Under applause, the body of the ialorixá and quilombola leader Maria Bernadete Pacífico was taken to the Cemetery of the Third Order of San Francisco, in Baixa de Quintas, around 11 am this Saturday.
“Today, I came in the funeral home car with the body of a warrior”, declared Mel Girassol, general coordinator of the Abayomi institute.
Mel Girassol was one of the people who helped carry Bernadette Pacific’s coffin. “But that was not the tribute I wanted to pay. In Candomblé, we learn to honor the living and the dead we respect”, he said.
Abayomi is Simões Filho’s first black culture institution, which was inspired by the struggle of the murdered quilombola leader.
“I am aware that today I am in this place because she paved the way,” he said. Bernadette Pacific was at home, in Quilombo de Palmares, when she was murdered by criminals who arrived on motorcycles and who remained wearing helmets so as not to be identified. “In 10 years, 30 quilombola leaders were murdered in Brazil. How long are we going to stay in this vicious cycle?”, she asked.
The leader of Quilombo de Palmares was killed with 22 shots. “There were 12 on her face alone. The rest were on her chest. Cruelty to her”, said her son Wellington Santos, during the procession. He has no doubt that his mother’s execution is related to the death of his brother, who was murdered in 2017. “The two fought to guarantee the rights of our quilombola people. They may not have been the same people who killed, but it was certainly the same boss “, amended.
Hundreds of people dressed in white crowded the cemetery. With Candomblé rituals, they paid their last respects to Bernadette Pacific. Under strong commotion, representatives of more than 20 quilombos in Bahia, such as Cachoeira, Feira de Santana, Antônio Cardoso, Jacobina and Lauro de Freitas, asked for justice.
“Mother Bernadette was fighting with all her strength and the land ownership process had already advanced, in the removal process (it is the removal of those who do not come from a legally marked area), when she was killed. This crime cannot go unpunished. “, said Isabel Jesus Santos dos Santos, from Quilombo de Lagoa Grande, Feira de Santana, and also a representative of the Quilombo Movement of Bahia.
For Isabel, the quilombos have lost more than leadership. “She was a Yoruba-speaking person, who knew a lot about African-derived religions, who had a lot to teach us about the quilombola movement. She was a living library. She was under the protection of the state, which in turn was negligent” , he declared.
Lindinalva de Paula, from the Bahia Black Women’s Network, spoke about the risk of the quilombo struggle. “Each black woman who is here is at risk of death, also because Mother Bernadette’s agenda is not exclusively hers. Each one here is a human rights defender and is at risk. We are in the hot seat and this message was sent to us, who we defend land, that every day we bury our black boys”, he vented.
“It’s a crime of command. My family is being persecuted”, so defines Wellington, son of Mother Bernadette, murdered in Simões Filho, in the Metropolitan Region of Salvador. The crime took place on Thursday night (17), in the place where the quilombola leader lived.
At the time of the crime, she was accompanied by her grandchildren. Criminals entered the property where an association operated. According to witnesses, armed bandits invaded the terreiro, tied people up and shot the quilombola leader. The perpetrators of the shots were wearing helmets when they invaded Mother Bernadette’s house and committed the crime. 12 shots were allegedly fired at the quilombola leader.
In an interview with TV Bahia, Wellington called for an investigation into the death of his mother and also his brother, Flávio Gabriel Pacífico dos Santos, better known as Binho do Quilombo, executed on September 19, 2017. “It’s a crime of command. I’m not going to get dirty my hands in blood. I’m going to leave a message for Minister Flávio Dino and Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues, who was with her until last week: it’s easy to solve this crime. I ask you, please, for justice to be done. That nothing happens what happened to my brother. It’s a chance to elucidate the two cases,” he said.
He also said that the place is monitored by cameras, which can help to elucidate the crime. “If justice wants to solve it, it will solve it. I know I’m the next target. But I’m not afraid, I was only born once and I will die. I will continue fighting for my rights because the quilombola is resistance”, he said.
Wellington expressed outrage at his mother’s execution. “You killed an elderly woman, you discharged a pistol in an elderly woman’s face. You are bad, a scrotum and whoever ordered the killing is even worse. Whoever ordered the killing is a coward”, he vented.
