Note of solidarity, sorrow, and outrage over the assassination of Yalorixá and human rights activist Mãe Bernadete of Quilombo Pitanga dos Palmares territory

Note of solidarity, sorrow, and outrage over the assassination of Yalorixá and human rights activist Mãe Bernadete of Quilombo Pitanga dos Palmares territory
New York, August 18, 2023 - The Defend Democracy in Brazil Committee of New York and partners express solidarity with the family, daughters, and sons of Yalorixa Mãe Bernadete, activists, and the entire quilombola community of Pitanga dos Palmares for the brutal murder of their leader.

Mãe Bernadette carried enormous wisdom, strength, and leadership.  Her premature departure is irreparable for everyone who fights for social justice and human rights, not only in Brazil but all over the world. Every time a human rights defender is murdered, all in the struggle are affected and suffer with a loss.

Mãe Bernadete fought for the recognition, protection, and titling of the ancestral land of her community and for the investigation of the murder of her son, Flávio Gabriel Pacífico dos Santos, in 2017, also in their Quilombo region, caused by the quilombo land dispute.

She was brutally executed in the sacred space of her own house of devotion, near family members and her community after several reports of death threats that she had received. She lacked appropriate police protection, which further aggravated her assassination. 

We join everyone who demands government and police authorities to immediately investigate this barbaric crime, and to continue the titling process of Mãe Bernadette’s community territory.

Through this letter, we also aim to call the attention of the international community to the serious human rights violations that black and "quilombola" people have been suffering in our country.  Quilombola territories, land occupied by formerly enslaved people, are often the target of real estate speculation and illegal extractivism because they are areas preserved by their people.  

The attack on the quilombo is a result of greed, inefficiency of the police, the justice system, and the presence of militias,  who work for business owners interested in taking over ancestral territory.  The titling of quilombola lands across the country is urgently needed to end violence!

Justice for Mãe Bernadette!

Stop the murdering of our quilombola people!

Black quilombola lives matter!

Defend Democracy in Brazil Committee - New York 

Mãe Bernadete