BRAZIL - British reporter Dom Phillips, Brazilian Bruno Araújo Pereira, boat trip Amazon region, found deceased, 5 Jun 2022 *ARRESTS*

[MsMiniSleuth]

• British reporter Dom Phillips was last seen yesterday morning before a boat trip
• Based in Brazil for the past 15 years, he has covered country's ethnic conflicts
• He was travelling with Indigenous tribe protector Bruno Araújo Pereira
• Indigenous leaders say Dom and Bruno faced 'threats' before they vanished

A British journalist has gone missing in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest days after he and his Indigenous travelling partner were subject to 'threats'.

Dom Phillips and Indigenous Brazilian campaigner Bruno Araújo Pereira were last seen in the early hours of Sunday morning.

They arrived in remote Amazon region Javari and were expected to make the two-hour boat trip to Atalaia do Norte, with their arrival planned for 8am on Sunday.

But the pair never arrived.

A search party was sent out at 9am, but has come up short for almost 48 hours.

Mr Phillips has courted occasional controversy among Brazilian officials for his fearsome, award-winning reporting on local environmental issues.

Mr Pereira has also made enemies among opponents of the Indigenous tribes he has worked on behalf of.

One hot-button issue involves the rights of loggers and miners to exploit Indigenous land.

Dom Phillips, a superb journalist, regular contributor to @guardian, and great friend, is missing in Javari Valley of Amazon after death threats to his indigenista companion, Bruno Pereira, who is also missing. Calling on Brazilian authorities to urgently launch search operation.
— jonathanwatts (@jonathanwatts) June 6, 2022

Indigenous union Univaja said the pair had faced 'threats' from local antagonists.

But the nature of these threats, and whether violence may be involved, was not clear.

Pereira's near-unrivalled knowledge of the local area makes the theory they are lost relatively unlikely.

The purpose of their trip was to visit an Indigenous Surveillance team near Lago do Jaburu.

Fears for Brit journalist missing with Indigenous expert in Amazon

The British Embassy in Brazil is looking into the disappearance of a journalist and his Indigenous Brazilian campaigner friend. Dom Phillips was last seen nearly 48 hours ago

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Fears are growing over the safety of a British journalist and a Brazilian Indigenous expert who have disappeared in one of the remotest corners of the Amazon just days after receiving threats.

Dom Phillips, a longtime contributor to the Guardian in Brazil, was last seen over the weekend in the Javari region of Amazonas state – a vast region of rivers and rainforests near the border with Peru.

The reporter was traveling with Bruno Araújo Pereira, a former government official tasked with protecting Brazil’s uncontacted tribes, who has long received threats from the loggers and miners seeking to invade their lands.

Phillips, who is working on a book about the environment with support from the Alicia Patterson Foundation, is based in the Brazilian city of Salvador and has been reporting on Brazil for more than 15 years for newspapers including the Guardian, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Financial Times.

Fears for safety of British journalist missing in Brazilian Amazon

Dom Phillips disappeared on a trip to one of the remotest corners of the Amazon days after receiving threats

www.theguardian.com

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Indigenous expert, Guardian contributor missing in western Amazon

Indigenous expert Bruno Araújo Pereira has disappeared in the Vale do Javari reserve, alongside regular The Guardian contributor Dom Phillips.

brazilian.report

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Dom Phillips Twitter

https://mobile.twitter.com/domphillips

Muck Rack

Pardon Our Interruption

 

[StillDiggin]

Brazil's Navy searching for British journalist missing in Amazon jungle

Brazil's Navy on Monday dispatched a crew of ten people to search for British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira who went missing while reporting in a remote and lawless part of the Amazon rainforest near the border with Peru.

www.reuters.com

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Dom Phillips talking to two indigenous men in Roraima State, Brazil in 2019


A British journalist and a Brazilian indigenous expert have gone missing in a remote area of the Amazon rainforest.

Dom Phillips, a regular contributor to the Guardian newspaper in Brazil, was last seen in the Javari region, Amazonas state at the weekend.

He was travelling the area with Bruno Pereira while researching a book. The two had received threats days before, say indigenous groups.

Federal police and navy are searching for the two in the remote region.

Mr Phillips, 57, has written extensively on the Amazon and has lived in Brazil for over a decade.

Mr Pereira, who is currently on leave from his post with the government's indigenous affairs agency Funai, is an expert on isolated tribes in the Amazon.

