ITA - Chico Mendes, nome completo Francisco Alves Mendes Filho (Xapuri, 15 dicembre 1944 – Xapuri, 22 dicembre 1988), è stato un sindacalista, politico e ambientalista brasiliano.
Raccoglitore di caucciù (seringueiro), è stato Segretario generale del Sindacato dei lavoratori rurali di Brasiléia (Sindicato dos Trabalhadores Rurais) dal 1975 e promotore della nascita del sindacato a Xapuri (1976), lega il proprio nome alla lotta contro il disboscamento della foresta amazzonica, condotta dai contadini con metodi assembleari ed utilizzando con successo la pratica dell'empate ("impedimento, stallo"). Nel 1978 è eletto vice presidente del consiglio comunale a Xapuri (l'anno seguente è presidente). Tende a trasformare il consiglio (Câmara Municipal) in un'assemblea permanente in cui partecipano tutte le componenti politiche, sociali e religiose della città, non ricevendo l'appoggio delle formazioni politiche ufficiali, incluso il proprio partito, il Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (MDB).
Viene pubblicamente minacciato dai possidenti della zona e cominciano le repressioni violente degli empates, che perdono l'efficacia iniziale, e le carcerazioni extragiudiziali di centinaia di contadini per tutto il decennio successivo; in quest'anno anche Chico Mendes viene arrestato e torturato. Il sindacato dei lavoratori rurali conosce però una forte espansione diventando il maggiore dello stato di Acre. Dal 1979 con Lula, Josè Ibrahim e altri partecipa alle assemblee che porteranno alla nascita nel 1980 del Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT, Partito dei Lavoratori), un organismo che darà appoggio politico alle rivendicazioni della CUT, la federazione sindacale generale di cui faceva parte il sindacato dei lavoratori rurali.
Nello stesso anno viene arrestato e processato per l'omicidio di Wilson Pinheiro, leader sindacale di un'organizzazione avversaria, ma il processo rivela la montatura dell'accusa, per la quale sono invece condannati 40 possidenti di Xapuri. Nei tre anni seguenti affronterà altri due processi per istigazione alla violenza, essendo in entrambi prosciolto per insufficienza di prove. Dal 1981, Mendes è segretario della CUT a Xapuri, carica che manterrà fino alla morte pur continuando l'attività politica nel PT; nel 1982 perde le elezioni per un seggio a deputato nel parlamento statale di Acre.
Nel 1985 guida il primo congresso nazionale dei seringueiros, durante il quale viene creato il Consiglio Nazionale dei Seringueiros (CNS, Conselho Nacional do Seringueiros), che diventerà il soggetto politico e sindacale che porterà le rivendicazioni di Mendes, dei contadini e delle popolazioni indigene dell'Amazzonia all'attenzione dei media internazionali. Nel 1987 una delegazione delle Nazioni Unite verifica direttamente a Xapuri le accuse rivolte alle grosse finanziarie statunitensi che appoggiano progetti di disboscamento che causano la disoccupazione forzata dei seringueiros, l'esilio forzato dei contadini indios dell'Amazzonia ed un danno ecologico di dimensioni planetarie; in seguito a 40 giorni di campagna negli Stati Uniti, durante i quali Chico Mendes parla anche di fronte al Senato statunitense, la BID (Bank of Interamerican Development) ritira i propri investimenti in Amazzonia.
Nel 1988 Mendes lavora con successo alla creazione di una "riserva estrattiva" di caucciù nel seringal Cachoeira, espropriato dallo Stato alla famiglia latifondista Alves da Silva che l'aveva a sua volta illegalmente acquisito da dei piccoli proprietari terrieri. È l'anno in cui nasce l'União Democrática Ruralista (Unione democratica rurale o UDR) un sindacato che compie in realtà azioni paramilitari in tutto lo stato, minacciando ripetutamente Chico Mendes, che denuncerà alla polizia i nomi dei suoi futuri sicari. Nel terzo congresso della CUT Mendes denuncia nuovamente i delitti della UDR, ed espone la tesi congressuale "In difesa del popolo della foresta" davanti ai 6000 delegati che lo eleggeranno segretario generale per acclamazione.
