The crime occurred in 2007, when a militia hired by the multinational company murdered Valmir Mota de Oliveira, known as Keno. The farmer was taking part in a land occupation organized by the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) and Via Campesina to denounce illegal experiments conducted by Syngenta using genetically modified seeds.

The crime occurred in 2007, when a militia hired by the multinational company murdered Valmir Mota de Oliveira, known as Keno. The farmer was taking part in a land occupation organized by the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) and Via Campesina to denounce illegal experiments conducted by Syngenta using genetically modified seeds.

After 19 years of legal proceedings, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) confirmed the civil liability of the multinational Syngenta and its obligation to pay compensation for the murder of landless farmer and MST member Valmir Mota de Oliveira, known as Keno, and the attempted murder of farmer Isabel Maria Cardin.

The crimes were committed by private security personnel working for the company during a protest occupation organized by the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) and Via Campesina at a company-owned farm in Santa Tereza do Oeste, Paraná state, on 21 October 2007. Around 200 people took part in the occupation, which was intended to protest against illegal experiments conducted by the multinational company. Syngenta was using genetically modified seeds within the buffer zone of Iguaçu National Park, a natural World Heritage site.

The First Civil Court of Cascavel ordered the company to pay compensation for non-pecuniary and material damages to Keno’s family—his wife and three children—and compensation for non-pecuniary and material damages, as well as for permanent physical injuries, to Isabel Maria Cardin. The Paraná State Court of Justice upheld the ruling. Syngenta appealed, and in 2024 the STJ upheld the decision of the Paraná State Court of Justice. In July 2025, the First Civil Court approved the agreement reached by the parties during the enforcement proceedings. The payments were made in early February 2026.

In its ruling, the court recognized Syngenta’s strict liability under Brazilian law for the actions of NF Segurança, the security company it had contracted. The decision also emphasized that the multinational company hired the security company despite knowing that it operated as a militia, since NF Segurança had carried out an illegal eviction operation against landless families six months before the attack. The court recognized that property rights cannot, under any circumstances, override the right to life.

The ruling against the multinational company is emblematic because the court recognized the company’s responsibility for hiring NF Segurança and financing militia operations in the violent attack against rural workers. José Damasceno, a member of the MST Paraná leadership, emphasized that the decision has “profound significance” for the Movement and society as a whole because the company is “one of the major multinational agribusiness corporations and has for years committed crimes around the world by poisoning the land, water and food, causing a wide range of health problems.”

Almost two decades after the crime, the MST leader reaffirmed the importance of pursuing justice: “It gives us confidence that it is worth fighting, that it is worth struggling to ensure that justice is done for crimes committed against people, against humankind.” 

The ruling against the transnational corporation Syngenta is an exceptional case because, as a rule, companies use every means available to prevent the State from holding them accountable for their crimes. Even after considerable struggle and campaigning, justice was only obtained 19 years after the events—an unjustifiable delay. The case will serve as a precedent for other struggles against serious human rights violations committed by large corporations,” said Darci Frigo, Executive Coordinator of Terra de Direitos.

In the criminal courts, the Paraná State Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP-PR) brought criminal proceedings against Nerci de Freitas, the owner of NF Segurança; the hired gunmen who took part in the attack; and Alessandro Meneghel, a local landowner identified as having ordered the crime together with Syngenta. After ten years of proceedings, the case was dismissed at the request of the MP-PR itself, on the grounds that the right to have the case concluded within a reasonable period of time had been violated.

See the timeline of the fight for justice here

Keno’s allegations were confirmed
Peasant movements mobilized on Syngenta-owned land to denounce irregularities in the planting of genetically modified seeds around Iguaçu National Park, in the municipality of Santa Tereza do Oeste. The park’s management plan established a ten-kilometre buffer zone—a protected area in which genetically modified seeds could not be handled, as the multinational company had been doing. Nevertheless, the company planted 123 hectares of genetically modified soybeans within the park’s buffer zone, an area equivalent to 123 football pitches.

The first occupation took place while Curitiba was hosting the Convention on Biological Diversity meetings known as COP8/MOP3, in March 2006. That same month, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) cited the company for the violation and imposed a fine of R$1 million. After learning that the company would resume the experiments, peasant movements occupied the area again in October 2007.

The attack that resulted in Keno’s murder and Isabel’s serious injuries occurred at around noon on 21 October, when a minibus carrying private security personnel and a car containing weapons arrived at the site. Around 40 people took part in the operation, including NF Segurança personnel and heavily armed hired gunmen.

Keno and Isabel were at the site’s security post. With no possibility of defending themselves, the armed group fired directly at the workers. Keno was executed, with shots to his chest and leg. The group also attempted to execute Isabel. After being forced to her knees, she was struck by gunfire in the head, arm and chest. She survived the attack but lost the sight in one eye and mobility in her arm and shoulder.

In December 2007, two months after the crime, the Paraná courts confirmed that the research conducted by Syngenta in the area was illegal.
Since 2009, the 123-hectare area where Keno was murdered has housed the Valmir Mota de Oliveira Agroecology Research Center, administered by the Paraná Environmental Institute (Iapar).

A victory in the struggle against GM crops
Nineteen years after Keno’s murder, the payment of compensation represents a moment of relief and carries considerable political significance for his family. Keno was murdered at the age of 34, leaving behind his wife and three children. His widow, Iris de Oliveira, regards the ruling as a victory for the entire social movement, not only for her family. “It was a struggle that we won as a movement, as the MST. It wasn’t only me or my children who won,” she said.

