The three bishops have their dioceses in the State of Pará, located in the north of Brazil, in the Amazon rainforest. The mouth of the Amazon river is in this State and it is there that we find the Prelature of the Augustinian Recollect Bishop Jose Luis Azcona.
Para has not only one of the worst records for corruption and violence in the country, it continues to undergo major devastation of the rainforest for economic gain where life and huge expanses of land are swept aside with impunity.
A priest has also been threatened along side the three bishops. Threats are made by phone calls, anonymous letters, e-mails, and even newspaper articles. On 26th February the police made public a taped telephone conversation where the price on the head of a bishop was one million reales, equivalent to 375 thousand euros.
According to the newspaper “O Liberal” from Belém do Pará, the State capital, the “dead list” in the state had 100 names, among those were three bishops and the priest we mentioned above. These four are involved in the State Programme for the Protection of the Defenders of Human Rights.
Human rights
Mons. Azcona's interventions in the defense of Human Rights have a long history. The Human Rights Commission in the Congress of Deputies in Brasilia has received many long reports signed by the Bishop denouncing the inhuman conditions of prisoners in jails in the region, the murders perpetrated in the township of Anajás (which is in his prelature), an unknown disease the health authorities did nothing about and a malaria epidemic.
According to the National UN Programme, the IDH in the Prelature is 0,627, its income per capita is a quarter of the national average and more than 40% of families live below the poverty line. 85% of the inhabitants are totally dependent on State welfare programmes to survive.
In a meeting with catholic politicians of the area. Bishop Azcona denounced the “tyranny of town hall power” in one of the towns in his prelature where the town council even boycotted a meeting of the Human Rights Commission in the State Legislature.
He has also denounced the trafficking of women: “There is a very powerful mafia that commands huge profits. One trafficker sold a woman for 35.000 reales (13,000 euros) “ Jesus Christ is being massacred once more in the destruction of the dignity of persons in the region” he said
The bishop has also come to denounce one of the Judges of the region for his participation in fiestas that promoted sex with minors. The trafficking of women is one of the social problems that has brought even more problems to the local communities. The Church has acted in each case making the accusations and being at the forefront of the investigations.
And last of all Bishop Azcona has also been called to be a witness to The Parliamentary Commission of Investigation into the illegal trafficking of animals and plants of the Brazilian fauna and flora.
Epicospal solidarity
The Bishops who have received threats are: Mons. Erwin Krautler, Bishop of Xingu, Mons. José Luiz Azcona Hermoso of Marajó; and Mons. Flavio Giovenale, Bishop of Abaetetuba. All three govern dioceses in the State of Para in the northeast of the country.
"We are in solidarity with the bishops, who today for the sake of the gospel suffer persecution and even death threats. Any aggression aimed at them also affects us, who are their brothers in the episcopacy and the people they serve fearlessly and with zeal giving a powerful prophetic witness", so the CNBB indicated.
"We are one in Christ with them and with all those whom they defend: the indigenous nations, the women, children and young people who are made into objects through the trafficking of human beings, through sexual exploitation and drugs that kill."
"Furthermore we support them in their endeavors in defense of the environment where greed continues to devastate the land with deadly consequences for all human life."
We all agree in the Episcopate that their fight is our fight, their sufferings our sufferings.
The Episcopate in their Annual meeting expressed its solidarity with the threatened bishops and the people they defend: the indigenous nations, the women, children and young people who are made into objects through the trafficking of human beings, through sexual exploitation and drugs that kill.
Finally the Bishops demanded from the authorities a serious investigation and protection for those threatened. "Their life is precious to the people they defend and to us who are their brothers", they said. It is time to put an end to violence!