Il 22 dicembre 1988 viene ucciso davanti alla porta di casa dai fratelli Alves da Silva, precedenti proprietari del seringal Cachoeira. Riguardo all'arresto dell'assassino e dei mandanti: nonostante fossero ben noti, furono considerati fuori dalla portata giudiziaria per le loro connessioni politiche e il loro potere economico. Forti pressioni nazionali ed internazionali riuscirono a far arrivare il caso in tribunale.
Nel dicembre del 1990, Darly Alves da Silva, proprietario terriero e allevatore locale, con il quale Chico si era scontrato più volte per l'ottenimento del titolo di "reservas extractivistas" per la sua regione, ricevette una condanna a 19 anni di prigione per essere stato il mandante dell'omicidio; suo figlio, Darci, ricevette la stessa condanna per esserne stato l'esecutore materiale.
L'entusiasmo iniziale fu molto, sia a livello internazionale e mediatico che regionale, ma non appena i media spostarono i loro riflettori, gli omicidi continuarono. Dagli ultimi anni del Settanta, delle centinaia di omicidi di capi sindacali che protestavano per i diritti della terra, l'unico per cui si investigò e che portò ad una condanna fu quello di Chico Mendes. La condanna a Darly Alves da Silva fu annullata nel febbraio del 1992 a Rio Branco dalla corte d'appello statale.
Nel 2013 gli viene dedicata una nuova specie di uccelli, Zimmerius chicomendesi, scoperta in Amazzonia da un gruppo di studiosi della Louisiana State University.
ENG - Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, better known as Chico Mendes (December 15, 1944 – December 22, 1988), was a Brazilian rubber tapper, trade union leader and environmentalist. He fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples. He was assassinated by a rancher on December 22, 1988. The Chico Mendes Institute for Conservation of Biodiversity (Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade), a body under the jurisdiction of the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, is named in his honor.
Francisco "Chico" Alves Mendes Filho was born on December 15, 1944, in a rubber reserve called Seringal Bom Futuro, outside of Xapuri, a small town in the state of Acre. He was the son of a second-generation rubber tapper, Francisco Mendes, and his wife, Irâce. Chico was one of 18 siblings—only six of whom survived childhood.
At age 9, Chico began work as a rubber tapper. Schools were generally prohibited on the rubber plantations. The owners did not want the workers being able to read and do arithmetic, because they would then be likely to discover they were being exploited. Mendes did not learn to read until he was 18 years old.
At first I thought I was fighting to save rubber trees, then I thought I was fighting to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realise I am fighting for humanity.
To save the rainforest, Chico Mendes and the rubber workers union asked the government to set up reserves as they wanted people to use the forest without damaging it.They also used a very effective technique they called the 'empate' where rubber tappers blocked the way into rubber reserves, preventing their destruction. The Rubber Tappers Union was created in 1975 in the nearby town of Brasileia, with Wilson Pinheiro elected as president and Mendes as its secretary.
Mendes also played a central role in the creation of the National Council of Rubber Tappers in the mid-1980s. Mendes' group also had strong ties with the National Campaign for the Defense and Development of the Amazon, and helped locally organize Workers' Party support.
When the first meeting of this new union was held in 1985, in the capital Brasilia, rubber tappers from all over the country came. The discussion expanded from the threats to their own livelihoods to the larger issues of deforestation, road paving, and cattle ranching. The meeting also had the effect of catching the attention of the international environmentalist movement, and highlighting their plight to a larger audience. The group embraced a larger alliance with environmentalism, rather than strict Marxism, in spite of the bourgeois associations of the former. Another result of these discussions was the coining of the concept and the term "extractive reserves". In November of that year, Adrian Cowell, an English filmmaker, filmed much of the proceedings of this meeting as part of a documentary he was making about Mendes, which aired in 1990.
