It is over a week since Bruno Araújo Pereira and Dom Phillips went missing in the Amazon rainforest. The day before the Brazilian indigenous expert and British journalist disappeared last Sunday the two men were meeting members of a local indigenous community when the group was threatened by armed men. That has only deepened fears about what might have happened to them.
In recent years the remote area where they were last seen has witnessed increasing violence linked to the illegal invasion of indigenous territory by outsiders, many involved in criminality. That makes it all the more frustrating that in its crucial initial phase the search effort lacked proper support from Brazil’s federal government.
Rather than immediately mobilise the resources at his command President Jair Bolsonaro instead waited two days before addressing the matter and then appeared to blame the two men for their own disappearance.
As a candidate the far-right leader promised to end “Shi’ite environmental activism” and the “industry” of protecting indigenous lands. Since he assumed office in 2019 the federal government’s indigenous affairs agency has been gutted, as has the environment ministry. The result has been a spike in deforestation and violence as criminals exploit the administration’s laissez-faire approach to law enforcement in the world’s biggest rainforest.
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Araújo Pereira was on indefinite leave from the indigenous affairs agency after he was sidelined by the new administration for doing his job of defending the rights of Brazil’s uncontacted and isolated tribes too well. Since then he has attempted to continue this work as an activist. Phillips, one of the most dedicated and respected foreign correspondents in Brazil, is accompanying him while researching an upcoming book on the Amazon.
Now that a better resourced search effort and police investigation is finally under way it must continue until the men’s fate is known. It should also mark the start of a serious state presence in the region so as to enforce Brazil’s own laws protecting indigenous communities and their lands.