On Friday 22 June, activists of Associação de Homens e Mulheres do Mar (AHOMAR), Almir Nogueira de Amorim and João Luiz Telles Penetra (Pituca) disappared. Their bodies were found days later with signs of murder.

Real World Radio interviewed AHOMAR’s chair, Alexandre Anderson de Souza, about the murder of the two fishermen and the situation suffered by the fishing communities in Bahía de Guanabara in the recent years. It is a story of loss of common goods, threats and persecution, but also of struggle and resistance.

Alexandre believes the deaths could have been avoided since AHOMAR had been reported the increasing threats against their leaders for three months.

He said the lack of response from the authorities to their warnings is also linked with the “process of criminal eviction that has been happening since 2003 in Bahia de Guanabara”.

The chair of the association illustrated the process of eviction of fishermen: “until the late 90s, 78% of the water was destined to fishing, today we can only occupy 12%. We were expelled to give way to petrochemical and oil projects and received no compensation for that”.

There are currently three big refineries that throw their chemical waste into the Bay on a daily basis, degrading the local ecosystem. Besides the usual consequences as a result of the petrochemical industries, there are other ecologic disasters such as oil leaks that have terrible consequences for the environment and the livelihood of the communities. Alexandre said the struggle of AHOMAR to preserve this ecosystem also implies to preserve the livelihood of over a thousand families.

There was immediate international reaction to the deaths of the two fishermen from Rio de Janeiro. A group of social movements and civil society organizations issued a letter on Thursday 28 to demand the state of Rio de Janeiro and the Brazilian government to “to take immediate measures to investigate the facts and to protect the lives of threatened fisher folk”.

Both crimes took place as part of the increasing threats against fishermen. “The bodies found had clear signs of execution”.