Boy Links Rancher to Murder of Amazon Defender Mendes

A teen-ager who hid from killers for more than a year testified today that a rancher on trial for slaying rain forest defender Chico Mendes made plans to celebrate the murder with a barbecue.

Genezio Barbosa da Silva, 15, a farmhand, was considered the star witness in the trial of Darly Alves da Silva, accused of plotting Mendes’ 1988 killing. The boy is a distant relative of the accused.

In dramatic testimony on the third day of the trial, the youth also recounted in gruesome detail seven murders that he said were committed by the rancher’s family.

Alves da Silva’s son, Darci Alves Pereira, stunned the court on the first day of the trial Wednesday by confessing to the slaying, but prosecutors contend that he made the statement to keep his father from being implicated.

Today was the first day of testimony.

Genezio said he was lying in bed the night Mendes was shot.

“It was about 9 o’clock,” he said. “I heard Darci coming, running. Darly was waiting for him on the front porch. Darci said, ‘Mendes is dead.’ ”

He said that Darly replied to his son, “The cow is caught. Tomorrow we’ll cook another for the barbecue.”

“I was frightened and stayed in my bed,” Genezio said.

There were gasps in the courtroom as the boy testified.

The judge, Adair Longhini, asked Genezio if he knew that Alves da Silva wanted to kill Chico Mendes.

“Yes,” the boy said. “I knew for a while that he wanted to kill him.”