It is now several days since the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira vanished in an extremely remote part of the Amazon. There is every reason to be seriously concerned for their welfare. They have not been seen since they embarked, early on Sunday morning, upon a short river trip. They had been threatened days before by armed men, and Mr Pereira had earlier received a written threat. Brazil is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental defenders and others associated with Indigenous communities; the killings of the labour leader and environmentalist Chico Mendes and the American nun Dorothy Stang are particularly notorious, but there have been many more since. Journalists are also vulnerable.
On Wednesday, police in the Javari region of Amazonas state announced that they had arrested one suspect and detained four witnesses in connection with the disappearance. Mr Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor who has also written for the Washington Post, New York Times and Financial Times, has travelled extensively in the Amazon region to report on the crisis facing Brazil’s rainforests and its Indigenous communities and is working on a book about conserving the environment. Mr Pereira is a former government official who has spent years working to protect isolated tribes.
