UK journalist lost in Amazon was ‘threatened by loggers’

A BRITISH journalist and a Brazilian indigenous affairs expert have gone missing on a trip to one of the most remote corners of the Amazon, after reportedly being threatened by loggers.

Dom Phillips, who has written for The Guardian, the Financial Times and others, had been travelling with Bruno Araujo Pereira, a former government official tasked with protecting Brazil’s uncontacted tribes, when they fell out of contact over the weekend.

The pair were last seen at 7am on Sunday in the Javari region near the rainforest’s border with Peru, according to the Unijava Association for which Mr Pereira has been an adviser.

They were returning by boat from the Vale do Javari indigenous land after conducting interviews, and were heading to Atalaia do Norte about an hour away. However, they failed to arrive.

According to those who know him, Mr Pereira is familiar with the area and it was unlikely the men are lost.

Mr Phillips, who is working on a book about the environment with support from the Alicia Patterson Foundation, has been based in the Brazilian city of Salvador and reported on Brazil for the past 15 years.

The Univaja statement said the men had received threats in the days before their disappearance, although it offered no more specific details.

The region has been marked by violent conflicts between fishers, poachers and government agents in recent years.

It has seen repeated gunfights between hunters and fishermen and official security agents, who have a permanent base in the area known for having the world’s largest population of uncontacted indigenous people.

One of the last pieces Mr Phillips wrote for The Guardian raised alarm about deforestation in Brazil during the first year of the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro’s government.

Alongside his plans to open up the Amazon rainforest for agribusiness and mining, Mr Bolsanaro has said he wants to “integrate” uncontacted indigenous peoples into mainstream society.

Mr Pereira, who spoke out against such a move, was reported to have been fired by the government in 2019.

The Guardian said it “is very concerned and is urgently seeking information about Mr Phillips’s [whereabouts]”.