One Year After Amazon Murders, Calls for Justice and Protection of Indigenous Lands

One year after the murders of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian Indigenous issues expert Bruno Pereira in the Amazon rainforest, friends, relatives, and admirers gathered in Rio de Janeiro to call for justice and protection of Indigenous lands.

Phillips and Pereira vanished on June 5, 2022, while on a trip to the remote Javari Valley near the border with Peru.

A fisherman who had confronted Indigenous patrols in the area confessed to killing them.

During an event for the presentation of measures to tackle deforestation in Brazil, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the best way to honor them was to ensure "their struggle has not been in vain." Some are urging the government to do more to protect the Javari Valley, where drug runners and illegal poachers threaten the most isolated Indigenous groups in Brazil's Amazon.