June 17, 2022

08:06

Eliziane Paiva – from Amazon Agency

MANAUS – ‘Today, our search for justice begins’, said Alessandra Sampaio, Dom Phillips’ wife, on Twitter. In social networks, a large mobilization takes place among public figures in society who express great sorrow for the journalist killed in the “Month of Freedom of the Press in Brazil” and for the indigenous expert who was one of the leading scholars of indigenous peoples in the country.

The wife of the indigenous activist Bruno Pereira, anthropologist Beatriz Matos, shared on Twitter this Thursday, 16: “Now that Bruno’s spirits are walking in the forest and scattered among us, our strength is much greater”.

Indigenous federal lawmaker Joenia Wapichana (Rede Sustentabilidade) said she hopes the outcome of the case that resulted in the deaths of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips will not go unpunished.

“I hope that the cruel death of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips does not go unpunished, that there is justice and that the indigenous peoples of the Javari Valley receive due and urgent attention. My feelings of comfort to the families of Bruno and Dom. We continue to mourn and fight for Bruno and Dom”.

The governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, also spoke out and showed solidarity with the families of the victims.

“I deeply regret the sad outcome of the case of the indigenist Bruno and the journalist Dom. My solidarity to the families. I thank all the security forces, especially our men of the Fire Department and the Civil and Military Police, who were decisive in the search”.

In a statement, Greenpeace Brazil lamented what happened to the victims, “Brazil is immersed in a context that borders on barbarism and this scenario cannot continue moving forward. We repudiate this act of violence and urgently demand justice for Bruno and Dom”, the organization shared on Twitter.

In a statement to the press, federal lawmaker Marcelo Ramos (PSD) said: “Violence exists everywhere, but it is consolidated when the State is absent and subdues society when the government becomes an accomplice of crime by action or omission. In the Amazon, the permissive narrative of the President of the Republic with criminals – illegal gold miners, land grabbers, armed militias, illegal deforesters, aggressors against indigenous and riverine populations – generates a permissiveness and a certainty of impunity that kills. Other deaths have already occurred in the Amazon, like Chico Mendes (Sarney government) or Dorothy Stang (Lula government), but all of them were vehemently repudiated by the president of the Republic. No president has ever had the insensitivity and foolishness to declare that one of the murdered men was ‘badly looked down upon in the region’ for making ‘matters against garimpeiros’, or dared to blame them for going on an ‘adventure’ in a ‘wild area'”, he said.

“The tragedy with Dom and Bruno sensitizes us and alerts us. As Brazilians and as Christians we resent the incapacity of the Brazilian State to protect Dom and Bruno, but also the incapacity to protect the indigenous populations, the riverside dwellers and many simple people who do not make the headlines, like my friend Tuta, who disappeared with his brother and two other people in the waters of the Purus River, near the municipality of Ipixuna”, wrote the congressman.

Marcelo Ramos said that the way Brazil has to apologize to Dom and Bruno is by repudiating those who are tolerant to crime, protecting free and independent journalism, and guaranteeing safety to traditional populations. “It is important to remember that in the Javari Valley area (municipality of Atalaia do Norte, the 3rd worst HDI in Brazil) there is not only a lack of security! There is a lack of food, school, hospital, and Brazil”, concluded the lawmaker.