a0631 amazonjailbreak
AM-Amazon Jailbreak,0312
Assassin of Famed Rain Forest Guardian Escapes From Jail
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) _ The killer of internationally known
rain forest protector Francisco Mendes escaped from jail with his
father and seven others, setting off a huge manhunt through dense
Amazon jungle, police said Monday.
Darcy Pereira, his father, Darli Alves da Silva, and the other
inmates broke out late Sunday from a penitentiary in the Acre
state capital of Rio Branco, about 2,200 miles northwest of Sao
Paulo. Police said they sawed through cell bars in their loosely
guarded prison.
Pereira and Da Silva, a rancher who was accused of ordering
the killing, were sentenced to 19 years in jail in December 1990.
Mendes was shot two years earlier.
Mendes' murder spotlighted the often-violent struggle between
conservationists and ranchers in the vast Amazon rainforest.
President of the rubber tappers union in his hometown of
Xapuri, where he was killed, Mendes led a crusade to preserve the
rainforest.
The destruction not only wipes out wildlife but contributes to
the so-called greenhouse effect believed responsible for the
elevation of the earth's temperature.
In February 1992, a judge ordered Da Silva retried on the
grounds the testimony of the prosecution's main witness was
biased. The new trial still has not been scheduled.
But Da Silva, who has been accused of involvement in another
murder in the southern state of Parana, remained in jail. He was
scheduled to be flown to that state for trial on March 23.
State police chief Carlos Alberto da Silva said the prisoners
sawed off the bars of their cells. He said security at the
300-inmate Francisco Oliveira Conde penitentiary was "extremely
lax."
He said authorities had closed off every road leading out of
the far western Acre state and more than 100 policemen were
searching for the escapees.
AP-DS-02-15-93 2020EST
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Copyright (c) 1993 Reuters Information Services Inc. All rights
reserved.
BC-BRAZIL-MENDES (SCHEDULED)
KILLERS OF CHICO MENDES BREAK OUT OF BRAZIL JAIL
By Ian Simpson
BRASILIA, Feb 15, Reuter - The father and son killers of
famed environmental campaigner Chico Mendes escaped from prison
in Brazil's Amazon basin on Monday, and Mendes' supporters and
police blamed lax security for the breakout.
Darli Alves da Silva and his son, Darci, cut through bars on
a window at the Acre State Prison in Rio Branco early on Monday
and fled with seven other inmates, Acre Public Safety Director
Americo Carneiro Par said.
"There wasn't anybody hurt or any shooting ar anything like
that," he said in a telephone interview. "At this point, we
don't know if they're armed or what."
The Alveses were convicted in December 1990 for the 1988
killing of Mendes, an internationally known environmental
campaigner and leader of Amazon rubber tappers.
The killing sparked worldwide outrage, focused attention on
environmental destruction of the Amazon rain forest and spawned
several books and plans for a Hollywood movie about Mendes.
Darli Alves, a rancher in his early fifties, and his son
were sentenced to 19 years in prison for ambushing Mendes at his
home in Xapuri, a village near Rio Branco.
Marcio Thomaz Bastos, a Sao Paulo lawyer who represented
Mendes' widow and two children at the trial, blamed Acre
authorities for the escape. He said human rights activists there
had warned repeatedly that a breakout was being planned.
"Everybody knows that they were planning this escape for a
long time," said Bastos, a former head of Brazil's bar
association. "The lack of responsibility by Acre authorities is
very serious."
The Alveses had used repeated visits to a local hospital
"under insufficient security...to test the mechanism for
breaking out," he said.
He said Darli Alves might have wanted to escape because he
faced trial on March 22 in the southern state of Parana, for a
1973 murder connected with a land dispute.
Rosa Maria Rolban, a spokeswoman for the National Council of
Rubber Tappers, said "the lack of security there (in the
prison) was a horror."
Carneiro rejected Bastos' allegations that authorities had
been warned abouth the escape saying, "I can't confirm that."
He added, "I will say that the prison they were in offered
no security at all, and they were in the best of the three
prisons in the state. We were expecting a breakout at any
time."
Carneiro said police were searching for the fugitives and
had erected roadblocks and alerted authorities along the
Bolivian border.
He said the other escapees had been convicted for a variety
of crimes.
Darci Alves confessed to the Mendes slaying and his father
was convicted of plotting it. Darli's conviction was overturned
by an Acre appeals court because judges ruled there had been
insufficient evidence to prove that Darli was connected with the
crime.
Prosecutors appealed the ruling to Brazil's Superior Court
of Justice, and there has been no decision in the case.
Acre State during the 1980s saw violent disputes between
ranchers seeking to clear the land and residents whose
livelihoods depended on conservation of the Amazon rain forest,
such as rubber tappers led by Mendes.
Human rights activists said the Mendes trial and the
conviction were highly unusual for rural Brazil, where violence
often goes unpunished.
Supporters of Mendes have said the Alveses were small
players in a larger conspiracy that involved more powerful
interests.
International concern about the Mendes killing spurred the
government to end subsidies that had encouraged ranching.
Deforestation and burning of the jungle also has slowed sharply,
state authorities said.
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