Outrage is brewing among human rights organizations and environmental advocates over the murder of Brazilian environmental and labor leader Ademir Federicci. Federicci, one of seven environmental, labor, or religious leaders to be murdered in the Amazon Basin since July, was the director of the Movement for the Development of the Trans-Amazon and the Xingu. At the time of his death, Federicci was leading opposition to a dam project sponsored by the Brazilian government and denouncing corruption in the Superintendency for the Development of the Amazon. Federicci had made enemies of loggers in the Amazon and hijackers along the Trans-Amazon highway. Officials say he was killed by a petty thief, but his family and other activists dispute that claim. In the meantime, a hit list with the names of 25 opponents of local business interests continues to circulate in the region.
