Page 7 - aruba-today-20220608

A7
WORLD NEWS Wednesday 8 June 2022
Indigenous expert, British writer still missing in Brazil

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE which has the world’s larg-
and DAVID BILLER est population of uncon-
Associated Press tacted Indigenous people.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A It is also a major route for
British journalist and an In- cocaine produced on the
digenous affairs official Peruvian side of the border,
were still missing in a remote then smuggled into Brazil to
part of Brazil’s Amazon supply local cities or to be
on Tuesday as authorities shipped to Europe.
said they were expanding In September 2019, an
search efforts in the area, employee of the Indig-
which has seen violent con- enous affairs agency was
flicts between fishermen, shot dead in Tabatinga,
poachers and government the largest city in the re-
agents. gion. The crime was never
Dom Phillips, who has been solved.
a regular contributor to “It is extremely important
the British newspaper The that Brazilian authorities
Guardian, and Bruno Araú- dedicate all available and
jo Pereira were last seen necessary resources to the
early Sunday in the Sao Ra- immediate realization of
fael community, according searches, in order to guar-
to the Univaja association antee, as soon as possible,
of people in the Vale do the safety of the two men,”
Javari Indigenous territory, Maria Laura Canineau, the
for which Pereira has been director of Human Rights
an adviser. Watch in Brazil, said in a
The pair was returning by statement Monday.
boat to the city of Atalaia Journalists working for re-
do Norte, about an hour gional media outlets in the
away, but never showed Amazon have been slain in
up. recent years, though there
Pereira is one of the Brazilian have been no such cases
Indigenous affairs agency’s among journalists from na-
most experienced employ- British journalist Dom Phillips, right, and a Yanomami Indigenous man walk in Maloca Papiu village, tional or foreign media.
ees operating in the Vale Roraima state, Brazil, Nov. 2019. However, there have been
do Javari area. He over- Associated Press several reports of threats,
saw the agency’s regional and the press has limited
office and the coordina- trip to the Jaburu Lake re- lice, Amazonas state’s civil late Monday, a spokesper- access to several areas
tion of isolated Indigenous gion, where Phillips inter- police, the national guard son for the army’s Amazon dominated by criminal ac-
groups before going on viewed local Indigenous and navy had been mobi- division told AP it had since tivity, including illegal min-
leave. He has received a people, Univaja said. Only lized. The navy, which pros- received orders to deploy ing, land-grabbing and
stream of threats from ille- the two were on the boat. ecutors described as coor- a search mission. drug trafficking.
gal fishermen and poach- The place where they went dinating the search, said it Phillips has also contributed President Jair Bolsonaro is-
ers, and usually carries a missing is the primary ac- sent a search-and-rescue to the Washington Post and sued a comment Tuesday:
gun. Univaja said the two cess route to the Vale do team of seven and would New York Times. He cur- “Really, just two people
had been threatened dur- Javari, Brazil’s second- deploy a helicopter Tues- rently resides in Salvador, in a boat in a completely
ing their reporting trip. On largest Indigenous territory, day. There were no reports a city in Brazil’s Bahia state, wild region like that is not a
Saturday, while they were which is bigger than Maine of helicopters being used with his wife, Alessandra recommended adventure.
camped out, a small group and where several thou- at any point on Monday, Sampaio, who shared a se- Anything could happen.
of men traveled by river to sand Indigenous people and many of the men’s ries of messages posted on It could be an accident,
the Indigenous territory’s live in dozens of villages. colleagues expressed con- Twitter by a journalist help- it could be that they have
boundary and brandished People from the area say cern that the government ing to advise her. been killed,” he said in an
firearms at a Unijava patrol, that it is highly unlikely the didn’t appear to be acting “I can only pray that Dom interview with television
the association’s president, men would have gotten swiftly. and Bruno are well, some- network SBT. “We hope and
Paulo Marubo, told The As- lost in that sector. “We request from the au- where, prevented from ask God that they’re found
sociated Press. Phillips pho- “He is a cautious journalist, thorities speed, serious- continuing on for some soon. The armed forces are
tographed the men at the with impressive knowledge ness and all possible re- mechanical reason, and working hard.”
time, Marubo said. of the complexities of the sources for that search,” that all of this becomes just Three of Bolsonaro’s min-
Phillips, 57, has reported Brazilian environmental cri- Pereira’s family wrote in a one more story in a life re- isters told the AP on Tues-
from Brazil for more than sis,” Margaret Engel, the statement. “Every minute plete with them,” Sampaio day that the government
a decade and has been Alicia Patterson Founda- counts, every stretch of the wrote. “I know, however, recognizes the importance
working on a book about tion’s executive director, river and the forest not yet the moment the Amazon is of a swift response, and is
preservation of the Ama- wrote in an email. “And he checked could be the one going through and I know concerned that apparent
zon with support from the is a beautiful writer and a where they are waiting for the risks that Dom always failure to do so will cast a
Alicia Patterson Founda- lovely person. The best of rescue.” denounced.” shadow over Bolsonaro’s
tion, which gave him a our business.” The army’s manpower is far The Vale do Javari region attendance at the Summit
yearlong fellowship for en- Brazil’s federal public pros- greater than the navy’s in has experienced repeated of the Americas this week in
vironmental reporting that ecutors said in a statement the region, and there was shootouts between hunters, Los Angeles. They spoke on
ran through January. Monday that they had no indication from officials fishermen and official secu- condition of anonymity be-
The pair disappeared while opened an investigation on why it wasn’t included in rity agents, who have a per- cause they aren’t autho-
returning from a two-day and that the Federal Po- the initial search efforts. But manent base in the area, rized to speak publicly.q