k rubber trees were destroyed,
80k Brazil Nut trees, and countless other acres of forest were burned (Mendes, Spin). Chico
realized if he didn’t do something, Acre’s forests would all be lost.
011320 Marianne Schmink Interview_cleanfeed:
“They began to recognize this as an existential threat to their livelihoods because rubber tapping
depends not only on the rubber trees, but the intact forest that protects those trees
Jim VO: That’s Dr Marianne Schmink again, the anthropologist we spoke to in the last episode.
011320 Marianne Schmink Interview_cleanfeed:
“It was so dramatic, what was happening on the ground; these impoverished migrants who were
coming with everything they owned on top of a truck and finding a piece of land somewhere and
cutting down the forest so they could grow crops for their families. Then you had ranchers from
southern Brazil who were wheeling and dealing in the land offices and purchasing pieces of land
that these same homesteaders were occupying. There was just a huge land war underway, and
seeing all these incredible, incredibly dramatic changes from one year to the next in this region,
roads that were being built and towns springing up, some related to logging, some related to
gold mining, some related to ranching and farming. It was a very dynamic and dramatic
scenario”
Jim VO: As more and more people came to Acre, with more and more financial resources,
Chico and the rubber tapper’s were completely marginalized. All of the money being poured into
the Amazon - none of it was benefiting the people that actually lived there. This money wasn’t
going to build better infrastructure for the forest dwellers or new schools, it was the opposite -
intended to bring down whatever foundation was already there so they could be replaced with
big agriculture and more industrial extraction (Revkin, The Burning Season).
Not only that, Adriana told me how she and many legal authorities believed that the criminal
networks like the Alves family that held up this whole house of cards were actually supported by
the Brazilian government, through a couple degrees of plausible deniability (Revkin, The
Burning Season)(Shoumatoff, Vanity Fair: Murder in the Rainforest)(Rodrigues, Walking the
Forest). It was crazy.
200309_003 - Adriana Ramos 1:
Jim: “You mean the, the murders, the perpetrators of this violence have the support of their
government.”
Adriana: “Yes.”
“A government that, uh, is empowering the illegal loggers, the illegal gold miners, the illegal
ranchers, the land grabbers”
“the people that goes to the forest to open the areas, to colonize and to take care of that, they
always relied on violence to do that. So for them, it's not something quite new.”
“They feel that they are now, uh, I'd say in power”
[music shift to scary tones]
Jim VO: Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse for Chico, some new faces rolled into town:
The Alves family. They pulled into Acre in 1974, sinking the roots for their criminal network in
Xapuri. They pieced together a ranch where the whole family lived, with their dozens of
mistresses, children, cattle, cowboys and gunslingers, but the ranch was mainly for
appearances - most of their activities were underground, in the shadows. They began forming
alliances with the local police and newspapers, laying the groundwork for a hostile takeover
(Shoumatoff, Vanity Fair: Murder in the Rainforest).
The stage was set for a showdown.
Body Block 2:
Graham VO: The open plains on the way into Xapuri looked like a great place for cows to live -
but the odd stand of trees shows what was once there, making it a grim sight. A place where the
rainforest had been truly erased and transformed into another landscape. (Revkin, The Burning
Season).
When talking to Foster Brown, we discussed what the process of this deforestation and burning
look like.
200228_004 - Foster Brown (GZ)
“cutting down can begin at any time of the year. Typically it's done in the late rainy season, and
then the materials pile up and allowed to dry during the first part of the dry season.”
Graham VO: People use whatever tools are available whether its chainsaws or bulldozers to
level the forest, leaving behind piles of debris known as slash (Revkin, The Burning Season).
200228_004 - Foster Brown (GZ)
“when it gets about, uh, August, late August, early September, mid-September, uh, the fire
people put fire to the, to the deforested, uh, timbers and burden. The idea is that it's burned
close to when the rains”
Graham VO: Since it’s challenging and expensive to move the huge piles of vegetation these
people use gasoline or another fuel they ignite the slash piles where they lay (Revkin, The
Burning Season).
And this destruction of the forest can happen on a profound scale (Revkin, The Burning
Season).
200228_004 - Foster Brown (GZ)
“there are ranchers who go in and put in teams and cut down large quantities and can be, uh,
deforesting levels at tens of hectares. Uh, in some cases we've had an example of over a
hundred or more, um, uh, hectares that were burned in, uh, at, uh, at one time. And in other
parts of the Amazon that's very frequent.”
