In May, 2011, Brazilian rainforest activist José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and his wife Maria do Espírito Santo were shot dead near their home in Para State, in the Amazon. The couple had received numerous death threat before the murder for their fight against illegal loggers and ranchers.
Da Silva had predicted his death just six month before the May assassination. In a speech at a TED event in November 2010 he said: "I could be here today talking to you and in one month you will get the news that I disappeared. I will protect the forest at all costs. That is why I could get a bullet in my head at any moment … because I denounce the loggers and charcoal producers, and that is why they think I cannot exist. [People] ask me, 'are you afraid?' Yes, I'm a human being, of course I am afraid. But my fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest."
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