According to the Coordination of the Indigenous Organization, journalist Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira, an employee on leave of the Brazilian National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI), have been missing for more than 30 hours.
The organization, known as UNIVAJA, said the satellite information showed the couple’s last known location in the community of São Rafael in the early hours of Sunday morning, where they were expected to meet with a local leader. which was never presented.
After that, the missing couple had planned to make a two-hour trip to Atalaia do Norte, but never arrived, the organization said, which on Sunday deployed two rescue teams to look for them.
Home to thousands of indigenous people and about 16 uncontacted groups, the Javari Valley is a mosaic of dense rivers and forests that make access very difficult.
Phillips and Pereira’s search continues. Brazil’s federal prosecutor’s office and federal police are investigating the disappearances and, according to Eliesio Marubo, UNIVAJA’s legal representative, the Navy and the state military police are also involved in the search effort.
The governor of the state of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, has ordered the deployment of specialized police reinforcements to reinforce the search and rescue operations.
Reported death threats
In a press release on Monday, UNIVAJA stated that Phillips and Pereira had received death threats before their disappearance.
“We note that the week of the disappearance, according to reports from UNIVAJA employees, the team received threats on the ground. The threat was not the first,” the statement said.
The area is under government protection, but repeated raids by land grabbers, illegal miners, illegal hunters and illegal fishermen have previously led to a bloody conflict.
In September 2019, another indigenous worker Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was killed in the same area, according to the Brazilian Prosecutor’s Office.
In a statement, a union group representing workers at Brazil’s indigenous protection agency FUNAI cited evidence that the murder of two saints was retaliation for its efforts to combat illegal commercial extraction in the valley. Javari, Reuters reported at the time.
FUNAI, the government’s indigenous protection agency, told CNN it was following the case, but stressed that Pereira was not on duty when he disappeared.
Phillips has been a longtime contributor to the British newspaper The Guardian, and the publication’s global environmental editor Johnathan Watts has called on the Brazilian authorities to take swift action.
“Dom Phillips, an excellent journalist, regular contributor to the Guardian and a great friend, is missing in the Amazon Javari Valley after death threats to his fellow indigenist Bruno Pereira, who is also missing. Asking Brazilian authorities to urgently begin a search operation, “Watts tweeted on Monday.
“The Guardian is very concerned and is urgently seeking information on Mr Phillips’ whereabouts and condition. We are in contact with the British embassy in Brazil and local and national authorities to try to establish the facts as soon as possible.” said the publication. an article on Phillips Monday.
The British Council is in contact with the Brazilian authorities, as Phillips is a British citizen. “We are in contact with local authorities in Brazil following the news of the disappearance of a British citizen in the Amazon region. We are providing consular support to his family,” Diego Lobo of the British Council told CNN .
‘The safety of press professionals’
Press organizations have expressed concern over the disappearance and noted the danger of covering up illegal mining operations in the region.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) tweeted on Monday: “The CPJ is extremely concerned about reports that journalist Dom Phillips went missing while on an information trip to the Brazilian Amazon. We urge the Brazilian authorities to step up. urgent efforts to find Phillips “.
Meanwhile, the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in Brazil and the Association of Foreign Correspondents of São Paulo called for “immediate action” by the Brazilian authorities.
“We also demand that the Brazilian government act vigorously to ensure the safety of Brazilian and foreign media professionals working in this region and who have suffered various threats to their work in this area of irregular mining conflict,” they said. a statement. statement.