Mendes believed that relying on rubber tapping alone was not sustainable, and that the seringueiros needed to develop more holistic, cooperative systems that used a variety of forest products, such as nuts, fruit, oil, and fibers; and that they needed to focus on building strong communities with quality education for their children.
In March 1987, the Environmental Defense Fund and National Wildlife Federation flew Mendes to Washington, D.C. in an attempt to convince the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and U.S. Congress to support the creation of extractive reserves.
Mendes won several awards for his work, including the United Nations Environmental Program Global 500 Roll of Honor Award in 1987, and the National Wildlife Federation's National Conservation Achievement Award in 1988.
In 1988 a man called Darly Alves Da Silva bought part of a rubber reserve called Cachoeira, where relatives of Mendes lived, and which was affiliated to the local Rural Workers Union in Xapuri. While the sale of the section was disputed by the family of the vendor, who claimed he had no legal right to sell it, Da Silva tried to drive them off their land and increase his ranch holdings. The rubber tappers of Cachoeira stood firm and set up road blocks to keep Da Silva out.
In 1988, Mendes launched a campaign to stop rancher Darly Alves da Silva from logging the area that its inhabitants wanted demarcated as an extractive reserve. Mendes not only managed to stop the planned deforestation and create the reserve, but also gained a warrant for Darly's arrest, for a murder committed in another state, Parana. He delivered the warrant to the federal police, but it was never acted upon.
On the evening of Thursday, December 22, 1988, Mendes was assassinated in his Xapuri home by Darci, son of rancher Darly Alves da Silva. The shooting took place exactly one week after Mendes' 44th birthday, when he had predicted he would "not live until Christmas". Mendes was the 19th rural activist to be murdered that year in Brazil. Many felt that although the trial was proceeding against the actual killers, the roles of the ranchers' union, the Rural Democratic Union, and the Brazilian Federal Police in his death was ignored.
In December 1990, Darly Alves da Silva, his son Darci, and their ranch hand, Jerdeir Pereira, were sentenced to 19 years in prison for their part in Mendes' assassination. In February 1992, they won a retrial, claiming that the prosecution's primary witness (Chico's wife) was biased. The conviction was upheld, and they remained in prison. In 1993, they escaped from jail, along with seven other prisoners, by sawing through the bars of their prison window. All were recaptured, including Darly Jr., who served the remainder of his sentence with the other killers before returning to Xapuri.
On December 18, 1988, the newspaper Jornal do Brasil had a chance to publish an interview that could have saved the life of Chico Mendes; the "interest" by the publication of the material, however, only happened after the murder of the activist.
Mendes' murder made international headlines, and led to an outpouring of support for the rubber tappers' and environmental movements. In March 1989, a third meeting was held for the National Council of Rubber Tappers, and the Alliance of Forest Peoples was created to protect rubber tappers, rural workers, and indigenous peoples from encroachment on traditional lands.
Thanks in part to the international media attention surrounding the murder, the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve was created in the area where he lived. More than 20 such reserves, along the same lines as Mendes had proposed, now cover more than 8 million acres (32,000 km²).
The musical group Maná made a song about the death of Mendes. The song was titled "Cuando los Ángeles Lloran", referring to Mendes as an angel that has died.[26] Paul McCartney dedicated the song "How Many People" from his 1989 album Flowers In The Dirt to the memory of Mendes. Moreover, composer Clare Fischer, who had himself supplied orchestral arrangements for McCartney's album ("Distractions" and the unreleased "The Lovers That Never Were"), dedicated a composition from his own 1989 album to Mendes, namely "Xapurí" (after the so-called 'City of Chico Mendes'), from Lembranças (Remembrances).
In 2013 a newly discovered species of bird, Chico's tyrannulet (Zimmerius chicomendesi), was named after him.