When Al Jazeera America retraced the route with Conceição in April, there was a stream of accidents — often involving donkeys, cows and pigs — on the road. The simple towns were marked by evangelical churches, cinderblock hotels and car repair workshops.

On the journey the workers talked of their families and slept. They stopped for a shot of cachaça at a roadside bar but no more. “We had heartache, as we did not want to leave our families, behind but we were so desperate for money,” Conceição said. He did not shower, since he could not afford the fee (about $1.60) at rundown truck stops.

“This movement of slaves has been going on since the expansion of capitalism into the Amazon about 40 years ago,” said Xavier Plassat, a French friar who leads the campaign against modern slavery for the Land Pastoral Commission in Brazil. “That created a tension over land here that has led to immense suffering.”

Conceição said the bus finally stopped on the roadside near Santana do Araguaia, in Pará state. The men were ordered onto a cattle truck with a cage section on the back — a design that still gives him flashbacks when he sees it.

“The promise was that we would go to a farm, but actually when we arrived, there was no farm,” he said. “We simply walked into the Amazon forest. When we were in the middle of the forest, we stopped, and we were ordered to put up a canopy.”

The men’s mission was to deforest that part of the Amazon to create a ranch and sell the timber. Many others who are enslaved there are put to work on livestock farms, with others forced to do dangerous work in coalmines.

Their leader was called José de Arimatéia, the name of the disciple who donated his tomb for Jesus’ burial after his crucifixion.

“He was a goat of a man, a nasty bit of work,” he said. “He was tall and always wore a hat. He kept a large machete by his side and always had a shotgun in his hand. He said that it was to get rid of the bad ones. I do not know what he meant by that. With him was José Wilson, who came with us from Monsenhor Gil, and a helper we called Barba.”