Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira: the tragic end for two lovers of the Amazon

british journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian indigenista Bruno Araújo Pereira, who disappeared 11 days ago and whose bodies were buried in the Amazon according to the confession of a criminal suspect, were great enthusiasts of the largest tropical forest on the planet.

Phillips, a journalist passionate about the Amazon

Philips57 years old, was a contributor to the British newspaper The Guardian and worked in Brazil for 15 years.

He lived in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and a few years ago he moved to Salvador (Bahía, northeast) together with his wife, the Brazilian Alessandra Sampaio.

LOOK: Personal belongings of missing British reporter and expert found in Brazil

Passionate about the Amazon, about which he wrote dozens of reports, the British journalist was in the region several days ago working on a book on environmental conservation and local development, with the support of the American Alicia Patterson Foundation.

In his career as a reporter in Brazilamong other topics wrote about the advance of illegal mining and agriculture in protected regions, in collaborations for media such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and Financial Times.

“Beautiful Amazon”he wrote on May 30 on Instagram, one of the last posts he shared, along with a video sailing down a river in a small boat.

Dom Phillips (left) and Bruno Araújo Pereira disappeared on June 5 in the Brazilian Amazon. (EFE/ Joedson Alves).

Before arriving in Brazil in 2007, Phillips was writing about music in the UK. He was editor of Mixmag magazine and published a book on DJ culture.

That cultural universe led him to Sao Paulo, where he ended up staying to live. “In Brazil he felt at home”assured last week in an open letter a group of foreign correspondents, friends of Philips.

Apart from his profession, he became involved as a volunteer in social projects in favelas in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.

His friends knew him “as a smiling guy” who got up “before sunrise to do stand-up paddle”adds the note from his colleagues, who assure that Phillips was waiting “anxiously” for the paperwork “to be able to adopt a child with his wife.”

Araújo, a “brave and dedicated” expert who received threats

Bruno Araujo Pereira, 41 years old, he was an expert from the government agency for indigenous affairs in Brazil (Funai) and a recognized defender of the rights of these communities.

He was regional coordinator of the Funai of Atalaia do Norte, a municipality where they went with Philips when they disappeared.

Also, coordinated the unit of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous People of Funai, where he was in charge of one of the largest expeditions in recent times to contact isolated groups and avoid conflicts between ethnic groups.

A federal police officer escorts a suspect towards a river in the area where indigenous expert Bruno Araújo Pereira and freelance British journalist Dom Phillips disappeared. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros)

He was currently on work leave, devoting himself together with NGOs to projects to improve surveillance in the villages of Valle del Yavarí, a remote indigenous territory on the border with Peru, threatened by pressure from drug traffickers, fishermen, illegal loggers and miners.

His work in defense of indigenous peoples earned him frequent threats from these criminal groups.

when they disappeared, Araujo Pereira accompanied the British journalist as a guide, on their second trip together through that isolated region of the Amazon since 2018.

The indigenous man was married and is the father of three children. Every time he entered the jungle, he brought “that passion for the purpose of helping others,” his family said in a statement released days after his disappearance.

He was “courageous and dedicated,” said Fiona Watson, Director of Research at the NGO Survival International.

Source: Elcomercio