José Francisco de Sousa Araújo was shot dead by two men on a motorbike on 11 July 2021. José Francisco was from Povoado Vergel and had already been the victim of an attempted murder in 2019. This village is the scene of an intense agrarian conflict that has already fatally killed four other family members of the victim, who had deep knowledge about the agrarian conflicts in the community. This was the fourth murder of rural workers or farmers in Maranhão in just one month.