"I only hope that my death contributes to a halt in the impunity of the police of Acre, and which have already killed fifty persons like me, seringuiero leaders [who are] commited to save the Amazon forest and to show that progress without destruction is possible." -a qutoe from Chico Menedes prior to his murder-

Serengueiros, a Brazilian word for plantation workers who are forced to harvest rubber tree (also titled Serengueiros) for work in the deforested parts of the Amazon. Seringalistas are the corporate owners, few actually from Brazil, most from out of the country, who own the deforested or stripped land. Fazendeiros are the Brazilian managers and landlords of the rubber plantations. The Brazilian government has sold millions of hectares of Amazon forest to multinational corporations.

Francisco "Chico" Menedes born in 1944, in Porte Seco, Brasil and assassinated on Dec. 22, 1988 was considered a seringueiros. Chico led peaceful protests, including "sit in's" of forest marked for logging or burning. Chico advocated the sustainable use and development of the Amazon Rainforest in the face of overwhelming offs. Multinational corporations have been plundering the land for rubber, chestnut, amongst other trees. Farmers and ranchers also threaten the existence of the Amazon ecosystem. A 2000 study estimated that the current rate of land loss in the Amazon basin is five millions acres of forest a year.