An indigenous expert from Brazil has been a ‘bigger target’ in recent years

SAO PAULO

Before disappearing into Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, Bruno Pereira was laying the groundwork for a mammoth undertaking: a 350-kilometre (217-mile) trail marking the southwestern border of the Javari Valley indigenous territory, an area the size of Portugal.

The purpose of the trail is to keep cattle herders from encroaching on Javari territory – and it was just Pereira’s latest effort to help the indigenous people protect their natural resources and traditional ways of life.

While Pereira had long pursued these goals as an expert at Brazil’s indigenous affairs agency, known as FUNAI, he has worked in recent years as a consultant to the indigenous organization of the Javari Valley. . Indeed, after Jair Bolsonaro became president of Brazil in 2019, FUNAI began to take a more passive approach to protecting indigenous lands and peoples – and the government unabashedly favored development over the protection of the environment. environment.

Deeply frustrated, Pereira left the agency and embarked on a more independent and dangerous path.

He was last seen alive on June 5 on a boat in the Itaquai River, with British freelance journalist Dom Phillips, near a border area of ​​Peru and Colombia. On Wednesday, a fisherman confessed to killing Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, and took police to a site where human remains were found; some remains were identified Friday as belonging to Phillips, others believed to belong to Pereira.

Pereira has spoken to The Associated Press several times over the past 18 months, and he has spoken about his decision to leave FUNAI, which he says has become an obstacle to his work. After Bolsonaro came to power, the agency was filled with loyalists and people who lacked experience in indigenous affairs, he said.

“There’s no point in me being here as long as these police officers and army generals are in charge,” he said by telephone in November. “I can’t do my job under them.”

As a technical consultant for the Javari Valley Indigenous Peoples Association, or Univaja, Pereira helped the group develop a monitoring program to reduce illegal fishing and hunting in a remote area owned by 6,300 people from seven different ethnic groups, many of whom have little to no contact with the outside world. He and three other non-Indigenous people trained Indigenous patrollers to use drones and other technology to spot illegal activity, photograph it and submit evidence to authorities.

“When it came to helping indigenous people, he did everything he could,” said Jader Marubo, former president of Univaja. “He gave his life for us.

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Like Pereira, Ricardo Rao was an indigenous expert at FUNAI who in 2019 prepared a dossier detailing illegal logging on indigenous lands in Maranhao state. But fearing to be so outspoken under the new regime, he fled to Norway.

“I applied for asylum in Norway because I knew the men I accused would have access to my name and kill me, just like what happened with Bruno,” Rao said.

Bolsonaro has repeatedly advocated harnessing the vast wealth of indigenous lands, especially their mineral resources, and integrating indigenous peoples into society. He pledged to no longer grant Indigenous land protections and said in April he would challenge a Supreme Court ruling, if necessary. These positions directly opposed Pereira’s hopes for the Javari Valley.

Before taking his leave, Pereira was removed from his position as head of FUNAI’s division for isolated and recently contacted tribes. The move came shortly after he commanded an operation that expelled hundreds of illegal gold diggers from indigenous territory in Roraima state. His position was soon filled by a former evangelical missionary with a background in anthropology. The choice sparked an outcry as some missionary groups openly attempted to contact and convert tribes, whose voluntary isolation is protected by Brazilian law.

Pereira’s key colleagues at FUNAI have followed his lead and taken leave, or been transferred to bureaucratic positions away from the protected land demarcation, according to a recent report by the think tank of the Institute for Socio-Social Studies. economic and non-profit organization Associated Indigenists, which includes former FUNAI staff.

“Of FUNAI’s 39 regional coordination offices, only two are headed by FUNAI staff members,” the report said. “Seventeen soldiers, three police officers, two federal police officers and six professionals with no prior link to the public administration have been appointed” under Bolsonaro.

The 173-page report released on Monday says many of the agency’s experts were fired, unfairly investigated or discredited by its leaders as they tried to protect indigenous peoples.

In response to questions from the AP about the report’s allegations, FUNAI said in an emailed statement that it operates “in strict compliance with applicable law” and does not persecute its officers.

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On the day of their disappearance, Pereira and Phillips slept in an outpost at the entrance to the territory’s main clandestine road, bypassing the permanent base of the native agency at its entrance, locals told AFP. PA.

Two Indigenous patrolmen told the AP the couple were carrying cellphones from the surveillance project with photos of where illegal fishers were. Authorities said an illegal fishing ring was at the center of the police investigation into the killings.

Pereira was not the first person linked to FUNAI to be killed in the region. In 2019, an active FUNAI agent, Maxciel Pereira dos Santos, was shot while riding his motorcycle in the town of Tabatinga. He had been threatened for his work against illegal fishermen before being shot. This crime remains unsolved.

Pereira’s assassination will not stop the Javari territory border demarcation project from moving forward, said Manoel Chorimpa, a Univaja member involved in the project. And in another sign that Pereira’s work will endure, Indigenous patrol enforcement efforts have begun to lead to the investigation, arrest and prosecution of offenders.

Prior to his career at FUNAI, Pereira worked as a journalist. But his passion for business and Indigenous languages ​​— he spoke four — led him to change careers. His anthropologist wife, Beatriz Matos, encouraged him in his work, even though it meant long distances away from their home in Atalaia do Norte and their children. More recently, they lived in the capital of Brazil, Brasilia.

Indigenous peoples in the region have mourned Pereira as a partner, and an old photo shared widely on social media in recent days shows a group of them gathered behind Pereira, shirtless, as he shows them something about his laptop. A child gently leans on his shoulder.

In a statement released Thursday, FUNAI mourned Pereira’s death and praised his work: “The official leaves a huge legacy for the protection of isolated indigenous peoples. He became one of the best specialists in the country on this issue and worked with the greatest commitment.”

Before the bodies were found, however, FUNAI issued a statement implying that Pereira had violated procedure by exceeding his clearance inside Javari territory. This prompted FUNAI’s rank and file to strike, claiming that the agency had defamed Pereira and demanding the dismissal of its president. A court on Thursday ordered FUNAI to withdraw its statement “inconsistent with the reality of the facts” and to stop discrediting Pereira.

Rubens Valente, a journalist who has covered the Amazon for decades, said Pereira’s job became inherently more risky once he felt the need to work independently.

“The fish thieves saw Bruno as a fragile person, without the status and power FUNAI gave him in the region where he was FUNAI coordinator for five years,” Valente said. “When criminals noticed Bruno was weak, he became an even bigger target. .”

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Maisonnave reported from Atalaia do Norte. AP writer Débora Álvares contributed from Brasília.

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