The Attorney General’s Office (PGR) has instructed the Ministries of Defense and Justice and Public Security, the Directorate-General of the Federal Police (PF) and the government of Amazonas to increase the number of security agents in the cities of Atalaia do Norte and Tabatinga, both in Amazonas.
Determined by the Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras, the measure aims to ensure the safety of indigenous people and residents of Vale do Javari, as well as public servants who work in the region. Located near the Brazilian border with Peru and Colombia, the region is home to the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, the second largest in the country, with more than 8.5 million hectares (each hectare corresponds, approximately, to the measurements of a field of official football), and the largest number of isolated or recently contacted indigenous people in the world.
The licensed servant of the National Indian Foundation (Funai), Bruno Pereira, and the British journalist Dom Phillips were ambushed and killed while traveling by boat in the region. They disappeared on June 5, while moving from the riverside community of São Rafael to the city of Atalaia do Norte, where they would meet with indigenous and riverside community leaders. You bodies de Bruno and Dom were only rescued ten days later. They were buried in an area of dense forest, about 3 kilometers from the channel of the Itacoaí River.
Aras traveled to Tabatinga last Sunday (19). In the city, the Attorney General of the Republic held meetings with indigenous representatives and attorneys of the Republic, as well as state and federal authorities responsible for the investigation of the double murder. On the occasion, Aras defended the continuity of investigations into the murders of Bruno and Dom, so that the possibility of “connections” between those involved and the criminal organizations operating in the Amazon region can be evaluated.
According to the PGR, one of the results of the meetings was Aras’ decision to send letters to Ministers Anderson Torres, of Justice, and Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, of Defense, to the governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, and to the director general of the PF, Márcio Nunes de Oliveira. In the documents, Aras highlights the “need for urgent measures to combat crime in the region”. The prosecutor asks each authority to order the forces under his command to reinforce the forces in Vale do Javari. Aras also asks the PF to prioritize the distribution of federal agents and delegates recently approved in public tenders for the state of Amazonas.
Letters were also addressed to the Minister of Communications, Fábio Faria, and to the president of Funai, Marcelo Xavier. For Xavier. Aras asks for a meeting to be scheduled, later this week, in Brasília, to discuss the “measures that the institution is responsible for” to implement in the region and which, according to reports collected by him during his trip to Tabatinga, “have not been carried out adequately. ”. In a note released this Tuesday (21), the PGR said that, in addition to the lack of personnel, the reports mentioned that the agents stationed at the base of the agency do not have protective equipment, nor do they receive support from the security forces.
The purpose of the letter addressed to the Ministry of Communications is to request measures to improve internet and telecommunications services in the region. “The precariousness of these services, currently essential, affects the control of the area, investigations and agility in communication, including suspicions that can prevent new crimes”, adds the PGR, in the same note.
Shortly before making the requests for measures public, Aras had met with the president of the Federal Supreme Court, Minister Luiz Fux. The two talked about “measures that can be taken jointly” by the National Public Ministry (CNMP) and National Justice (CNJ) councils, respectively chaired by the Attorney General of the Republic and Fux. According to the PGR, such measures would have the objective of “expanding the measures of repression and prevention of organized crime present in the Amazon region”.
