“Dona Neura was a historic defender of the Cerrado and of agrarian reform, with a deep passion for forests and plants,” recalls Amélia Franz, a settler in the municipality of Palmeiras de Goiás, about her comrade in arms, who was brutally murdered by her ex-husband, Neurice Torres, in 2022.
Affectionately known as Dona Neura, she was a beneficiary of agrarian reform, had three children, defended the Cerrado and family farming, and was a militant for the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST-GO). Dona Neura was in her settlement in the city of Minaçu (GO) when the murder took place.
She was found half-naked, head down in a water tank, with signs of violence on her body. The barbaric crime had wide repercussions, impacting on and mobilizing the MST grassroots and peasant women to demand redress and justice.