The Guardian journalist Dom Phillips has been missing since Sunday. Most recently, he has worked with indigenous issues in the Amazon in Brazil.
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Phillips has worked for the British newspaper The Guardian for a number of years, and has worked from Brazil for more than ten years.
When he disappeared this weekend, he was with indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, deep in the Brazilian rainforest. Pereira is an expert on isolated indigenous peoples.
In his work, Phillips has covered the many threats to the world’s largest Amazon rainforest: Among other things about the critical forest firesom the gold diggers who illegally ravage indigenous areas and about the cows that eat up the rainforest.
–Search crews are now searching for the two rainforest experts in the heart of the rainforest.
They were supposed to be back in the small town of Atalaia do Norte around 20:00 on Sunday, close to where the Amazon tributary Yavarí draws the border between Brazil and Peru.
Must have received threats
The interest group Univaja, which works for the rights of indigenous peoples, says Phillips and Pereira disappeared after receiving threats for several weeks.
– We know who you are. We will find you, and decide this, it is stated in the threatening letter according to Brazilian O Globo.
– Get ready. You have been warned, it should also have said.
According to the Brazilian newspaper, illegal fishermen in the Javari Valley are behind the letter. These groups engage in, among other things, illegal fishing for sought-after river fish and turtles.
According to O Globo, Bruno Pereira has worked closely with this issue. They write that the two “constantly” have received threats on the last trip, where they have done research for a new book.
Here is journalist Dom Phillips at work in the Amazon in 2019:
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– It was not the first time they received such threats, the organization claims in a statement. Univaja was already searching for the men along the river on Sunday, without finding any traces.
The missing journalist has traveled in the area to interview the local guards’ indigenous people. According to the news agency AP, the couple was also threatened by an armed group on Saturday, when they were with such a guard patrol.
Both Pereira and Phillips have extensive experience of traveling in the jungle, and were last seen passing the village of São Gabriel. They traveled in a new boat that must have had enough petrol in the engine to get back.
More than 20 different indigenous groups live in the area. These have condemned illegal mining, fishing and hunting.
Only seven inserted in the search: – Completely inadequate
Now Phillips and Pereira’s families are urging the Brazilian authorities to deploy even more crews in the search.
– I would ask the authorities to intensify the search, because we still have hope of finding them. If I do not find the love of my life alive, they must be found. Please, the journalist’s wife Alessandra Sampaio begs in one video shared on the man’s Twitter account.
The military announced late Monday that they had sent seven people on board a boat to search for the two. No helicopter was used in the search.
Also the international journalist organization Reporters without Borders has requested increased efforts to find the two:
– The effort is completely inadequate in such an impenetrable and unfriendly environment, says Emmanuel Colombié, who is the organization’s Latin America director.
The Brazilian authorities must quickly coordinate work between the military and the police to find them. Every second that passes is a wasted second, says Colombié.
–Pictures shared from the search on Tuesday, show some more than seven in the crew, but the military looks according The Guardian still appears to operate with a smaller number engaged in the search.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has called the expedition an “adventure you can not recommend to anyone”.
– Anything can happen. It may have been an accident. They may have been executed, he said Tuesday – to immediate criticism from their opponents.
We know this about the course of events:
- For several weeks before the disappearance Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira are said to have received threats. According to Univaja, these have been reported to the police. On Saturday, they were threatened by armed men.
- Sunday they stopped in São Rafael to interview a local leader. The theme was the patrol the indigenous communities do in collaboration with others who live along the jungle rivers.
- At 06.00 Sunday they were to follow the river down from São Rafael, to Atalaia do Norte. The trip should take around two hours.
- Wheat last time observed in the village of São Gabriel a little further down the river. The boat passed the small river community.
- Since they never arrived, Univaja sent out the first search crews 14.00 Sunday. No trace has been found so far.
- Monday The Brazilian military said it had sent seven people and a boat to search for the missing.
- Tuesday Brazilian police opened an investigation into the case.
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