After almost two and a half years of investigations, the Federal Police (PF) concluded, last Friday (1st), the investigation into the murders of indigenous man Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips.
“The investigation confirmed that the murders were a result of inspection activities promoted by Bruno Pereira in the region. The victim worked in defense of environmental preservation and guaranteeing indigenous rights”, says the note.
Pereira and Phillips were shot dead on June 5, 2022, in Atalaia do Norte, Amazonas, when they were visiting communities close to the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, the second largest area in the country destined for exclusive indigenous use and home to the largest concentration of isolated peoples around the world.
In the final report on the investigation, the PF maintained the indictment of nine investigated. In other words, the agency filed a complaint with the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) against nine people against whom it claims to have gathered enough evidence to accuse them of participating in the double homicide. The MPF can request archiving, if it believes there is no evidence against those being investigated, or report them to the Federal Court, transforming them into defendants.
Among those indicted is Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, identified as the mastermind of the crime. Without mentioning names, the PF reported that the other eight defendants played roles in carrying out the homicides and hiding the victims’ bodies.
The report has not yet managed to contact Villar’s defense, who had already been indicted for the same reason in January 2023, when the PF announced that it had identified [] most of the people involved in the murder.
“We have proof that he [Colômbia] supplied ammunition to Jefferson and Amarildo, the same ones found in the case”, said, at the time, the then regional superintendent of the PF in Amazonas, Alexandre Fontes, stating that Villar also paid the initial expenses for the defense of Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, o Pelado, the first suspect to be arrested, on June 7, 2022.
Contrary interests
Contributor to prestigious journalistic publications, such as British newspapers The Guardian and the Americans The New York Times and Washington PostDom Phillips, 57 years old, traveled to the region with the purpose of interviewing indigenous and riverside leaders for a new book-report about the Amazon that he planned to write.
Although he spoke Portuguese fluently and had already visited the region on other occasions, Phillips traveled in the company of Pereira as he was an experienced Pereira indigenist. Aged 41, he had been on leave from the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai) since February 2020, for political reasons, and worked as a technical consultant for the non-governmental organization União dos Povos Indígenas do Vale do Javari (Univaja).
The PF agents responsible for investigating the crime concluded that Pereira and Phillips were killed as a result of the indigenous man’s work. Even though he was licensed by Funai, Pereira continued to oppose the interests of groups that threaten the well-being and integrity of part of the local population. At Univaja, I helped implement projects to allow traditional communities to protect their territories and the natural resources they contain.
“The victim was acting in defense of environmental preservation and guaranteeing indigenous rights”, highlighted the PF, in the note it released today – and in which it reinforces that it continues to monitor the risks to the inhabitants of the Vale do Javari region and that it continues to investigate threats against indigenous people who live in the same region where Pereira and Phillips were killed.
Timeline – Bruno Pereira and Dom Philips – Art/Brazil Agency
