Brazil indigenous defender, sidelined under Bolsonaro, gave life for 'abandoned' tribes

Members of local indigenous group Univaja attend a protest after the British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira went missing while reporting in a remote and lawless part of the Amazon rainforest, in Atalaia do Norte, Amazonas state, Brazil, June 13, 2022. Picture taken June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

Six tribes from Brazil's remote Javari Valley packed into an assembly hall on June 11 to lament the disappearance of Bruno Pereira, an advisor to their collective, and Dom Phillips, a British journalist reporting on his work.

Native patrolmen organized by Pereira, formerly a senior official for indigenous affairs agency Funai, were still hunting for signs of the missing men on an Amazon tributary that runs through their reservation.