Brazil’s Federal Police say they have identified the mastermind behind the 2022 double homicide of The Guardian journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. The police released their finding Nov. 1, following a two-year investigation.
Phillips and Pereira were shot to death June 5, 2022, in Javari Valley, a remote area of Brazil’s Amazonas state, where they were investigating environmental crimes for a book on Amazon conservation. Their bodies were found 10 days later.
The investigation concluded that Ruben Dario Villar, allegedly involved in illegal fishing and poaching in the region, funded and armed the criminal organization that carried out the killings. He is also accused of coordinating efforts to conceal the victim’s corpses.
Eight other people have been indicted since the start of the investigation for their roles in carrying out the assassinations and concealing the victims’ bodies.
Brazil’s public prosecutor has not yet filed these charges against Villar, who has been held in police custody since late 2022, after his arrest in connection with a different investigation. If charges are filed, he will face trial.
Villar maintains his innocence on all charges. “It comes as a surprise that he’s been implicated, especially in the role of having ordered the crime,” Ivanilson Albuquerque, his defense lawyer, told Mongabay by phone. “I believe next week we will have access to the full police report, then we’ll be able to provide a more specific position.”
Mongabay also spoke with the defense lawyers for the fishermen accused of committing the homicides, who are claiming self-defense and deny that anyone ordered an execution.
In a Nov. 4 statement, police said the killings were a result of Bruno Pereira’s efforts to document and report illegal fishing and mining in the region. At the time, he had been working with the Indigenous association Univaja to defend their lands from gangs.
Near the Brazil-Colombia-Peru triple border, the Javari Valley and nearby regions are a growing hotspot for organized crime, including drug traffickers, illegal loggers and poachers. In 2022, Tabatinga, the city closest to Javari Valley, saw homicides reach 96 per 100,000 residents.
“The criminal groups’ actions have caused social and environmental impacts and led to threats against environmental protection agents and Indigenous peoples,” the police wrote in a statement.
The region hosts the second-largest Indigenous territory in Brazil, covering 8.5 million hectares (21 million acres), an area twice the size of Switzerland. An estimated 17 isolated Indigenous groups live there, with little to no contact with the rest of the world.
Residents are no longer feeling safe to report crimes and threats from gangs. An anonymous Indigenous leader told investigative news outlet Amazonia Real, “I have absolutely no protection. I’m not going to mess with these kinds of people,” he said.
Banner image: In memory of Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips, images were projected on the wall of Brazil’s human rights ministry. Image courtesy of Joédson Alves/Agência Brasil.
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