We recently spoke to Brazilian environmental activist Angela Mendes, the daughter of Amazonian forest defender and labor leader Chico Mendes, who was assassinated by ranchers in December 1988. She discussed her father’s legacy and her ongoing work to protect the Amazon rainforest from encroachment by ranching and mining industries. “They come here, build their companies, bringing death to the territories, bringing death for the forests and threatening the peoples of the forest,” Mendes said, speaking to Democracy Now! at the COP30 U.N. climate summit in Belém.

We recently spoke to Brazilian environmental activist Angela Mendes, the daughter of Amazonian forest defender and labor leader Chico Mendes, who was assassinated by ranchers in December 1988. She discussed her father’s legacy and her ongoing work to protect the Amazon rainforest from encroachment by ranching and mining industries. “They come here, build their companies, bringing death to the territories, bringing death for the forests and threatening the peoples of the forest,” Mendes said, speaking to Democracy Now! at the COP30 U.N. climate summit in Belém.