Graham VO: On its own, this cutting and burning is massively destructive, but when it goes
wrong and sparks spread from the slash piles into the standing forest, things start to get a lot
worse. (Revkin, The Burning Season).
200228_004 - Foster Brown (GZ)
“at least in the beginning as they enter in the forest tend to be ground fires. And, um, propagate.
It can be only let's say, uh, as high as your knee in terms of the flames, but they, uh,
progressively entering into the forest and, uh, damaging regeneration also drying the leaves that
are above it and those leaves fall down and cover the ground after the fire has gone and is
possible with the same area to burn two or three times. I didn't believe it at first until I could see
it, but it's basically the fire creates its own fuel.”
Graham VO: No longer is it only the slash pile that is burning, but now the standing forest is
ablaze and the broader ecosystem - is being destroyed (Hetch and Cockburn, The Fate of the
Forest). And it gets worse.
200228_004 - Foster Brown (GZ)
“The idea is that it's burned close to when the rains begin and that's now becoming more
problematic because, uh, what apparently was easier to predict in the past is become less easy
to predict now.”
Graham VO: Just as it is everywhere on the planet, human-driven climate change is disrupting
the weather patterns in the Amazon which is resulting in less predictable seasons and a
generally drier forest (Hetch and Cockburn, The Fate of the Forest).
At the same time, the use of fire has been increasing, just as the forest has been becoming
more susceptible to fire (Hetch and Cockburn, The Fate of the Forest).
And it’s been devastating (Hetch and Cockburn, The Fate of the Forest).
(pause)
Now let’s be clear, FIRE is not the problem.
Fire is only a tool.
It’s a tool that has been used sustainably for millennia in a wide variety of environments to
prepare and cultivate the land (Man, 1941).
But the Portuguese Colonialists and later the Brazilian government encouraged its use in
excess(Hetch and Cockburn, The Fate of the Forest).
More slash. More fuel. More heat. More slash. More fuel. And subsequently, more mistakes -
and more burning forests.
And subsequently, more mistakes and more burning forests (Hetch and Cockburn, The Fate of
the Forest).
And at the core of this is the fact that people are responsible for the use of this tool and for this
destruction.
Which left us wanting to meet these farmers and better understand them.
(pause)
And this was on my mind as we pulled into Xapuri.
Driving slowly down the quiet unpaved rural streets we were on edge, wondering what would
happen as we engaged with this community. Would we be received well or would we be
threatened with the violence so prevalent in this area’s history?
(pause)
Our first stop was to find Gomercindo, whose voice you’ve already heard on this show.
We knew from conversations over the phone, that he was in Xapuri presenting to a group of
locals from the Rural Workers Union
We arrived during his presentation. It was taking place in a well-built single-story building in the
center of town. We quietly entered and sat in the back. Guma stood at the front, presenting in
Portuguese.
(use Rural work union meeting_JA iPhone.m4a + RWU Meeting Expo_JA iPhone.m4a as a
sound bed)
The audience was a diverse group of people, ranging from young women to old men. No one
noticed when we walked in, with the exception of Gomercindo, who nodded as he continued to
talk. He was clearly a leader and a well-respected member of the community.
(continue Rural work union meeting_JA iPhone.m4a + RWU Meeting Expo_JA iPhone.m4a as a
sound bed)
As we looked at the folks in front of us, I realized that many of these farmers were likely to be
the people cutting down and burning the forest. Seeing them in that room, they did not appear
evil, or malicious, In fact, they looked similar to small farmer operators in the US, people who
live in sync with their land even though it may keep them impoverished. People as tough as
leather and quiet with penetrating and perceptive gazes. Practical people who did what they
needed to get by in a challenging and always changing world.
As his presentation ended, we met with Gomercindo, once again we were also with our friend
and translator Lailson.
After a quick greeting, he started explaining in his quiet patient way what the meeting was
about:
Meeting guma_JA iPhone.m4a 3:11
Graham: “todo bein”
Guma and Lailson: “These are local famers”
Guma and Lailson: “They have been living there for so many years. “
… Guma and Lailson: “
He is the lawyer trying to protect them.”
Graham VO: He introduced us to one of the farmers. A older man named Odahil Monte. His
eyes peered out from under a well-worn ball cap, both wise and patient while his hands were
those of a man who knew the gratification that comes with a hard day’s work.
