Second Congress Documents

CALLING FOR JUSTICE FOR GABRIEL SALES PIMENTA, A PEOPLE’S LAWYER FROM BRAZIL

 

 

On the 18^th of July 1982, people’s lawyer Gabriel Sales Pimenta, was brutally murdered in the city of Maraba, the province of Para, Brazil by a criminal paid by the landlord Manoel Cardoso Neto.

 

Gabriel Pimenta was a young (27 years old) and combative lawyer who took the decision to support the struggle to destroy the landlord class.

 

The killing took place during the struggle for land carried out by 160 peasants in Pauseco, approximately 18 kms. from Maraba.

 

He was the first lawyer who succeeded in winning the case for the poor peasants to own their land.  After he was killed, it was impossible to keep the land.

 

The landlord who ordered the murder as well as the criminal who shot Gabriel Pimenta are both unpunished.  The landlord, Manoel Cardoso Neto, is the brother of the former governor of the state of Minas Gerais.  He was to have faced trial on the 23^rd of May 2002 but did not appear.  Because the time has lapsed for the prosecution, the case was archived.

 

The peasants have requested the family of Gabriel Pimenta to bury him in Maraba, the city where he had lived and struggled, so that the people can keep alive his example.  Gabriel Pimenta is another martyr in the struggle of the poor peasants against the landlord class and he is also a martyr of the people’s lawyers.

 

WHEREFORE, we people’s lawyers, law students and legal workers from the International Association of Peoples’s Lawyers (IAPL) gathered in 2^nd Congress, resolve, as it is hereby resolved:

 

To honor the memory of the people's lawyer, Gabriel Sales Pimenta and condemn the impunity of his killers.

 

To call for justice for Gabriel Sales Pimenta and that the perpetrators of his killing must be arrested, tried and punished.

 

Adopted this 9^th day of November 2003, Istanbul, Turkey.