The two had been in the district for about a week and had travelled by boat to Jaburu lake on Friday.

They were then expected to return to Atalaia do Norte city on Sunday afternoon, according to the Union of Indigenous Organizations of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA) and the Observatory for the Human Rights of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples (OPI). But the pair never arrived.

According to UNIVAJA, the men had received threats in the days before their disappearance, but no more detail was given as to the nature of the threats.

The men's families have expressed their alarm since the two went missing.
"We implore the Brazilian authorities to send the national guard, federal police and all the powers at their disposal to find our cherished Dom," Mr Phillips's sister's partner, Paul Sherwood, wrote on Twitter.

"He loves Brazil and has committed his career to coverage of the Amazon rainforest. We understand that time is of the essence."

Family of British journalist missing in Amazon urges action

The journalist and a Brazilian indigenous expert had received threats before they disappeared.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[dotr]

Brazil's Navy searching for British journalist and indigenous expert missing in Amazon jungle

Area of their disappearance is under threat from illegal miners, loggers, hunters and, increasingly, coca-growing groups that produce the raw material for cocaine

nationalpost.com

''The Javari is home to the most uncontacted indigenous people in the world, covering an area the size of Ireland. It is under threat from illegal miners, loggers, hunters and, increasingly, coca-growing groups that produce the raw material for cocaine.

Navy spokeswoman Cibelly Lopes, in the Brazilian border city of Tabatinga, said the Navy search team would arrive at the isolated base of Atalaia do Norte around 7 p.m. local time (2200 GMT), before heading to the riverside community Sao Gabriel, where the two men were last seen early on Sunday.

Brazil’s federal police said they were also working to locate the pair. A senior federal police officer in Tabatinga said on Monday afternoon that the force had sent its own search party, adding that there was still no information on their whereabouts or even a hypothesis about what could have happened.''

Celine Cousteau: TRIBES ON THE EDGE – “Every Fifth Breath You Take Comes From The Amazon”

Visit the post for more.

www.amfm-magazine.tv

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

The wife of a British journalist who has gone missing in a remote corner of the Brazilian Amazon notorious for illegal mining and drug trafficking has urged authorities to intensify their search efforts.

Brazilian Alessandra Sampaio, who lives with her husband in the north-eastern city of Salvador, said in statement: “Brazilian authorities, our families are in despair. Please answer the urgency of the moment with urgent actions.

“As I make this appeal they have been missing for more than 30 hours … [and] in the forest every second counts, every second could be the difference between life and death,” Sampaio added.

“All I can do is pray that Dom and Bruno [Araújo Pereira] are well, somewhere, and unable to continue with their journey because of some mechanical problem, and that all this will end up being just another story in these full lives of theirs.”

Phillips, 57, was travelling with Bruno Araújo Pereira, a celebrated Indigenous expert who has spent years working to protect the more than two dozen tribes who call the rainforests their home.

On Monday night, as a second day of searches came to an end without any sign of the two men.

The journalist’s sister, Sian Phillips, said in a video statement on Monday night: “We knew it was a dangerous place but Dom really believed it’s possible to safeguard the nature and the livelihood of the Indigenous people.

“We are really worried about him and urge the authorities in Brazil to do all they can to search the routes he was following. If anyone can help scale up resources for the search that would be great because time is crucial.”

“We love our brother and want him and his Brazilian guide found ... every minute counts,” she added.

‘Every second counts’: wife of British journalist missing in Amazon urges action

Alessandra Sampaio, wife of Dom Phillips, tells Brazilian authorities: ‘Please answer the urgency of the moment with urgent actions’

www.theguardian.com

 

[whitelilac]

Following

This is alarming.
Much as I hope they ran into some sort of trouble that has prevented or delayed their return, but are ok, I fear otherwise.
There's just too much danger of retaliation from antagonists who exploit the Amazon region and the indigenous people.
Goes back all the way to Chico Mendes' murder.
And it's getting worse.

Murders of Indigenous activists in Brazilian Amazon on rise: Aid group

An Indigenous activist was killed on average every other day in the Amazon region in 2020, according to research from Catholic aid group...

www.dailysabah.com

 

[StillDiggin]

Dom Phillips: Sister of missing British journalist in Brazil urges action

Dom Phillips, a freelancer who has written about Brazil for The Guardian, is missing with Bruno Araujo Pereira, a local expert whose job was to protect Brazil's uncontacted tribes.

news.sky.com

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Two indigenous rights groups - Union of Indigenous Organizations of the Javari Valley (Univaja) and the Observatory for the Human Rights of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples (OPI) - sounded the alarm about the men's disappearance on Monday.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Dom Phillips visiting Aldeia Maloca Papiú, Roraima State, Brazil in 2019


In a statement [in Portuguese], they said that the two men had been travelling by boat in the Javari Valley to interview members of an indigenous guard.

