Journalist Dom Phillips and Bruno Araujo Pereira, an employee on leave with the National Foundation of Brazilian Indigenous Peoples (FUNAI), have been missing for more than 30 hours, according to the Indigenous Organization Coordination.
The organization, known as UNIVAJA, said satellite information showed the couple’s last known location in the Sao Rafael community early Sunday morning, where they were expected to meet with a local leader who never showed up.
The missing couple then planned to take a two-hour trip to Atalaia do Norte, but never arrived, said the organization, which sent two rescue teams to search for them on Sunday.
The Havari Valley is home to thousands of locals and about 16 contactless groups. The Jawari Valley is patched by rivers and dense forest, making access very difficult.
The search for Phillips and Pereira 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 US military police are also involved in the search.
Amazon Governor Wilson Lima has ordered the deployment of specialized police reinforcements to step up search and rescue operations.
Death threats have been reported
In a press release Monday, UNIVAJA said Phillips and Pereira had received death threats before disappearing.
“We emphasize that in the week of the disappearance, according to reports from UNIVAJA employees, the team received threats on the ground. The threat is not the first,” the statement said.
The area is under government protection, but repeated raids by land robbers, illegal miners, illegal hunters and illegal fishermen have previously led to bloody conflict.
In September 2019, another indigenous officer, Maxiel Pereira dos Santos, was killed in the same area, according to Brazilian prosecutors.
A statement from a union representing workers at Brazil’s Indigenous Protection Agency (FUNAI) cited evidence that the assassination of dos Santos was revenge for his efforts to fight illegal trade in the Havari Valley, Reuters reported at the time.
FUNAI, the government’s indigenous protection agency, told CNN it was monitoring the case, but stressed that Pereira was not in office when he disappeared.
Phillips is a longtime contributor to Britain’s The Guardian, and global editor Jonathan Watts has called on Brazilian authorities to take swift action.
“Dom Phillips, an excellent journalist, a regular contributor to the Guardian and a great friend, has disappeared in the Amazon Valley of Havari after death threats against his companion, Bruno Pereira, who is also unknown. “Calling on the Brazilian authorities to launch a search operation as a matter of urgency,” 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,” the statement said. publication in an article for Phillips Monday.
The British Council has been in contact with the Brazilian authorities since Phillips is a British citizen. “We are in contact with local authorities in Brazil after the news of the disappearance of a British citizen in the Amazon region. We provide consular support to his family,” Diego Lobo of the British Council told CNN.
“The safety of press professionals”
Press organizations expressed concern about the disappearance and noted the danger of covering 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 has disappeared during a reportage trip to the Brazilian Amazon. We call on the Brazilian authorities to step up their efforts to find Philips as a matter of urgency. “
Brazil’s Association of Foreign Correspondents and the Sao Paulo Association of Foreign Correspondents, meanwhile, have called for “immediate action” by Brazilian authorities.
“We also demand that the Brazilian government act firmly to ensure the safety of press professionals, Brazilians and foreigners working in the region, who have suffered several threats to their work in this area of conflict of irregular digging,” they said. in a statement.
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