Iris emphasizes that the legal battle and the occupation that culminated in her husband’s death had a broader purpose: defending food sovereignty and the environment, a cause Keno had embraced since discussions about genetically modified seeds first began. 

“I never lost hope that one day Syngenta would be held liable. It was a tremendous relief for me that this has happened now, and to know that one way or another, the company has paid,” she said. She is also sharply critical of the justice system’s delays. “The good thing is that they [the courts] saw that we did not allow Keno to be forgotten.”
Despite their pain, Iris and her children overcame the trauma, emphasizing the importance of the Movement’s continued support: “The MST never abandoned me. And the MST will never abandon a family that has gone through something like this.”

“Working people won”
A survivor of the 2007 attack, Isabel Cardin describes the costs of the struggle and the strength required to honour Keno’s memory. “I don’t think the most important thing was receiving the compensation. That is a financial matter. What matters is the victory of working people. That is the most important thing,” Isabel said.

She celebrates the outcome as a break with the logic that only the powerful can win. “Usually, the stronger side is the one that wins. This time, working people won. I hope that many, many more times, working people will continue to win these court battles.” For Isabel, the compensation for non-pecuniary and material damages and for permanent physical injuries is essential to redress the serious violation of her human dignity and the permanent injuries she suffered.

Isabel believes that the 17-year delay in resolving the case was partly due to the scale of the company involved. “Unfortunately, our justice system is very slow.” She believes that the justice system slowed the proceedings to delay the company’s defeat in the eyes of the public. She hopes the ruling will serve as a lesson. “Society can now know that this company lost, that it was held liable, in a case in which it lost to humble, hard-working people.”

The long wait came at an immense cost to Isabel’s physical and psychological health. Because she could not afford to stop working, she took on several different jobs despite the serious permanent injuries to her body. “I worked as a bakery assistant, a salesclerk and a cleaner. I collected recyclable materials to survive,” she said.

Isabel regrets that the delays affected both her recovery and her personal life: “Had the case been resolved earlier, my physical and mental health would not be so badly affected today... I missed my granddaughters growing up; because of my health, I could not see one of my daughters give birth to a granddaughter.” Today, she feels relieved: “Now I can sleep knowing that justice has been done.”

For Isabel, the motivation to persist against a corporate giant was not financial. It was the need to honour the memory of her murdered companion. Money will never bring Keno back, she said, but the ruling has symbolic significance. “The need for justice to be done, especially for Keno, was what gave me the strength to continue in this struggle, in this fight, and to make Syngenta pay.”

Isabel Cardin reaffirms the importance of activism in her life and promises to continue the struggle against pesticides and for agrarian reform: “It was within the MST that I learned the value of family and the value of every human being [...]. This struggle is the most important thing that has ever happened in my life... Now I feel even more committed to the struggle.”

The continuing violence in rural areas and the struggle against GM crops
Rural workers continue to face intense violence, with security companies and militias being used to attack demonstrations, particularly in rural areas. The study Na Linha de Frente (On the Front Line), produced by Terra de Direitos and Justiça Global on violence against human rights defenders, found that private actors were the perpetrators in 62.1% of the cases documented in 2023 and 2024. Peasants and landless rural workers were victims in 131 cases of violence during those two years.

The creation of the organization Invasão Zero, organized by agribusiness interests in coordination with militias and public security officials, also demonstrates the close connection between agribusiness and the use of extreme violence. One example is the murder of Pataxó Indigenous leader Nega Pataxó by rural militias in Bahia in January 2024.

The allegations made by the workers in 2007 also remain relevant. Brazil continues to violate biodiversity through the approval of GM crops without respecting the precautionary principle or guaranteeing the rights to health and to an ecologically balanced environment, as required by the Brazilian Federal Constitution.

Despite repeated warnings from organizations and experts about the risks to health and biodiversity, HB4 genetically modified wheat was approved for cultivation in 2023 by the National Technical Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio), the body responsible for authorizing genetically modified organisms.

A transnational corporation built on poison
Syngenta exemplifies a transnational corporation operating in the pesticide industry worldwide and facing lawsuits concerning several types of violations. The company currently states that it is registered in Shanghai, China, with its administrative headquarters in Switzerland. It has four business units headquartered in Switzerland, the United States, Israel and China, and operates in around 100 countries.

Among the most recent allegations the company faces in Brazil is a public civil action filed in 2024 by Ibama and Brazil’s Office of the Attorney General (AGU) over the adulteration of pesticide products and an attempt to evade regulatory inspections.

Another highly significant case is a class action filed against Syngenta in Canada concerning alleged health harms caused by its paraquat-based herbicides, which were sold under the Gramoxone brand between the 1960s and 2017. The case was brought on behalf of a group of Canadians who developed Parkinson’s disease after being exposed to the product, as well as their close family members.

In addition to internally disregarding studies that demonstrated the product’s health impacts, the company was accused of acting in bad faith by attempting to influence the scientific consensus, minimize the product’s dangers and protect its commercial interests.

Seminar at the 23rd Jornada de Agroecologia do Paraná
The struggle for justice for Keno and the defence of agroecology will be the subject of the seminar Keno, Presente! A resistência camponesa na luta pela terra, agroecologia e contra os transgênicos (“Keno, Present! Peasant resistance in the struggle for land, agroecology and against GM crops”), to be held on 20 June as part of the programme of the 23rd Jornada de Agroecologia do Paraná (Paraná Agroecology Gathering).

The event is jointly organized by MST Paraná and Terra de Direitos and will take place at 6:00 p.m. in room PA-07 of the Exact Sciences Building at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), in Curitiba.