The area is located in the west of Amazonas state, near the border with Peru, and has seen incursions from illegal loggers and miners.

On Sunday, the two stopped in the community of São Rafael, where Mr Pereira was scheduled to meet a local community leader to discuss joint patrols between indigenous people and residents of riverside communities.

According to the rights groups, Mr Phillipps and Mr Pereira arrived at 06:00 local time and set off shortly afterwards towards the municipality of Atalaia do Norte, a journey which takes around two hours.

When they failed to arrive, Univaja sent out a search party at around 14:00 but found no trace of the two men along the stretch of river they had been expected to take.

The last to see them were residents of São Gabriel, a community downriver from São Rafael, who spotted their boat going past, the statement adds.

The rights groups say Mr Phillips and Mr Pereira were traveling in a new boat and had enough fuel to cover their journey.
They add that in the week leading up to the men's disappearance, the team had received threats.

"It wasn't the first time threats were made," the statement says, adding that previous instances had been reported to the police.

Family of British journalist missing in Amazon urges action

The journalist and a Brazilian indigenous expert had received threats before they disappeared.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Brazilian police have launched a criminal investigation into the disappearance of a British journalist in the Amazon jungle.

Dom Phillips went missing on Sunday with Bruno Araujo Pereira, a local indigenous expert and former government official whose job was to protect Brazil's uncontacted tribes.

Officers have interviewed at least four witnesses believed to be among the last to have seen Mr Phillips, a freelancer who has written for The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other publications.

Guilherme Torres, the head of the interior department of Amazonas state's civil police, told Reuters news agency that Mr Pereira had recently received a threatening letter from a local fisherman who police were trying to locate.

He said his colleagues had interviewed two fishermen as witnesses on Monday, with two more quizzed on Tuesday.

The first two witnesses had not provided any useful information, and Mr Torres had no details as yet about the second two interviews.

"We are indeed working with the hypothesis that a crime might have occurred, but there is another, much larger possibility, that they're lost," Mr Torres said.

Dom Phillips: Four witnesses interviewed by Brazilian police as criminal investigation launched into missing British journalist

Dom Phillips went missing with Bruno Araujo Pereira, a local indigenous expert whose job was to protect uncontacted tribes in Brazil. A state official said he could not rule out that their disappearance was linked to gangs operating in the lawless Javari Valley.

news.sky.com

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

As another day went by without any sign of a British journalist who went missing in the Amazon, diplomats, rights groups and news organizations pressured the Brazilian government to marshal an expansive search and rescue mission to scour one of the most remote regions of the rainforest.

The Brazilian Amazon Military Command said it was aware that Dom Phillips, a frequent contributor to the Guardian and onetime contract writer for The Washington Post, had gone missing with his traveling companion, Bruno Pereira, a longtime official of Brazil’s Indigenous rights organization. It said the armed forces were capable of carrying out a “humanitarian mission” to find and rescue the men, “as it has done throughout its history.”

But it couldn’t yet act. The agency was still waiting for approval from higher command. The Brazilian navy said it wouldn’t provide access to a helicopter, a vital search tool in an area as undeveloped and vast as western Amazonas state, until Tuesday morning — 48 hours after Phillips and Pereira failed to show up as expected Sunday morning in Atalaia do Norte.

The delay typified a search effort that family and Indigenous rights groups have criticized as too slow and too meager to resolve a disappearance that has absorbed the country. So little was being done, an Indigenous rights group said, that it filed a joint judicial action with the federal public defenders office to request more help — assistance that might have been quickly dispatched from a military base in nearby Tabatinga.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/07/dom-phillips-disappearance-brazil/

 

[dotr]

Brazil sends helicopters to search for 2 missing in Amazon

ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil (AP) — Brazilian authorities began using helicopters Wednesday to search a remote area of the Amazon rainforest for a British journalist and Indigenous official missing more than three days.

www.thestar.com

''RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazilian police said Wednesday that they are questioning a suspect in the disappearance of a British journalist and an Indigenous affairs official who went missing in a remote part of the Amazon rainforest more than three days ago.

