British journalist Dom Phillips and an indigenous peoples' advocate have gone missing in Brazil. They had received death threats just days earlier.
Dom Phillips, a long-standing Brazil correspondent for the British outlet Guardian, and Bruno Araújo Pereira, a former government official tasked with protecting Brazil's uncontacted tribes, have gone missing in one of the most remote corners of the Amazon, just days after receiving threats from loggers and miners seeking to seize land from indigenous peoples.
The two were last seen in the Javari region, in the state of Amazonas, an area of rivers and trees near the border with Peru. The British journalist has been writing about Brazil for over 15 years for publications including the Guardian, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times.
Bruno Pereira, meanwhile, spent many years working for the Fundação Nacional do Índio (Funai), a government organisation responsible for protecting indigenous peoples and their lands. At Funai he first served as regional coordinator for Atalaia do Norte. Then, in 2018, Pereira was appointed Funai's general coordinator for uncontacted peoples, and had recently organised the largest expedition in 20 years to monitor their situation. In 2019 he was removed from his post following pressure from the agribusiness sector and farming lobbies, which are closely tied to the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.
On Monday 6 June, local indigenous leaders raised the alarm after the two men disappeared during a reporting mission along the river network around the town of Atalaia do Norte, the entry point to the Javari reserve. The return journey was not supposed to take more than three hours, but by the afternoon it was clear the two had run into some difficulty.
Concern is running high, not least because Bruno Pereira had received numerous death threats for his crucial work alongside indigenous communities. The Javari valley is home to many uncontacted peoples, but in recent years the area has suffered an incursion by drug traffickers, as well as an expansion of mining activities and illegal deforestation. Territorial encroachments and the violence associated with these activities pose a serious threat to the survival of the indigenous peoples of the area.
Federal police officials in Manaus, the state capital of Amazonas, said they were working on the case. By contrast, the army had not yet received orders from the government to join the search. Independent search groups were also organised by activists and environmentalists. Fiona Watson, director of the Research and advocacy department at Survival International, stated that "the violence and threats against indigenous peoples in the Javari valley are increasing, particularly since Funai and other authorities are now almost entirely absent from the territory they are supposed to protect. The climate of lawlessness prevailing in the region during this pre-electoral period is deeply troubling and highlights how crucial it is for Funai to put in place an effective and long-term protection programme."
Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also tweeted his concern for the pair. "Dom Phillips interviewed me for the Guardian in 2017. I hope they are found quickly and that they are safe and well," Lula wrote.
According to some analysts, under the Bolsonaro government pressure on these professional figures has increased because criminals and lobbying groups feel "protected," making them more aggressive. Systematically organised gangs of loggers, miners and poachers are plundering the forests and rivers of the region with impunity.
