Among my people, the Marubo, knowledge is transmitted through oral history, passed down by elders throughout the centuries. For many generations these stories described the approach of people we call nawas – outsiders who always brought misfortune, usually in search of natural resources from the forests we inhabit.
My ancestors spoke of Catholic missionaries from Spain and Portugal, of Peruvian rubber barons and logging companies. The stories my generation tells are of fundamentalist evangelical missionaries, illegal miners and fishing gangs bankrolled by drug trafficking networks.
This situation has made the Javari valley Indigenous territory, where the Marubo and six other contacted Indigenous peoples live, as well as 16 isolated groups, a dangerous place for Indigenous leaders and journalists.
It was here, on 5 June 2022, that one of these invaders murdered the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and the British journalist Dom Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor. At the time of his death, Bruno was working with me at the Javari valley Indigenous association, Univaja.
Thirty years ago, I travelled from my village, at the headwaters of the Curuçá River, to the city to learn the language and customs of the nawa in order to defend my lands. Ever since then I have worked to demarcate and protect our territory and its peoples, above all the isolated tribes. I met Bruno in 2010 when he joined my team at the government Indigenous agency Funai in the Javari valley. He was a different kind of nawa and he became my rainforest brother in the fight to give these isolated peoples the right to live in their territories in peace.
The murders of Bruno and Dom appear to have been connected to the organized crime networks that smuggle drugs over Brazil’s deadly border with Peru and Colombia. Inside the Javari valley, criminals are engaged in illegal commercial fishing, hunting, logging and gold mining operations. Tonnes of game meat and fish are extracted each week, making food scarce for the Indigenous communities.
Bruno invited Dom to witness the situation in the Javari valley, convinced that high-quality journalism could bring this story to the world’s attention and reduce the impact these invaders were having on isolated tribes. My friend knew that we needed healthy, unspoiled forests in order to sustain our way of life, which has existed for centuries. Their murders were the consequences of policies pushed by Jair Bolsonaro, a president who was undoubtedly the worst in decades when it comes to the environment.
The world was outraged by the tragedy. Influential leaders, in Brazil and overseas, demanded concrete measures from the government. And at the end of last year we elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to replace Bolsonaro.
Lula invited Univaja to be part of his transition team. Our association represents the Marubo, Mayoruna, Matis, Kanamary and Kulina peoples, as well as the recently contacted Korubo and Tsohón-Djapa. We made practical proposals for ways the federal government could “reclaim the Javari” from the criminals.
In February, Indigenous leaders met with Lula’s minister for Indigenous peoples, senior environmental officials and police authorities at Univaja’s headquarters to help make that “reclaiming of the Javari” a reality.
It was an important meeting but it has yet to produce effective action. A federal police team was sent to the region, but lacks the necessary resources to operate in this challenging region. We Indigenous leaders call for – and hope to see – the environmental agency, Ibama, the army, navy and other security forces taking bold, conspicuous and coordinated action. Lula’s work in the Javari must go beyond “good intentions”, just as it has done in the face of the critical situation facing the Yanomami territory farther north.
The local circumstances which helped produce the deaths of Bruno and Dom continue to threaten Indigenous leaders, as well as journalists and Indigenous experts.
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Credible death threats mean I must still travel to the region accompanied by security forces from the national public security force. Unless our government acts, it will only be a matter of time before we see more tragic violence.
Bruno and Dom have now become part of the oral history of all the peoples of the Javari valley. But Brazil runs the risk of forgetting, or even betraying them.
In early May, our country’s most-watched news program gave the main murder suspect a platform to make far-fetched allegations against Bruno, claiming during a court hearing that the Indigenous expert had threatened him and shot first on the day he and Dom were killed. The confessed killer even claimed he was a “friend” of the isolated tribes.
In the meantime, Indigenous people remain under siege in their lands, waiting for answers from a country which closes its eyes to our plight.
Remote even by Amazonian standards, the Javari valley is a world away from the corridors of power in Brasília. Can we count on our leaders there to do the right thing?
Beto Marubo is a technical coordinator for Univaja and an Indigenous leader. Among the Marubo he is called Wino Këyshëni