Conflict over land uses have, in some instances, developed into full-blown human rights abuses. In Ceará, a Working Group created by the Commission of Environment and Sustainable Development (CMADS) to study shrimp farming and promote its sustainability heard reports of threats to local fishers by shrimp companies' security guards.
In April 2002, in Piauí, Sebastian Marques de Souza, leader of a community opposed to rapid shrimp aquaculture expansion, was reportedly assassinated. | ||||
In September 2004, six fishermen and community activists, including children, were shot and injured during a brutal attack by gunmen reportedly hired by the Empresa Joli Aquicultura shrimp farming company in Curral Velho, near Aracau on the Atlantic coast. The attack took place after a number of residents of Curral Velho confronted employees of the shrimp farm over unlawful expansion of the farm's boundaries into nearby mangrove forests used by the community for fishing and docking boats. Despite reportedly reaching an agreement with the farm's management, two fishermen were shot at later in the day by armed guards from the farm. Three hooded off-duty policemen were later arrested, with a cache of weapons discovered on the shrimp farm premises.
In May 2005, Paulo Marinho de Almeida, was reportedly kidnapped and later murdered by hired hands from a shrimp farm in Bahia. | ||||
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