Both the indigenist and the journalist died from hunting gunshots. Identification was based on dental records
The Brazilian police confirmed this Friday, June 17, that the remains of a body found correspond to the British journalist Dom Phillips, who was murdered along with the Brazilian indigenist Bruno Pereira in the Amazon, during a journey through the Yabarí Valley, on the border with Peru and Columbia.
The identification was based on dental records, according to police; reviewed the BBC.
This Saturday, June 18, it was confirmed that the second body located on Wednesday in the Amazon is that of indigenist Bruno Pereira, father of three children.
* Read: Court of Apure orders to file the case against journalist Eduardo Galindo
Both the indigenist and the journalist died from hunting gunshots, according to the police. Pereira was shot in the head and twice in the abdomen; Phillips, one in the chest; he reported The country.
Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, were first reported missing June 5. Earlier this week, a suspect, identified as Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira; He confessed to burying the bodies.
DaCosta’s Confession
According to police, Da Costa explained in detail how both men were killed, then led officers to where their bodies were buried.
The human remains were then unearthed.
The search operation for Phillips and Pereira had been criticized by non-governmental organizations and some relatives of the disappeared, who complained about the delay in the deployment of the armed forces.
journalist’s visit
Dom Phillips was writing a book on sustainable development in the Amazon, also documenting the conflicts in the Yabarí Valley, notes the BBC. Bruno Pereira had obtained and presented contacts to the journalist; and had been his guide when his boat failed to reach a point near the Peruvian border.
Phillips was a prolific journalist “in love” with Brazil and an ally of the indigenous people, as colleagues describe him.
He arrived in Brazil in 2007, looking for material for his first book, an intimate look at the world of electronic music through its protagonists: the DJs. At 57, she had been a correspondent for renowned media such as Guardian, Washington Post and the Financial Times.
* Read: Journalists Ramón Centeno and Gabriel Guerra have been detained for four months
«He fell in love with Brazil and when he finished the book, he stayed. Brazil was his blank canvas, as it had been for many immigrants before him, and Dom was ready to start painting a new life », says his friend and colleague Andrew Downie in a text for the BBC.
Phillips and Pereira set out on a journey upriver from Atalaia. They both lost track on the way back.
The Yavari Valley
The Yavarí Valley is a remote region the size of Portugal that is home to thousands of indigenous people from more than 20 groups. It is a haven for these indigenous groups who live isolated from the outside world – due to their remoteness and lack of government oversight; and a focus of crime, the product of drug gangs, who fight for control of the waterways in the area to smuggle cocaine.
Consternation in America and Europe
The case of Phillips and Pereira sparked a wave of international solidarity and once again inflamed criticism against the government of far-right Jair Bolsonaro, accused of encouraging invasions of indigenous lands and sacrificing the preservation of the Amazon for economic exploitation.
The United States called this Friday for “justice” for the murders, which it attributed to the work of both of “supporting the conservation of the tropical forest and the native peoples there.”
According to France 24heThe Rio de Janeiro police indicated that the criminal gangs that operate in the area have nothing to do with the death of the reporter and the indigenist.
But the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javarí Valley (Univaja), whose members actively participated in the searches, almost immediately refuted the police version.
“It is not just about two murderers, but about an organized group that planned the crime in detail,” Univaja said in a bulletin, explaining that the authorities had ignored numerous complaints about the activities of criminal gangs in the area.
Information BBC, El Pais, France 24 Y DW.
Post Views:
2. 3. 4
