The Senate approved, in this Monday’s session (13), the creation of a Temporary External Commission to monitor the investigations into the disappearance of journalist Dom Phillips, correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian, and the indigenist Bruno Araújo Pereira, a licensed servant of the National Indian Foundation (Funai). The two have been missing since June 5 in the region of the Vale do Javari indigenous reserve, the second largest in the country, with more than 8.5 million hectares.
The request for the creation of the commission was made by Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP). According to him, the region is handed over to criminal organizations involved in illegal mining, illegal logging and drug trafficking. “And it is these criminal organizations in Vale do Javari, against which Dom Phillips, Bruno Pereira and the indigenous peoples fought”, argued the senator.
The group will be formed by three members of the Human Rights Commission, three of the Environment Commission and three of the Constitution and Justice Commission. According to Randolfe, the objective is to go to Vale do Javari, investigate the causes of the disappearance and investigate the increase in crime in the Amazon, which he considers one of the causes of the disappearance of the journalist and the indigenist. The collegiate must act for 60 days.
During the session, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) proposed to wait a few more days before creating the commission. For him, the outcome of the case may be a matter of days, with the location of Phillips and Pereira, considering the efforts of the public authorities in the search. Pacheco, however, kept voting on Randolfe’s application. The president of the Senate understood that the mission of the external commission goes further. The collegiate should look into the criminal activities practiced in that region.
“I believe that the creation of the external commission, in addition to the issue of disappearance and the eventual tragic outcome in relation to indigenist Bruno Araújo and journalist Dom Phillips, is what I said at the beginning of this session: there is a situation today, in the State of Amazonas and in other states, where there is the Amazon Forest, organized crime, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, illegal deforestation, illegal logging, illegal fishing, illegal mining”.
At the beginning of the session, Pacheco made a long speech about the case, regretting what had happened. “We do not want to precipitate what actually happened to Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, but if it is confirmed that they were eventually murdered, it is one of the most serious situations in Brazil”. He stated that the Senate has a duty to react to what has been happening in the Amazon.
“So, in fact, not because of this event alone, but because of the entire context of a parallel state that imposes itself in a place that unfortunately the Brazilian State cannot fill sufficiently, this is a reason for the Senate’s alert and reaction”.
Pacheco also praised the work of Bruno Pereira as a Funai employee, in the fight against illegalities practiced on indigenous lands. “According to what is known, Bruno Araújo Pereira, a Funai employee, had been denouncing a series of irregularities, crimes committed in that region, attacks on indigenous peoples, non-compliance with the law, a parallel state established there and which was then being denounced. by him”.
Last Friday (10), the Federal Police (PF) in Amazonas, which is leading the security forces in Operation Javari, reported that search teams found organic material, “apparently human”, in an area close to the port. from North Watchtower.
