WCH: On 22 December 1988 Brazilian rubber worker activist, environmentalist and Indigenous rights advocate Chico Mendes was assassinated by a rancher. To try to protect the Amazon rainforest, rubber workers and Mendes, a senior official in their union, asked the government to set up reserves to prevent deforestation. Rubber workers in Cachoeira set up roadblocks to keep out a rancher called Darly Alves Da Silva who bought part of a reserve.