Jungle Jailbreak

EVERYONE KNEW THAT CHICO MENDES WAS A marked man -- long before the leader of the Amazon rubber tappers and champion of rain-forest preservation was killed in 1988. Little was done to protect him from hostile ranchers bent on stripping the forests. When his assassins, Darci Alves Pereira and his father % Darly Alves da Silva, were convicted two years later, it was an unprecedented strike for justice that triggered a steady decline in local violence.

But with Darci and Darly's escape from prison last Monday, Brazil's western frontier has regained its reputation for lawlessness. Despite repeated warnings that lax security made a jailbreak all but inevitable, state and federal government officials paid no attention. Once again, rubber tappers fear more violence. "This place could turn into a war zone," warned Gumercindo Rodrigues of the Xapuri Rural Workers' Union. Inundated with protests from environmental groups, the Brazilian government vowed to recapture the gunmen. "They'll never find them," predicted Mendes' widow Ilzamar, who accused local authorities of complicity in the escape. A police manhunt has so far failed to turn up any sign of the fugitives, who could be hiding in neighboring Bolivia.