In the Amazon, disappearance of a British journalist and a Brazilian expert

Published on: 08/06/2022 – 10:23 British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian expert on indigenous peoples, Bruno Araujo Pereira, have disappeared in the Javari Valley, a remote region of Amazonia. Very experienced and connoisseurs of the region, the two men have not been seen since Sunday, when they had received threats. Two days after the disappearance in a remote region of the Amazon of a British journalist and a Brazilian specialist in indigenous peoples, the relatives of the two men expressed their deep concern on Tuesday, June 7. The independent journalist Dom Phillips, 57 years old , a regular contributor to the daily The Guardian, who was doing research for a book in the Javari Valley, and Bruno Araujo Pereira, 41, a recognized specialist in indigenous peoples, have not been seen since Sunday morning. They had “received threats on the ground the week (preceding) their disappearance”, revealed in a press release the Union of Indigenous Organizations of the Javari Valley (Univaja) and the Observatory for the Human Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples and recently contacted (OPI). The Amazonas Civil Police, which is involved in the investigations, said Tuesday evening that it was questioning a “suspect”. Four other people were questioned “as witnesses”. The federal police and the navy resumed their search on Tuesday, the latter with helicopters in particular. tribes often totally isolated. This region is experiencing an escalation in armed violence due to the presence of miners, gold panners and poachers. According to Univaja and OPI, the two men reached Lake Jaburu on Friday evening. They headed back on Sunday morning, but did not return to Atalaia do Norte as planned. They stopped in the community of Sao Rafael, where Bruno Pereira had scheduled a meeting with the local chief to discuss the issue of indigenous patrols to combat the increasingly frequent “invasions” of land under the Bolsonaro government. The local chief not arriving, they decided to return to Atalaia do Norte, two hours away by boat. They were last seen just downstream from Sao Rafael. The Javari Valley is one of the largest indigenous territories in Brazil. It is home to some 6,300 individuals from 26 ethnic groups, 19 of whom are isolated, according to the NGO Instituto Socioambiental. had been interrogated on Monday, then released. “Every minute counts (…). We call on the Brazilian authorities to do everything possible,” the journalist’s sister, Sian Phillips, implored in a video posted on social networks from the United Kingdom. “We knew it was a dangerous place, but Dom thought it was possible to preserve nature and the lives of indigenous people,” she added. The journalist’s Brazilian wife, Alessandra Sampaio, living with him in Salvador (north-east), asked in a video broadcast by TV Bahia for “an intensification of the search”. Bruno Araujo Pereira, who worked for Funai for a long time, has regularly received threats, including death, from illegal loggers and miners coveting indigenous lands. Bolsonaro and Lula get involvedAbout forty journalists and friends of Phillips, who also worked for the Washington Post, the New York Times and The Intercept, said in a letter published by O Globo that they refused to “consider the worst” and also called for an acceleration of the search. “I hope they will be found and return in peace,” wrote ex-president Lula da Silva on social media, posting a photo of the journalist during an interview. in 2017. Lula and Dom just a few years ago in Brazil. “I hope they are found and can come home in peace to their families and friends,” he says of Dom and Bruno https://t.co/Bse4vh9JBe— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) June 7, 2022 Jaïr Bolsonaro has been criticized after the initial refusal of the military authorities to mobilize a helicopter to try to locate the two men. “Two people in a boat, in a region like this, completely wild, is an adventure that is not to be recommended. Anything can happen,” the Brazilian president said in an interview with Sbt News. It may be an accident, they may have been executed”, continued Mr. Bolsonaro who “prays God that they are found as soon as possible”. “The armed forces are working hard in the region,” he said. With AFP