Process against indigenist Bruno Pereira is filed – 02/27/2023 – Cotidiano

The president of Funai (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples), Joênia Wapichana, and the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, announced this Monday (27th) the shelving of the disciplinary administrative process opened against the indigenist Bruno Pereira.

An employee of the foundation, he was murdered on June 5 last year in Atalaia do Norte (Amazonas).

The announcement was made during a visit by federal government authorities to the headquarters of Univaja (Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley), an organization in which Bruno was working when he was killed.

In an interview given to Sheet About 40 days before he was killed, Bruno criticized Funai’s breakdown and stated that he and other employees of the organization were being persecuted by management.

The indigenist was coordinator of the CGIIRC (General Coordination of Isolated and Recent Contact Indigenous People) of the entity, but was removed from his position in the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). With that, he ended up taking a leave of absence from Funai and started working at Univaja.

As he told the Sheet in the interview, the disciplinary process was opened precisely to investigate his departure from Funai — the suspicion was that he was acting against the interests of the body.

In addition to Bruno, the British journalist Dom Phillips was also killed and dismembered by fishermen who engaged in illegal fishing in the second largest demarcated indigenous territory in the country, the Javari Valley, in the border region with Colombia and Peru.

The Federal Police is investigating whether drug trafficking is involved in environmental crimes and in the murders of Bruno and Dom.

“We want to put an end to the cycle of violence with Bruno, when he was prosecuted. And that process exactly led to this brutal murder. Today we are going to declare Bruno innocent,” Guajajara said.

The minister announced the creation of a permanent committee for the territorial protection of the Javari Valley with members from security, environmental, Funai and Univaja bodies.

The president of Funai said that the shelving of the process was an act of responsibility of the State, which, through its institutions, omitted itself and persecuted an official who acted fulfilling his duty to protect indigenous peoples.

“He [Marcelo Xavier, que comandou a entidade na gestão Bolsonaro] who should be here signing the filing. He has to recant with Bruno’s families, even Dom, for having omitted himself, for having pursued and published situations exposing them in the media at the family’s most sensitive moment. Try to criminalize and take away your possibilities. It is the Brazilian State that should provide security. The one who should be apologizing here was the former president of Funai,” said Joenia.

Present at the event, the widows of Bruno Pereira, anthropologist Beatriz Matos, and of Dom Phillips, Alessandra Sampaio, thanked the indigenous people for having been involved and leading the searches at the moment of greatest distress for the families.

Kanamari indigenous people presented ethnic songs interpreted by Bruno Pereira in a video of one of the expeditions in which he participated in the region and which circulated in the media after his murder.

Beto Marubo, one of the Univaja leaders, who has already received death threats, pointed out that it was the first time he had returned to the Javari Valley since the murder of Bruno and Dom and that he still felt insecure.

Beto listed a series of threats and violence that were repeated in the region against indigenous people after the deaths. “Nothing has changed [depois do assassinato de Bruno e Dom]. We are cornered here. We want something concrete,” she declared.

Joenia Wapichana, in her speech, asked for support from the indigenous people and said that, alone and with a precarious staff, Funai is unable to do what is needed in the Javari Valley and in other territories.

“It is inadmissible that they take public property and carry out criminal actions in front of our police. It is important to bring this up as a warning. We need energetic and urgent responses. We need everyone,” he said.

^{The journalist traveled at the invitation of the Government of Amazonas}