Quilombo leader Mãe Bernadete shot dead six years after son was killed
Maria Bernadete Pacífico, the leader of the quilombo Pitanga dos Palmares, a priestess of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé, and the former Secretary for Racial Equality of Simões Filho, in Bahia state, was assassinated Thursday night (Aug. 17).
Criminals reportedly invaded the community, held family members hostage, and shot Mãe Bernadete, as she is popularly referred to. She is also the mother of Flávio Gabriel Pacífico dos Santos—better known as Binho do Quilombo—who was murdered almost six years ago.
Bahia Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues has instructed the military and civil police to conduct a thorough investigation.
According to Denildo Rodrigues, from the National Coordination of Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Conaq), Bernadete was killed by the same group responsible for Binho’s execution.
“She knew, and the justice system knew, that those who ordered Binho’s killing were there, near the community. But nothing happened. She never kept quiet. Now she’s been silenced. It’s really sad for us,” he lamented.
Rodrigues stated that quilombo and Afro-Brazilian community leaders in Simões Filho are constantly threatened by groups linked to real estate speculation, as they seek to ways to occupy these territories.
The municipality is located in the greater Salvador region, identified by the recent Quilombola Census as the capital city with Brazil’s largest quilombola population, with nearly 16 thousand people and five officially registered quilombos. These traditional areas were originally founded by black people fleeing slavery during the country’s colonial period.
In a statement released Thursday night, Conaq demands that the government take immediate action to protect the leaders of the Pitanga de Palmares quilombo.
“The Conaq family deeply feels the loss of this extraordinarily wise woman and a true leader. Her premature departure is an irreparable loss not only for the quilombola community but for the entire human rights defense movement,” the note reads.
“It is the duty of the state to ensure a swift and effective investigation and to hold those responsible for the crimes that have victimized the leaders of this quilombo accountable. Justice must be served and the truth revealed, with the perpetrators punished. We seek justice to honor the memory of our lost leader, but also to affirm that acts of violence against quilombo members will not be tolerated in Brazil,” the text goes on to say.
A delegation led by the Ministries of Racial Equality, Justice, and Human Rights will be sent on Friday (18) to hold in-person meetings with government agencies in Bahia and to provide assistance to victims and their families in order to protect the territory. The Ministry of Racial Equality is set to convene an extraordinary meeting of the task force for combating religious racism.
The Pitanga dos Palmares quilombo, led by Bernadete, consists of 289 families and covers 854.2 hectares, recognized in 2017. The community has been certified by the Palmares Foundation, but the quilombo’s titling process is yet to be completed.
A study by the Network of Security Observatories, conducted with the support of state public security secretariats and released in June this year, indicated Bahia as the second Brazilian state with the highest number of cases of violence against traditional peoples and communities. Second only to Pará, Bahia recorded 428 victims of violence between 2017 and 2022.
