Nuns face guns, impunity in trying to save Amazon

March 30, 2010
By Bradley Brooks
Associated Press

PDT CARLINDA, Brazil (AP) – The gunmen arrived in the Amazon dusk, circling the house where Sister Leonora was hiding, rifles and pistols poking out the windows of three muddy pickup trucks.

A violent death was meant for the diminutive 64-year-old Roman Catholic nun, who has spent decades defending poor, landless workers — and collecting countless threats from ranchers she blocked from stealing Amazon land.