- After days of searching for a missing British journalist and an indigenous expert who has also disappeared in the Brazilian rainforest, there are increasing indications of an act of violence.
- The human remains discovered in the Amazon region have been assigned to reporter Dom Phillips, federal police said on Friday.
- Further investigations should provide information about the cause of death.
- In neighboring Peru, around a hundred indigenous people took to the streets.
Other body parts found at the crime scene in the border area with Peru and Colombia are being analyzed further. These are believed to be the mortal remains of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.
The two men disappeared while traveling to the Javari Valley in western Brazil. Two suspects were then arrested. One admitted involvement in the murder of the two men and led police to human remains.
No criminal organization behind the act?
According to the first investigation results, the alleged murderers probably acted on their own account. “The investigations indicate that the perpetrators acted alone and that no client or criminal organization was behind the crime,” said the federal police.
Indigenous representatives in Brazil rejected the police’s assessment that no criminal gangs were involved in the crime. The US government called for a thorough investigation into the background.
Indigenous protests
Phillips has lived in Brazil for a long time and was married to a Brazilian woman. As a freelance journalist, he wrote for the British newspapers “The Guardian” and “The Financial Times” as well as for the US newspapers “Washington Post” and “The New York Times”.
Most recently, he researched a book about the protection of the Amazon region, the strong economic interests in its exploitation and various development models.
Motive still unclear
The motive for the alleged murder was initially unclear. Among other things, the investigators check whether the crime is related to illegal fishing or drug trafficking. The Javari Valley Indigenous Association lamented the “priceless loss” of “two partners”. It was above all the indigenous people of the region who had driven the search for the missing people from the start.
Phillips and Pereira did not arrive by boat in the town of Atalaia do Norte on June 5 as planned, according to a regional Aboriginal organization. Pereira had previously reported to the police that he had been threatened several times. He had recorded illegal activities in the Javari Valley for the authorities.
Brazil was the fourth most dangerous country for environmentalists in 2020, according to the NGO Global Witness – 20 conservationists and environmental activists were killed there. “The deaths of Dom and Bruno are a tragic reminder of how deadly the struggle for land rights and indigenous communities can be, particularly in Brazil, which is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for land and environmental defenders,” it said in a statement by Global Witness.
“You have been heroic in protecting the Amazon and its people and protecting the lungs of our planet. The Brazilian authorities must investigate the deaths of the two and bring justice to their families.”