Authorities say that a British journalist and an official from Indigenous Affairs are still missing in Brazil’s Amazon. They are intensifying their search efforts for the pair. The area has been the scene of violent conflict between poachers, fishermen, and government agents.
Dom Phillips, a regular contributor of the Guardian newspaper in Britain, and Bruno Araujo Pereira, were last seen in Sao Rafael early Sunday morning. They reported that the Univaja association, which includes people from the Vale do Javari Indigenous territory, was being assisted by Pereira.
They were about to return by boat from Vale do Javari, heading for Atalaia do norte, which is approximately an hour away. However, they never arrived.
Pereira is one the most experienced employees of the Brazilian Indigenous Affairs Agency in the Vale do Javari region. Before taking his current leave, he was responsible for the agency’s regional offices and coordination of isolated Indigenous groups. He is often armed with a gun and has been threatened by poachers and illegal fishermen.
Univaja claimed that the two men had been threatened on their trip to report. Paulo Marubo (the president of the association) said that two men traveled by water to the Indigenous territory’s border and brandished a gun at a Unijava patrol.
Phillips has been reporting from Brazil for over a decade and is currently working on a book on preservation of Amazonia with support from the Alicia Patterson Foundation. He was awarded a fellowship for environmental reporting for a year that ran from January to January.
Univaja stated that the pair vanished after returning from a two day trip to Jaburu Lake, where Phillips had interviewed local Indigenous people. The boat was only the two of them.
They went missing from the Vale do Javari. This is Brazil’s second largest Indigenous territory, larger than Maine. There are several thousand Indigenous people living in dozens villages. Locals believe that the men wouldn’t have been lost in the sector.
Margaret Engel, executive director of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, said in an email that “He is a careful journalist, with impressive knowledge about the complexities of Brazil’s environmental crisis.” He is a wonderful writer and a charming person. Our business is at its best.”
Brazil’s federal public prosecutor said Monday in a statement that an investigation had been opened and that the Federal Police and Amazonas state’s Civil Police had been mobilized. Prosecutors said that the navy coordinated the search and sent seven search-and rescue teams. They also planned to deploy a helicopter Tuesday.
Officials didn’t give any indications as to why the army wasn’t included during the initial search efforts. The army’s presence and manpower in the region is much greater than that of the navy. A spokesperson for the Amazon division of the army told AP late Monday that it had received orders to send a search team.
Phillips has also contributed to The Washington Post and New York Times. Phillips currently lives in Salvador in Brazil’s Bahia State with his wife Alessandra Sampaio. A friend shared several messages via Twitter that he had sent to him.
Sampaio wrote, “I can only pray Dom and Bruno are safe, somewhere, prevented to continue on for some mechanical cause, and that all this becomes just one story in a lifetime replete with them.” “I am aware of the Amazon’s current situation and the risks that Dom has always condemned.”
Multiple shootouts have occurred in the Vale do Javari area between fishermen, hunters, and security agents. Official security agents maintain a permanent base there, which is home to the largest uncontacted Indigenous population in the world.
It is also an important route for cocaine that was produced on the Peruvian border. The cocaine is then smuggled into Brazil to supply local towns or be shipped to Europe.
Tabatinga was the biggest city in the region when a Tabatinga employee of the Indigenous Affairs agency was gunned down in September 2019. The crime was never solved.
Maria Laura Canineau (director of Human Rights Watch Brazil) stated Monday that it was crucial for Brazilian authorities to immediately realize searches in order to ensure the safety of these men.
In recent years, journalists working in Amazon for regional media outlets have been killed. However, there have not been any such cases in national media or foreign media journalists. There have been numerous threats and press access has been restricted to areas that are dominated criminal activity like illegal mining, landgrabbing, and drug trafficking.
