• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, March 31, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Democracy at Risk Media Freedom

British Journalist, Indigenous Expert Missing in Brazil Following Threats

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
06/06/22
in Media Freedom, World
Dom Phillips

British journalist Dom Phillips talks to two indigenous men in Brazil, November 16, 2019. Photo: Joao Laet/AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

A British journalist and a Brazilian indigenous expert have gone missing in a remote region of the Amazon rainforest after receiving threats, authorities and indigenous-rights groups said Monday, raising fears for their safety.

Veteran foreign correspondent Dom Phillips, 57, went missing while researching a book in the Brazilian Amazon’s Javari Valley with respected indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, said The Guardian newspaper, where Phillips has been a longtime contributor.

The pair had traveled by boat to Jaburu lake, in the northern state of Amazonas near Brazil’s border with Peru, and were expected to return to the city of Atalaia do Norte by around 9:00 am Sunday, two rights groups said in a statement.

The men had “received threats in the field” last week, said the groups, the Union of Indigenous Organizations of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA) and the Observatory for the Human Rights of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples (OPI).

They did not give further details, but Pereira, an expert at Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency FUNAI with deep knowledge of the region, has regularly received threats from loggers and miners trying to invade isolated indigenous groups’ land.

FUNAI told AFP it was collaborating with local authorities on the search effort. It added that Pereira was on leave from the agency “to pursue personal interests.”

Phillips and Pereira had traveled to the region around a FUNAI monitoring base, and reached Jaburu lake Friday evening, UNIVAJA and OPI said.

They started the return trip early Sunday, stopping in the community of Sao Rafael, where Pereira had scheduled a meeting with a local leader to discuss indigenous patrols to fight the “intense invasions” that have been taking place on their lands, the groups said.

When the community leader did not arrive, the men decided to continue to Atalaia do Norte, about a two-hour trip, they said.

They were last sighted shortly after near the community of Sao Gabriel, just downstream from Sao Rafael.

The pair were traveling in a new boat with 70 liters of gasoline — “sufficient for the trip” — and were using satellite communications equipment, the groups said.

The federal prosecutors’ office said it had dispatched police to investigate and activated a search operation, to be led by the Brazilian navy.

Two initial searches by indigenous locals “with extremely good knowledge of the region” have found no trace of the men, said UNIVAJA and OPI.

‘Time of the essence’

The missing men’s families voiced alarm, along with high-profile organizations and figures including Brazilian ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“We implore the Brazilian authorities to send the national guard, federal police and all the powers at their disposal to find our cherished Dom,” Phillips’s sister’s partner, Paul Sherwood, wrote on Twitter.

“He loves Brazil and has committed his career to coverage of the Amazon rainforest. We understand that time is of the essence.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists and Brazil’s Foreign Press Correspondents’ Association (ACIE) also voiced their concern and urged the authorities to act “immediately.”

“I hope they are fine, safe and will be found quickly,” tweeted Lula, the front-runner for Brazil’s October presidential elections against far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro — who has faced accusations of fueling invasions of indigenous lands in the Amazon with his pro-mining and -agribusiness policies.

The Guardian said in a statement it was “very concerned” about Phillips, whose work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and other leading media.

“We condemn all attacks and violence against journalists and media workers. We are hopeful that Dom and those he was traveling with are safe and will be found soon,” it said.

Phillips, who is married and based in the northeastern city of Salvador, had previously accompanied Pereira in 2018 to the Javari Valley for a story in The Guardian.

The 85,000-square-kilometer (33,000-square-mile) reservation is home to around 6,300 indigenous people from 26 groups, including a large number with virtually no contact with the outside world.

FUNAI’s base there, set up to protect indigenous inhabitants, has come under attack several times in recent years. In 2019, a FUNAI officer there was shot dead.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Supporters of Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with the police during a demonstration
World

Brazil Patrols Government Buildings Retaken From Rioting Bolsonaro Supporters

by Staff Writer
January 9, 2023
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro
Opinion

The Murder of Art in Brazil

by Luciano de Castro
November 5, 2021
razilian President Jair Bolsonaro delivers a speech
Featured

Bolsonarism, Necropolitics, and the Spores of Wickedness

by Luciano de Castro
October 26, 2021
Covid-19 in Brazil
Featured

No Pandemic End in Sight With Raging Outbreaks in India, Brazil

by Staff Writer
May 1, 2021
Conversion therapy has affected hundreds of thousands of individuals in the US.
World

More Than 300 Religious Leaders Urge Ban on ‘Conversion Therapy’

by Staff Writer
December 16, 2020
Carrefour
World

Brazilians Outraged Over Death of Black Man Beaten by Carrefour Security

by Staff Writer
November 20, 2020
Next Post
Israel

Israel's Occupation Main Cause of Conflict: UN Investigators Say

Sergei Besov

Against Type: Russian Print Artist Makes Posters for Peace

Recommended

Damage from a series of powerful storms and at least one tornado is seen on March 25, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi

After Tornado Kills 25, Mississippi Faces More Extreme Weather

March 26, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023

Opinion

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post