Odahil Monte_H4n Pop Interview
Odahil (1:30): (Portuguese)
Lailson: He is living on land next to one of the big landowners and he wants to keep his rights to
keep living there.
...
Odahil: (Portuguese)
Lailson: He wants to cut some trees down for crops and animals but he also wants to leave the
trees.
Odahil (4:40): (Portuguese)
Lailson: burning used to take place but now he is doing less
...
Lailson: He’s now trying to do what Chico Mendes did
Graham VO: It was profound that this man was still inspired by Chico, even 30 years after his
death. That said, the fires were still happening. So we asked about the burning currently taking
place. Who was doing it, and why?
Odahil Monte_H4n Pop Interview
Odahil (~8:28) : (Portuguese)
Lailson: most of the burning here is intentional burning.
Odahil(~13:40) : (Portuguese)
Lailson: they burn the forest because they need to feed their families to grow bean, corn rice.
Odahil(~15:00) : (Portuguese)
Lailson: but there are also evil people
Graham VO: This was a powerful revelation, that some of these people were burning the forest,
not out of greed, but because it was their only option (Revkin, The Burning Season).
But who were these bad actors that Odahil mentioned? Did this include the Alvez family?
We thanked Odahil
Odahil Monte_H4n Pop Interview
Graham/Jim (~15:00) : Bon, abrigado
Odahil: Bon, abrigado
Graham VO: And went for a walk with Gomercindo.
Gomercindo confirmed that for many of these farmers, burning the forest was their only option.
Government regulations and pressure from developers meant they had no other choices.
It was a profound revelation that many of the farmers are not really the "bad guys.” They were
just impoverished people trying to get by (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest). There were larger
forces at play, forcing them to expand their grazing land into the forest in order to make ends
meet (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest).
And Gomercindo shared that the large corporate ranches, oftentimes overtake this land forcing
the farmers deeper into the forest (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest). These were the real bad
actors and they are also the ones clearing ten and sometimes hundreds of acres at a time
(Rodrigues, Walking the Forest).
Finally, as he headed back to work with the farmers, he shared that these problems were
essentially the same things that Mendes had started to see in the 1970s (Rodrigues, Walking
the Forest).
Looking back, we could see that as Chico and the Rubber Tappers were starting to take on this
encroachment on their lands, they were taking on far more than just a local conflict (Rodrigues,
Walking the Forest). In fact, they were taking on a huge problem that reached all the way to the
halls of power in Brazil (Revkin, The Burning Season).
He was one man taking on a goliath and was putting himself in the path of violence in order to
save a place that he loved (Revkin, The Burning Season).
Body Block 3:
[music]
Jim VO: As it turned out, Xapuri was a pretty darling little town nestled in the rainforest, and we
weren’t confronted by any pistoleiros or ghosts of Chico’s past. I was relieved, mixed with
maybe an ounce of morbid disappointment. The little town had a lot of pride for it’s rubber
heritage, a reasonably well sized tourism economy, and a beautiful location surrounded by trees
and rivers. And everywhere we looked there were faded symbols of Chico’s legacy.
Even the owner of our small hotel had been a good friend of Chico’s and turned one of his
buildings into a shrine. He told us how Chico helped bring Xapuri’s first labor union to town,
elected president of it in 1975, helping it grow to 30k members working to protect the land and
their access to it (Mendes, Fight for the Forest). This union introduced Chico to intellectuals,
college students and professors, activists and revolutionaries (Revkin, The Burning Season). He
joined the National Council of Rubber Tappers, the Worker’s Party, and started the Rubber
Tapper Project, an education initiative that sent many rubber tappers to universities, opening the
door for a whole new generation of freedom fighters (Mendes, Fight for the Forest).
But not everyone in Xapuri was a fan of Chico’s work. As many allies as he was gaining, he
made just as many enemies. And in 1975, those enemies closed ranks. They got organized and
formed a unified front against the rubber tappers (Mendes, Spin).
By 1976, ranchers owned ⅔ of the state of Acre (Revkin, The Burning Season). The wealthiest
1 percent of landowners had 43% of the arable land (Revkin, The Burning Season). The
government stepped in to support a union for the developers called “The Confederation of
Agricultural Workers” (Mendes, Spin). They were well funded and pissed off (Mendes, Spin).
