SAO PAULO (Reuters) – A Brazilian state court issued arrest warrants against two former military police officers involved in the killing of 19 landless peasants in 1996, in a case that human rights activists claim is emblematic of the nation’s culture of impunity.
The decision by the Justice Tribunal of the state of Pará yesterday comes after both officers, former Colonel Mario Colares Pantoja and former Major José Maria Pereira de Oliveira, were sentenced to prison terms of 258 years and 158 years, respectively.
