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Amazon priest who championed land rights for Brazil's poor is arrested
Father Amaro Lopes is follower of Dorothy Stang, killed in 2005
Extortion, land invasion and sexual harassment charges considered
Jonathan Watts in Anapu
Tue 27 Mar 2018 18.40 EDT First published on Tue 27 Mar 2018 16.41 EDT
Father Amaro Lopes
Brazilian police have arrested a priest in the Amazon who championed the rights of smallholders against powerful agricultural interests.
Father Amaro Lopes is the best-known follower of the American-born nun, Dorothy Stang, who was murdered in 2005 in a killing orchestrated by landowners during a dispute that continues today.
Police in the jungle city of Anapu accuse Lopes of extortion and sexual harassment, but in denying the charges, his followers say they have been trumped up to silence an influential opponent of plans to clear forests and small farms.
“It’s the landowners and the gangsters,” said Jane Dwyer, a nun in Anapu. “They are trying to criminalise their opponents. This always happens.”
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/27/amazon-priest-amaro-lopes-brazil-land-rights-arrested