200228_003 - Foster Brown (JA):
Foster: “those are the people who in various cases ended up, um, murdering, uh, or pressuring
or eh, evicting, uh, groups be it, um, rubber tappers in some cases, uh, small colonists groups
and, uh, indigenous groups.”
Jim: “So it was, [00:02:30] uh, it was a pretty clear conflict as far as a line in the sand.
Foster: there was sort of this war going on between rubber tappers and the ranching
community.”
Jim VO: The war was on.
[music transition]
Chico and the developers had fundamentally opposed perspectives on the forest: to the rubber
tappers, the forest was their home and their livelihood; but for the ranchers, the trees were only
standing in the way of profit. In other words, the forest was something that the rubber tappers
were willing to die for, because they were as good as dead without it.
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“os fazendeiros mandavam os Pistoleiros para expulsar o seringueiro com armas. Derrubavam
as casas que eram suspensas.”
Jim Translation: The farmers sent the Gunslingers to kick out the rubber tapper with guns.
Knock down the houses .
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“Então, eles chegavam com motosserra”
“E aí... e desmatavam.”
Jim Translation: Then, they would arrive with a chainsaw. And then...... deforestation.
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“A devastação da floresta, é definitiva.”
Jim Translation: The devastation of the forest is definitive.
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“E é cruel porque ela não vai levar a riqueza, ela vai levar a miséria. Então, Isso não é sonho
isso é pesadelo.”
Jim Translation: And it's cruel because it won't lead to wealth, it'll lead to misery. And no, that's
not a dream, that's a nightmare.”
Jim VO: During this new era of bloodshed, thousands of rubber tappers were killed, and nearly
ninety indigenous groups were massacred. It was a bloodbath. The “Trans Amazon Highway”
became known as the “Trans Misery Highway” (Revkin, The Burning Season).
Gomercindo Rodrigues 2_Interview Sync - Portuguese Transcript 032520:
“Muito sangue vai escorrer pela Floresta.”
“Tudo isso, está manchado de sangue de seringueiros,”
Jim Translation: A lot of blood is running through the forest. All of this is stained with the blood of
the rubber tappers.”
Jim VO: If Acre had been a Chess board, checkmate was imminent. But around that time, Chico
finally managed to unite the Rubber Tappers.
Portuguese_Gomercindo Rodrigues_Interview Sync 012520:
“Os seringueiros defendem a floresta, não porque ela é bonita, é grande, tem o ar puro, tem os
animais, não. É porque a floresta é a casa deles.”
Jim Translation: The rubber tappers defend the forest, not because it is beautiful, large, or has
fresh air, has the animals, no. It's because the forest is their home.
Portuguese_Gomercindo Rodrigues_Interview Sync 012520:
“Então defender a floresta, é defender a casa. E isso aí se traduziu em organizar uma grande
luta defesa da floresta.”
Jim Translation: So defending the forest is defending the home. And that translated into
organizing a large fight in defense of the forest.
Jim VO: With the stakes at an all time high, Chico needed a win. And finally, he found his voice.
He developed his signature dogged energy and unwavering determination. The quiet energy
that had originally held him back now allowed him to make deep human connections. He
became a skilled tactician (Revkin, The Burning Season).
And then, In 1976, Chico and his close ally, Wilson Pinheiro, invented the “empate:” (Mendes,
Spin) a peaceful protest inspired by leaders like Martin Luther King Jr and Ghandi that armed
them with their greatest tool against the fires: non-violence (Rodrigues, Walking the Forest).
Translated as “standoff” or “stalemate”, it was like a high stakes game of chicken (Mendes, Fight
for the Forest).
011320 Marianne Schmink Interview_cleanfeed:
“It entailed the rubber tappers going in mass as a group to place themselves in front of the
bulldozers and the other machinery and tools used to clear the forest. They often had the
women and children up front in order to diminish the chance of violence. They would appeal
directly to the workers who were driving those tractors and explain to them that this was a land
issue and that the land belonged to the rubber tappers, and they should desist. They would sing
the national Anthem. They used religious symbolism as well. they tried to present themselves as
a united local group who was defending their territory from outsiders who were trying to take
over in a violent way.”
Jim VO: The First major Empate was in May of 1976. 60 rubber tappers surrounded an
encampment in a siege that lasted three days, with no shots fired. Finally, the developers pulled
out and the tappers prevailed. Many more empates followed (Revkin, The Burning Season).
