British journalist Dom Phillips, a contributor to The Guardian.
English journalist Dom Phillipsmedia contributor Guardiandisappeared Sunday in the Brazilian Amazon together with the Brazilian indigenist Bruno Araujo Pereira.
According to the Brazilian authorities, they have been missing for more than 30 hours in Java Valleyone of the most remote regions of the jungle.
Araújo, profound connoisseur of the region, he had received threats A few days ago, they were assured by the Union of Indigenous Organizations of the Javarí Valley (Univaja).
The Javarí Valley is a vast region of rivers and jungle in the heart of the Amazon, bordering Peru, and where the largest number of isolated indigenous people in the world live.
Bruno Araújo Pereira and Dom Phillips, disappeared in the Brazilian Amazon. Photo Twitter / @NeuronaSV.
The area is threatened by illegal fishing and mining and in recent years became a drug trafficking route.
According to The Guardian, the reporter was traveling with Araújo Pereira, a former government official charged with protecting Brazil’s uncontacted tribes, who “he was threatened by loggers and miners who intend to invade their lands“.
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The prosecutor has announced that it has activated the Federal Police, the Civil Police and the Navy, which have confirmed that they will be in charge of conducting searches in the region.
The traces of both were lost on the journey from the community along the Sao Rafael river to the city of Atalaia do Norte, in the state of Amazonas, where they were supposed to arrive on Sunday morning.
Phillips and Araújo were traveling on a new boatwith 70 liters of fuel, enough for the trip, and were last seen near the community of Sao Gabriel, a few kilometers from Sao Rafael.
Several search teams made up of indigenous people who know the region searched the area extensively but did not find the boat.
Univaja stressed that, the same week of his disappearance, Araújo’s team had received threats from invaders occupying the region, such as garimpeiros (illegal gemstone seekers), loggers and illegal fishermen.
Arajo He is one of the leading natives in Brazil and specialist in uncontacted indigenous peoples.
For years he was Regional Coordinator of the National Indian Foundation (Funai) in Atalaia del Norte, the region where he was last seen, but currently has unpaid leave.
The famous “garimpeiros”, gold diggers in the Amazon jungle. Photographic archive.
Phillips, for his part, is a veteran journalist who has lived in Brazil for 15 years and who has collaborated with various international media, such as the Financial Times, the New York Times or the Washington Post, among others.
He was currently in the Amazon research for the publication of a book on the Javarí Valley.
The Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) has urged the Brazilian authorities to carry out a quick and thorough search to make sure they are found as soon as possible.
In this sense it was also pronounced Human Rights Watch (HRW)who underlined that it is “extremely important” that the authorities dedicate “all available and necessary resources to the immediate carrying out of the searches in order to guarantee, in the shortest possible time, the safety of the two”.
Source: agencies.
Source: Clarin
