Brazilian Police revealed that a 73-year-old American nun was killed in the Amazon rainforest area as she was preaching the Bible.
Sister Dorothy Stang, has devoted in environmental work and defending human rights in a remote jungle region of Amazonia for 20 years. The region is known for illegal logging, slave labour and violent land conflicts. Despite her passion and sacrifices for the people, she received countless death threats over the years for her advocacy work.
Reported by Associated Press, the murder took place when Stang was on her way to a meeting with local activists about land reform last weekend. Two gunmen approached her; a witness said Stang pulled the Bible from her bag when she was confronted and started reading. Her killers listened for a moment, took a few steps back and fired. They shot her three times in the face, the police said.
Stang was killed at the Boa Esperanca settlement where she worked with some 400 poor families near Anapu, a small town in Para state. Anapu is known as Brazil's "Gaza strip."
Priests, nuns and rainforest defenders gathered in this eastern Amazon city to remember Sister Dorothy Stang. Bishop Jayme Chemello, president of the Catholic Church's Amazonia Episcopal Committee said, "The death of Sister Dorothy was a crime foretold."
Behind the death of Stang, it was believed that gunmen wanted to silence her because she refused to stop speaking out against the powerful loggers and ranchers who have carved up large parts of the Amazon into their personal fiefdoms, according to one of Brazil's most respected ministers.
In fact, Stang recently met the national Human Rights Secretary Nilmario Miranda to report that four local peasants had received death threats from loggers and ranchers.
Maria Socorro Cunha, a nun who worked with Stang said, "People warned her not to go to Boa Esperanca that day, that it was too dangerous. But she went anyway."
Nilmario Miranda testified Stang, "She always asked for protection for others, never for herself."
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ordered that action take place after an outcry by international human rights groups at Stang's murder and US pressure to find her killers.
Currently, Brazilian police were searching the Amazon rainforests for two men who murdered Stang. They have reportedly identified four suspects but have made no arrests. The environment minister, Marina Silva, has gone to the region to oversee the investigation in person and said she would do her utmost to find the killers.
CNN reported that thousands of people flocked to the funeral of the renowned nun on Tuesday.