A British journalist and an expert on indigenous affairs are missing in a remote part of the Amazon region of Brazil.
Dom Phillips, a former contributor to The Guardian, and Bruno Araújo Pereira were last seen at 7 a.m. Sunday in the community of Sao Rafael, according to the Univaja Indigenous Association of the Vale do Javari, for whom Pereira has been an advisor.
They returned by boat from the Vale do Javari and headed for the city of Atalaia do Norte, an hour away, but never showed up.
British journalist Dom Phillips, right, and a Yanomami indigenous man walk through Maloca Papiu in Brazil in 2019. (AP)
The area has been marked by violent conflicts between fishermen, poachers and government agents.
Pereira is currently resigning from his position at the Brazilian Indigenous Affairs Agency and is one of his most experienced employees operating in the Vale do Javari area.
He oversaw the agency’s regional office and the coordination of isolated indigenous groups before leaving.
He has received a steady stream of threats from illegal fishermen and poachers, and usually carries a gun.
A fierce conflict is raging over these plants
Univaja said the two had been threatened during their current intelligence trip.
They disappeared on their way back from a two-day trip to the Lake Jaburu region, where Phillips interviewed local Indians, according to Univaja.
Only the two were on the boat, according to the association.
Phillips is writing a book on preserving the Amazon with the support of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, which awarded him a one-year fellowship for environmental reporting that lasted until January.
The place where they disappeared is the main access road to and from the Vale do Javari, where several thousand indigenous people live in tens of villages.
People in the area say they are very unlikely to have gotten lost in this area.
The Itaquai River flows through the Vale do Javari region of the state of Amazonas, Brazil. (AP)
“He is a prudent journalist with an impressive knowledge of the complexities of the Brazilian environmental crisis,” Margaret Engel, executive director of the Alicia Patterson Foundation, wrote in an email.
“And he’s a beautiful writer and a lovely person. The best of our business.”
Brazil’s federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement that it has opened an investigation and mobilized the Federal Police, the Amazon State Civil Police, the National Guard and the Navy.
The latter will coordinate research efforts, according to the statement.
In a statement, the Navy said it was sending a search and rescue team.
The footprint and manpower of the army is much larger than that of the navy in the region.
He did not respond to an email from the Associated Press asking for comments on progress as of Monday afternoon.
The Guardian quoted a spokesman as saying that “he is very concerned and is urgently seeking information on the whereabouts and condition of Mr Phillips. We are in contact with the British embassy in Brazil and local and national authorities to try to establish the done as soon as possible. “
Phillips, who currently resides in Salvador, Bahia, has also contributed to the Washington Post and the New York Times.
“I hope they find it soon, that they are well and safe,” former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva posted on Twitter, recalling that Phillips interviewed him in 2017.
The Vale do Javari region has seen repeated shootings between hunters, fishermen and official security guards, who have a permanent base in the area, known for having the largest uncontacted indigenous population in the world.
It is also an important route for cocaine produced on the Peruvian side of the border, then smuggled into Brazil to supply local cities or to be shipped to Europe.
In September 2019, an employee of the Indigenous Affairs Agency was shot dead in Tabatinga, the largest city in the region.
The crime was never solved.
“It is extremely important that the Brazilian authorities devote all available and necessary resources to the immediate conduct of the searches, in order to ensure, as soon as possible, the safety of the two men,” said Maria Laura Canineau, director of Human Rights Watch. Brazil said in a statement on Monday.
Journalists working for the Amazon regional media have been killed in recent years, although there have been no such cases among national and foreign media journalists.
However, there have been several reports of threats and the press has restricted access to various areas dominated by criminal activity, such as illegal mining, land grabbing and drug trafficking.