Brazil Police Claim Businessman Ordered Bruno Pereira, Dom Phillips Assassination in Amazon

Brazil authorities announced their intention to indict a Colombian fish trader Monday for orchestrating the murders of Brazil Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips in Amazon rainforest last year.

At a news conference in Manaus, federal police officials revealed that a man named Ruben Dario da Silva Villar was responsible for supplying the ammunition, communicating with the convicted killer before and after the crime, and funding the legal representation of the perpetrator, according to AP.

Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, a fisherman, better known by his nickname Pelado, had been in custody since shortly after the shooting deaths of Phillips and Pereira in early June when he reportedly confessed to the murders.

He and three other relatives are suspected of involvement in the crime. Between Atalaia do Norte and the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory is a poor riverside town where everyone lives because of federal agrarian reform.

Despite mounting evidence, Villar maintains his innocence. Even before the news broke on Monday, he had been arrested for allegedly heading an illegal fishing operation and using forged identification from Brazil and Peru.

Meanwhile, the investigation revealed that he had funded local fishermen to fish within Javari Valley Indigenous Territory.

Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips

Bruno Pereira, 41, and Dom Phillips, 57, were last seen on June 5, 2022.

They were riding a boat in the Javari Valley Indigenous area on the western side of Brazil, not far from the borders with Peru and Colombia.

Phillips, a journalist who had previously written for The Guardian and The New York Times, had wanted to write a book about sustainability in the Amazon.

The two men were there to gather information for his project, but their boat never came back.

In a region where illegal miners, loggers, poachers, and narcotics traffickers vie for resources and territorial control, the disappearance of the two men has raised concerns about the threats journalists, environmentalists, and Indigenous leaders face while doing their jobs there.

Ten days of searching for the missing men were fruitless until a fisherman named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira admitted to their murders.

A burial place was hidden in the Brazilian jungle, and he led officers there, per Al Jazeera.

Indigenous expert Pereira had a history of conflict with local fishermen, especially during his time working for Brazil's federal agency for Indigenous issues, FUNAI.

Threats to his safety led him to flaunt the gun he always had on him. Pereira left FUNAI but continued his work with Brazil's Indigenous communities, instructing them to keep an eye out for criminal activities and document them with photographs.

Pereira was allegedly delivering proof of illegal behavior to police in the town of Atalaia do Norte on the day he and Phillips went missing. He had been patrolling the area in search of illicit fishing operations.

They were both eventually gunned down.

Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips's Death Exposed Damage Done to Brazil

The damage to Brazil's environment and its Indigenous people done by the far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, who was defeated in October's election and is now in the United States, was exposed following the deaths of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, which triggered international outcry.

Bolsonaro's successor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused him of genocide against the Yanomami people of the Amazon on Sunday, saying that the right-wing nationalist had dismantled Indigenous protections and encouraged the illicit gold miners who had invaded that and other Indigenous territories.

Beto Marubo, a Javari leader and Pereira ally, told The Guardian in a recent interview that Indigenous activists had seen no signs of a better security situation in the region amid the outrage over the murders.

Marubo said he believed the new administration of Brazil would bring the men's murders to justice.

"We hope - and we will continue to demand from the new government and authorities - that there is justice for Dom and Bruno," he said.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Bert Hoover

WATCH:

Brazil: Murders of Dom Phillips & Bruno Pereira Tied to Bolsonaro Dismantling Indigenous Protections - From Democracy Now!