Amazon

• British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were murdered.
• The two men were conducting research for a book on Amazon sustainability.
• A fisherman named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira confessed to killing them.

Brazil: Brazilian federal police have identified a Colombian fish trader and gang leader as the mastermind behind the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, which drew international attention to the Amazon rainforest.

Alexandre Fontes, the head of the federal police in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, said on Monday that his investigators had a “strong conviction” that Ruben Dario da Silva Villar was responsible for the June 2022 slayings.

Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, were last seen on June 5, 2022, when they boarded a boat in the Javari Valley Indigenous area on Brazil‘s western border with Peru and Colombia.

The two men were conducting research for a book on Amazon sustainability that Phillips, a journalist who had previously worked for The Guardian and The New York Times, hoped to write. Their boat, however, never returned.

A threat to journalists, environmentalists, and Indigenous leaders

The two men’s disappearance reignited concerns about the threats that journalists, environmentalists, and Indigenous leaders face while working in the region, where illegal miners, loggers, poachers, and narcotics traffickers all compete for resources and territorial control.

The search for the men was called off after 10 days when a fisherman named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira confessed to killing them. He led police in Brazil to a burial site hidden about 3km (1.8 miles) in the forest.

Pereira, the Indigenous expert, had previously clashed with local fishermen while working for Brazil’s federal agency for Indigenous affairs, FUNAI. He had received threats and was known to keep a gun on him for protection. Pereira continued to work with Brazil’s Indigenous populations after leaving FUNAI, teaching locals how to monitor illegal activity and collect photographic evidence of crimes.

Pereira was reportedly carrying evidence of criminal behavior to authorities in the municipality of Atalaia do Norte on the day he and Phillips vanished. He had been inspecting illegal fishing operations in the region.

Both he and Phillips were eventually killed by gunfire.

killed only because of being with Bruno

Prosecutors have said that Phillips was likely killed “only because of being with Bruno [Pereira], in order to ensure impunity for the prior crime”. Three men, including the fisherman Oliveira, were charged in July with murder.

Villar, the gang leader identified by police on Monday and known as “Colombia,” is accused of running an illegal fishing network in the Amazon that suffered financial losses as a result of Pereira’s work. According to police, he paid impoverished locals to fish illegally in the Javari Valley Indigenous territory.

Villar was already in police custody at the time of the announcement on Monday, as he faces additional charges for allegedly using a forged Brazilian birth certificate, as well as forged Peruvian identity papers, to engage in illegal activities.

Federal police accused Villar of providing the ammunition used to kill Phillips and Pereira during a press conference in Manaus, the state capital of Amazonas. Officials also stated that Villar called and paid for the confessed killer’s lawyer both before and after the shootings. Villar has denied the allegations.

UNIVAJA, a Javari Valley Indigenous peoples’ union that employed Pereira, believes there are more organizers behind the murders who have yet to be apprehended.

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