From Sao Paulo
Journalists in the crosshairs of Jair Bolsonaro. Gunned down in the Amazon jungle, British correspondent Dom Phillips was an uncomfortable professional for both the government and organized crime, invading indigenous lands to traffic cocaine, extract gold, illegally cut down trees or engage in predatory fishing for endangered spices. of extinction.
A delegation of Brazilian senators and deputies was today in the municipality of Atalaia do Norte, in the northwestern Amazon, near the borders with Colombia and Peru, near where the remains of Phillips, a contributor to the newspaper, were found. Guardian, and the expert on indigenous cultures Bruno Araújo Pereira. Both were executed, apparently with shotguns, and their remains remained hidden for more than a week in the middle of dense vegetation: a usual method when crimes are perpetrated by mafias or killers hired by them.
“The work of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira Araújo guaranteed the population’s right to information” about the reality in a forest of more than four million square kilometers, reported the National Federation of Brazilian Journalists.
The British chronicler traveled through the Amazon for “fifteen years” in “difficult” conditions typical of a difficult geography and mafia organizations, circumstances aggravated in recent times by the increase in violence in a country whose “president is known for his aversion to free and independent press,” denounced the organization of press workers.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Paulo Evaristo Arns Commission denounced the case abroad while warning that Phillips’ death is part of a threatening environment towards journalism in general. In this sense, it can be mentioned that the justice condemned Bolsonaro this week for having threatened the journalist Patricia Campos Mello, of the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, author of an investigation into the fake news disseminated in 2018 by the then presidential candidate. Another topic capable of irritating power.
Ranking
This Thursday, hours before the mission of parliamentarians from Brasilia landed in the Amazon to supervise the delayed investigations into the double murder of Phillips and Araújo Pereira, the NGO Article19 published the world ranking of freedom of expression. Brazil showed a pronounced fall since the beginning of the Bolsonaro administration. Eleven years ago, at the beginning of the government of President Dilma Rousseff, the country added 88 points on a scale of one to one hundred, ranking among the countries with an “open” system and respect for the press according to Article 19 standards. In 2021 Brazil fell to fifty points, it was in the group of nations in which there is a “restricted” freedom of the press, number 89 in a list of 160 states.
One of the criteria to prepare the ranking is the attacks on communicators and the media, which have been increasing since 2019 along with the arrival of the former captain at the Planalto Palace. Last year, 430 attacks and threats were reported, many of them carried out by the president, the highest figure in three decades.
In countries where freedom of the press is respected, showing the reporter’s credential means having certain guarantees, but in Brazil when a professional circulates with his “identification (usually) he is harassed and attacked,” says the Article 19 report when explaining the current degradation of press freedom.
Who killed Dom?
The investigations into the murder of Phillips “really leave much to be desired, it seemed that the authorities fell asleep because they took a long time to start their work and in this type of crime it is important not to let the days go by,” says Cesar Muñoz, “senior” investigator of the NGO Human Rights Watch, interviewed by Página12.
“Really, the first to act were the indigenous people of Valle do Javarí, in the state of Amazonas. They gave the first alarm signal when Bruno and Dom disappeared, while the government took two days to authorize the start of the aerial search in that area. huge area. And the military put out a surprising statement saying they were ready to start searching but were waiting for someone’s order. Who were they waiting for the order from?” Munoz asks.
Since 2018, in Brazil, human rights organizations have been asking “who killed Marielle Franco,” the Afro-descendant councilor who denounced the vigilantes in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. To date, the investigations have made little progress due to government sabotage, which transfers prosecutors who work seriously or pressures judges who advance more than is recommended in the process.
Now after the crimes in the Amazon, the question arises about the culprits. At first, the police assured that they were poachers who acted on their own, without links to criminal organizations. As if it were a common crime. This police hypothesis was refuted by the indigenous people of Valle do Javarí, in the area of the murders, certain that these were a “political crime”.
For César Muñoz, it is not prudent to talk about a case without knowing it in detail, but it is possible to read the process that gave rise to the events. “If it really was those illegal fishermen who killed Dom and Bruno, we must take into account that what is obtained in illegal fishing in the Amazon is sold somewhere. It is not about an isolated person who is a criminal in the middle of the river , that must be within a broader criminal network,” which could be behind the killers.
“The problem is that the Bolsonaro government has done nothing against those criminal networks that attack indigenous communities and the environment in the Amazon. The president was always against the protection of the environment. The president’s actions and statements they have consequences. Without a doubt, the president is responsible for all this. And now that this case has attracted the attention of the world, he wants to wash his hands, “says the expert from Human Rights Whatch.
Biden and the Pope
In London, from where he spoke to this newspaper, Muñoz affirms that the double murder in the Amazon had “great international repercussion” because one of the victims was British and worked for a major newspaper such as Guardian. “Unfortunately, many murders occur against defenders of the environment and indigenous people without having national and less international repercussions,” says Muñoz.
Bolsonaro felt the diplomatic cost of the case in person three weeks ago, when he traveled to Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas. According to reports, President Joe Biden spoke of Dom and Bruno during the meeting alone with the South American. The matter is also of interest to the representative for Climate, former Secretary of State John Kerry, who met with the indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara. At the same time, Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed his “concern” about what happened to his fellow countryman, when speaking before Parliament. Pope Francis met in the Vatican with bishops from the Amazon region. At the end of the meeting, Jorge Mario Bergoglio appeared before the cameramen with an indigenous headdress and urged the bishops to act with “courage” in that jungle immensity that seems to be a lawless land.
Francis has embraced the Amazon issue since his enthronement as Pope and in 2019 organized the Amazon Synod, received with particular suspicion by Bolsonaro. The progress or stagnation of the investigations of the murders of Dom and Bruno will largely depend on the follow-up that the cause has at an international level and the support that the relatives receive, says Muñoz, who highlights the work carried out by the priests of the Pastoral Commission from the earth. Phillips’ widow, the Brazilian Alessandra Sampaio, said on Sunday during her husband’s wake in Rio de Janeio, that she is now starting the fight for “justice” and against impunity.