MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian Senate to oversee Amazonia investigations

Senate Speaker Rodrigo Pacheco spoke of a parallel state implanted in the region

Brazil's Senate Monday approved an initiative to create a temporary committee to oversee the probe into the disappearance of British journalist Dom Phillips, a correspondent for The Guardian, and his indigenist guide Bruno Araújo Pereira, a National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) official on leave.

The two men have been missing since June 5 in the Vale do Javari indigenous reserve, the second largest in the country, covering more than 8.5 million hectares.

The request for the creation of the Committee was made by Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, who stressed that Amazonia had been neglected over to illegal mining and logging, in addition to drug trafficking organizations.

“And it is these criminal organizations in Vale do Javari against which Dom Phillips, Bruno Pereira, and the indigenous peoples were fighting,” Rodrigues argued.

The group will be formed by three members of the Human Rights Committee, three from the Environment Committee, and three from the Constitution and Justice Committee. According to Randolfe, the objective

is to go to the Javari Valley, investigate the causes of the disappearance and delve into an increase in criminality in Amazonia. The team will be appointed for 60 days.

On the other hand, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) proposed waiting a few more days before creating the Committee. For him, the outcome of the case may be a matter of days, with the location of Phillips and Pereira, considering the efforts of the public authorities in the search.

“I consider that the creation of the external Committee, besides the issue of the disappearance and the eventual tragic outcome in relation to the indigenous activist Rodrigo Araújo and the journalist Dom Phillips, is what I said at the beginning of this session: there is a situation today, in the state of Amazonas and in other states, where there is the Amazon Forest, of organized crime, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, illegal deforestation, illegal logging, illegal fishing, illegal mining,” Senate Speaker Rodrigo Pacheco said.

“If the fact that they were eventually murdered is confirmed, it is one of the most serious situations in Brazil,” he added and then stressed the Senate had a duty to react to what has been happening in the region.

“So, in fact, not because of this event only, but because of the whole context of a parallel state that is being imposed in a place where unfortunately the Brazilian state is not able to fill in sufficiently, this is a reason for alert and for the Senate to react.”

“It is known that Bruno Araújo Pereira, a Funai employee, had been denouncing a series of irregularities, of crimes practiced in that region, of attacks on indigenous peoples, of non-compliance with the law, of a parallel state, implanted there and that had been denounced by him.”

Read also: UK journalist and guide in Amazonia said to have been found dead – Police denies it

Source: Agencia Brasil