[music transition]
Chico won some battles with this new arrow in his quiver, but the war was far from over. His
enemies responded with fierce new levels of violence and organized attacks (Revkin, The
Burning Season).
011320 Marianne Schmink Interview_cleanfeed:
“the ranchers really feel like they've become the victims here. They feel that they were called to
come and colonize the region. They set up productive ranches and now they're being called the
villains. That's their discourse.”
Jim VO: In 1977, the Alves da Silvas had become the most feared criminal family in Acre state
(Revkin, The Burning Season). Following the success of the first empates, they massacred an
entire family of tappers just outside Xapuri (Shoumatoff, Vanity Fair: Murder in the Rainforest).
Their financial support continued to grow and they were only getting more bold.
011320 Marianne Schmink Interview_cleanfeed:
“These were really outlaw ranchers, but they were backed by some of the bigger name families
in the ranching business.”
Jim VO: And then came the most painful blow to Chico: the brutal murder of his friend and
compatriot, Wilson Pinheiro (Mendes, Fight for the Forest).
011320 Marianne Schmink Interview_cleanfeed:
“There was a union leader before Chico Mendes who was a rubber tapper named Wilson
Pinheiro, and he was leading attempts to stop the clearing of their forests, and he was
murdered.”
Jim VO: Chico had also been targeted that day, but he went into hiding and narrowly escaped
joining Pinheiro in the grave (Mendes, Fight for the Forest). For now.
But the rest of the tappers wanted revenge. They responded by murdering a rancher in the
street, shooting him 30 or 40 times. The police rounded up the tappers and threw them in jail,
brutally torturing them (Mendes, Fight for the Forest). It was a horrible volley of attacks that
brought the tension higher than ever (TK).
Xapuri was a tinderbox, ready to blow (TK).
Conclusion
Graham VO: In this episode, we discovered a problem that Chico was taking on was far larger
than just a local conflict. He was starting to see that the development encroaching on his
community’s forests was connected to a larger web of greed, disregard for the land, and those
who lived within them.
We have many examples from the history of the disenfranchised overcoming barriers like this.
And the stories of success are celebrated.
But there are far more stories that have been forgotten because the revolution was squashed
before it could ever find its voice (Mendes, Fight for the Forest).
[music begins, let this swell towards the end of the episode]
As Chico worked alongside fellow leaders in the tapping community, this thread of violence
came to bear as Pineiro was murdered. Subsequently, part of the tapping community declared
that “from now on, every killing will be answered with a killing.”(Revkin, The Burning Season)
The police response showed that they were on the side of the ranchers and violence was a
losing tactic for the Tappers (Revkin, The Burning Season).
This provided strength to Chico’s argument for leaning harder into non-violence and the use of
actions like the Empates, and under this banner, Chico responded by rallying even more
peaceful soldiers to the cause (Revkin, The Burning Season).
[music builds]
By taking on the Ranchers, Chico was taking a huge risk and putting himself in the path of a
potent blend of violence and greed (Revkin, The Burning Season).
No one knew if he would rise to the top, or be forgotten (Revkin, The Burning Season).
And if he were to rise, would his ascendance be associated with violence or could he maintain
his ethics of non-violence?
[musical conclusion]
The Podcast “Wildfire: Season Two” is part of the REI Podcast Network and is a production of
Bedrock Film Works and Podpeak.
The show is written and produced by Jim Aikman and myself Graham Zimmerman, with
additional production support from Chelsea Davis at REI.
Editing, sound design and theme music is by Evan Phillips.
Sources:
Hecht, Susanna, and Alexander Cockburn. The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers, and
Defenders of the Amazon. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
Revkin, Andrew. The Burning Season: the Murder of Chico Mendes and the Fight for the
Amazon Rain Forest. Island Press, 2004.
Rodrigues, Gomercindo, et al. Walking the Forest with Chico Mendes: Struggle for Justice in the
Amazon. University of Texas Press, 2007.
Mendes, Chico, et al. Fight for the Forest: Chico Mendes in his Own Words. Latin America Bu
reau (Research and Action) Ltd, 1989.
Mann, Charles C. 1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.
2nd ed., Random House LLC, 2005.
Shoumatoff, Alex. “Murder in the Rainforest.” Vanity Fair, 1989.
Mendes, Francisco. “Antihero.” Spin, September 1989, page 76-78.
Brown, Foster. “Morte Entre Muitas.” Jornal A Gazeta, February 2020.