BRASILIA, Brazil – Brazilian police have arrested 18 people, including six landowners, in connection with the murder of an indigenous leader who was fighting to recover his tribe's ancestral land.
A federal police chief from Mato Grosso do Sul state told the Associated Press that Thursday's arrests also included a lawyer, a public servant and 10 men who worked for a security company. The police chief declined to reveal her name for safety reasons.
The victim, Nisio Gomes, was a guarani-kaiowa leader targeted because of his fight to recover his tribe's land.
Witnesses told investigators that Gomes was shot in November, and his body was thrown in the back of a pickup truck. The police chief said the body still has not been found, but that the suspects face murder charges.