Civil police in Amazonas state identified the suspect as 41-year-old Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also known as “Pelado,” who was arrested for allegedly carrying a firearm without a permit, which is common practice in the region. Police didn’t clarify why he is being treated as a suspect.

Authorities have questioned four others since the investigation started, according to a separate statement from the state’s public security secretariat. It said no arrest related to the disappearances has yet been made.''

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

A host of Brazilian celebrities, led by the three-time World Cup winner Pelé, have joined calls for authorities to intensify their search for a British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous advocate missing in the Amazon rainforest.

Pelé, now 81 and considered one of the greatest players of all time, retweeted a video made by Phillips’s wife appealing for more urgency in the search for her husband and Bruno Pereira.

“The fight for the preservation of the Amazon forest and of the Indigenous groups belongs to all of us,” the former Santos legend wrote on Twitter.

“I am moved by the disappearance of Dom Phillips and Bruno Ferreira, who dedicate their lives to this cause. I join the many voices that make the appeal to intensify the search.”

Pelé joins calls for Brazil to step up search for pair missing in Amazon

Three-time World Cup winner joined sports, culture and media figures in calling for action over Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

www.theguardian.com

 

[Seni]

Hoping that it will work out well but fear it won't. So many indigenous leaders and spokepersons assasinated over past two years.

 

[Seni]

We are having to close our foundation, 30 years of work and research with indigenous reserves and National parks because these áreas have been over run by armed groups and illegal mining and crops.

We have not been able to travel for the past years.

I hope Mr Phillips is found safe.

 

[StillDiggin]

Suspect held as Brazil steps up search for missing British journalist and researcher

Brazilian authorities said Wednesday they have detained a suspect in the case of a missing British journalist and indigenous affairs expert -- but are yet to establish whether the man was linked to their disappearance in a remote region of the Amazon.

www.cnn.com

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

The sister of a British journalist missing in the Amazon has said she still has hope he will be found.

Sian Phillips was joined by supporters at a vigil for her brother Dom Phillips, who has worked as a freelance correspondent for the Guardian, and the Brazilian Indigenous affairs official Bruno Araujo Pereira outside the Brazilian embassy in central London on Thursday.

The two men vanished from a remote part of the rainforest more than three days ago, having reportedly last been seen early on Sunday in the São Rafael community.

Some people held red roses while others clasped red and black posters that read “Find Dom and Bruno” and featured images of the missing pair’s faces, as they stood in silence in a line outside the entrance of the embassy from 8am.

In a statement to the press, Sian Phillips, with her partner, Paul Sherwood, and twin brother, Gareth Phillips, by her side, said: “We had to come this morning, to ask the question: where is Dom Phillips? Where is Bruno Pereira?

“And we are also here for my brother’s wife, Alessandra Sampaio. We are here with my brother’s nieces and sister-in-law too.

“We are here because Dom is missing, he is lost doing the important job of investigative journalism. We are here to make the point that why did it take so long for them to start the search for my brother and for Bruno.

“We want the search to carry on.”

Dom Phillips: sister of missing journalist still hopeful he will be found

Sian Phillips joins London vigil for Briton and the Brazilian Bruno Araújo Pereira who have vanished in Amazon

www.theguardian.com

 

[MsMiniSleuth]

Google translate from Portuguese:

British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Araújo Pereira, disappeared since Sunday in the Vale do Javari region, in Amazonas, were victims of an ambush. This is what a witness claims is part of a team of 13 indigenous guards who circulated with the journalist and the indigenist.

According to a report by Elaíze Farias and Eduardo Nunomura, from the Amazônia Real portal , the indigenous people, according to the source, warned about the risks of Bruno and Dom going alone along the Itacoaí River.

"According to the report, around 4 am on Sunday (5), the indigenist and the journalist announced that they would talk to the riverside 'Churrasco', president of the São Rafael community. 60HP vessel, considered unusual for navigating in narrower waterways (holes and creeks).

They insisted on showing that they were armed. Alerted and worried about the situation, the indigenous people even asked Bruno, who was Vale do Javari Regional Coordination and general coordinator of Isolated Indians and of Recent Contact at Funai, did not proceed without security.

[...]

Dom Phillips e Bruno Pereira foram vítimas de emboscada, denuncia indígena

Informação é de uma testemunha que faz parte da equipe de 13 vigilantes indígenas que circulavam com o jornalista e o indigenista no Vale do Javari

www.brasil247.com