Bolsonasshole Blames Journalist, Native Gov Official For Their Own Murders
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The case has been followed closely in Brazil, where the Amazon forest and whether it should be developed or preserved has become one of the country’s most divisive questions. President Jair Bolsonaro, a vocal advocate for development who has defended illegal miners and deforesters, has cast blame on Phillips for his disappearance. In a statement Wednesday, he said the journalist was “disliked in the region.” “He did a lot of stories against gold mining and on environmental issues,” Bolsonaro said. “In that region, a region extremely isolated, not a lot of people liked him. He should have redoubled his focus on taking care of himself. But he decided to make this excursion.”
Pereira and Phillips were last seen alive early on the morning of June 5, when they left a meeting with inhabitants of a riverside community. Initial hopes that the men were lost or suffered some mechanical issue quickly gave way to suspicions of foul play.
Pereira, who was mapping criminal activity in the valley and collaborating with an Indigenous surveillance team to monitor and repel illegal land invaders intent on stripping it of its resources, had been threatened for the work. One threat sent to the Indigenous organization with whom he partnered cited him by name and warned “it is going to be worse for you” if they didn’t stop trying to repel the illegal incursions.
Phillips, who was writing a book on conservation in the Amazon, recently got in touch with Pereira to discuss an expedition to the valley, a territory larger than South Carolina that’s considered the largest repository of uncontacted peoples in the world. Phillips told his wife, Alessandra Sampaio, that he expected to be out of the reserve within days, according to a statement she gave to investigators.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/15/brazil-dom-phillips-bruno-pereira-remains/
