Sawt Falasteen - Widow urges care for Amazon on anniversary of double murder

In a case that drew a global outcry, Phillips and Pereira were killed on June 5, 2022 on a reporting trip to the edge of the Javari Valley, a far-flung Indigenous reservation in northwestern Brazil that experts call a haven for drug traffickers, illegal gold miners and poachers.

Police say illegal fishermen with suspected ties to a drug-trafficking ring have confessed to shooting the men, hacking their bodies to pieces and hiding them in the jungle, where the remains were found after a 10-day search.

In the latest development, police charged an alleged drug-trafficking boss, Rubens "Colombia" Villar, with masterminding the murders, Brazilian TV network Globo reported Sunday. They also brought charges against an alleged henchman for Villar, local fisherman Janio Freitas de Souza, it said.

Three other fishermen are currently on trial for the murders.

One year on, the case has become a symbol of the combustible mix of violence, greed, lawlessness and poverty fueling the destruction of the world's biggest rainforest -- and the dangers faced by journalists, experts, Indigenous groups and others trying to draw attention to the Amazon's plight.

Phillips's widow, Alessandra Sampaio, urged people to honor the late men's memory by informing themselves about the fight to save the Amazon, "that beautiful, marvelous ecosystem we barely know."

"We need to be more aware and informed about what's happening... stop being so predatory in exploiting the forest," she told a small crowd gathered in tribute at Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach, where Phillips loved to paddle-board.

She shared a poignant embrace with Indigenous leader Beto Marubo, a close friend and colleague of Pereira's.

"The Brazilian state owes the world an explanation for these murders," said Marubo, a leader of Indigenous-rights group UNIVAJA.

Commemorations, which coincided with World Environment Day, were also scheduled for London, Brasilia and Atalaia do Norte, the frontier town where the pair set off for Pereira to show Phillips his work organizing Indigenous groups to patrol their land against illegal logging, gold mining and poaching.

A documentary retracing the lives and work of Phillips and Pereira meanwhile debuted Friday on streaming service Globoplay.

"We will not abandon this struggle for the planet, nor will we forget Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to fight deforestation that surged under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, said in a statement to The Guardian newspaper, where Phillips was a contributor.

- 'Heroes of the forest' -

Phillips, 57, who also had been published in The New York Times, Washington Post and Financial Times, was working on a book called "How to Save the Amazon."

Pereira, 41, a top official at Brazil's Indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, had taken unpaid leave after clashing with the agency's then-director, Bolsonaro appointee Marcelo Xavier.

He was working to help Indigenous groups protect their land -- a job that had earned him death threats.

Both men were highly respected for their work, and their disappearance triggered international condemnation, from rock band U2 to Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo to late football legend Pele.

"It had such an impact," Sampaio, 52, told AFP.

"I've even heard from lots of children, who say they see Dom and Bruno as heroes of the forest."

Loved ones have launched a campaign to raise money for fellow journalists to finish Phillips's book, while the organization Forbidden Stories is sponsoring reporting projects that continue both men's work.

The fight to protect the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb climate change, gained new impetus in Brazil when Lula defeated Bolsonaro in elections last year.

But the ongoing threat was underlined last week when Congress passed bills cutting the powers of Lula's environment and Indigenous-affairs ministries and dramatically curbing the protection of Indigenous lands.

In a report published Monday, the Brazilian Public Security Forum said organized crime is increasing in the Amazon, overlapping with environmental crimes and fueling a murder rate that was more than 50 percent higher than the rest of Brazil's last year.

J.AbuShaban--SF-PST