Senate creates commission to investigate disappearance in the Amazon
Brazil`s Senate approved on Monday (Jun. 13) the creation of an External Temporary Commission to monitor the investigations on the disappearance of journalist Dom Phillips, a contributor to UK daily The Guardian, and of Bruno Araújo Pereira, an official of Brazil’s national indigenous foundation FUNAI on leave. They disappeared on June 5 in the region of the indigenous reserve of Vale do Javari—the country’s second-largest, stretching over 8.5 million hectares.
The request for the creation of the commission was made by Senator Randolfe Rodrigues from Amapá, one of the states in the Brazilian Amazon. According to him, the region is in the hands of criminal organizations involved in illegal mining, illegal logging, and drug trafficking. “And these are the criminal organizations in Vale do Javari, against which Dom Phillips, Bruno Pereira, and the indigenous people are fighting,” argued the senator.
The group must act for 60 days and will be formed by three members of the Human Rights Commission, three of the Environment Commission, and three of the Constitution and Justice Commission. The purpose of the group is to investigate the causes of the disappearance and the increase in crime in the Amazon, Randolfo explained. For him, the disappearance is connected to these crimes.
During the plenary session, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) proposed to wait a few more days before creating the commission. For him, the outcome of the case may be a matter of days, and Phillips and Pereira shall be found soon, considering the efforts of the public authorities in the search. Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco, however, kept the voting process on Randolfe's request.
At the beginning of the session, Pacheco made a long speech about the case, regretting what had happened. “We do not want to precipitate what actually happened to Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips, but if it is confirmed that they were eventually murdered, it is one of the most serious situations in Brazil”. He stated that the Senate has a duty to react to what has been happening in the Amazon.
Pacheco also praised Pereira`s work as a Funai employee, in the fight against illegalities practiced on indigenous lands. “According to what is known, Bruno Araújo Pereira had been denouncing a series of irregularities, crimes committed in that region, attacks on indigenous peoples, non-compliance with the law, a parallel state established there".
