Officials claim responsibility for those responsible for the deaths of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips and the departure of the president of an indigenist agency
Report updated on 24/6/2022, at 22:30 pm
Servers from the National Indian Foundation (Funai) participated, this Thursday (23), in a national strike promoted by the organization Indigenistas Associados (INA) and the National Association of Employees of Funai (Ansef), among others, to denounce the dismantling of the official body, demand measures from its direction and the authorities to guarantee the integrity of the employees and ask for the immediate departure of the current president, Marcelo Augusto Xavier. Protests were recorded in 38 cities.
A national mobilization began on the 14th and, since then, there have been seven days of strike, five this week. Between Monday and Wednesday of next week, another vigil is planned in front of Funai's headquarters, in Brasília. On Thursday, another national day of strike is scheduled.
The murders of the indigenist and Funai worker Bruno Araújo Pereira and the English journalist Dom Phillips, disappeared on the 5th and found dead on the 15th, in Atalaia do Norte, in the extreme west of the Amazon, sparked the movement. They disappeared into the forest after recording the activities of invaders from the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land, the second largest in the country, with 8,5 million hectares, in the same region. Pereira was cremated this Thursday afternoon in Recife. Phillips will be cremated in Niterói (RJ), next Sunday.
Os dois were found after one of the suspects in the homicides, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, took the search teams to the crime scene. He also implicated his brother, Oseney da Costa de Oliveira. There are still two more suspects arrested: Jeferson da Silva Lima, who would have shot the victims, and Gabriel Pereira Dantas. In total, the police are investigating the participation of eight people in the murders.
The deaths ended up further exposing the weakening of the indigenist agency promoted by the Bolsonaro government and the violence in the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land.
First strike in 10 years
“This Bruno issue raised a mobilization that had not happened in Funai for many years. It has been 10 years since a strike was declared at Funai. So, the strength of Bruno and Dom also raised a series of questions that were dormant, but that are also more than necessary for us to strengthen the policy of isolated peoples, the policy [of peoples] of new contact and the protection of Indigenous Lands in general”, says Luiz Carlos Lages, a Funai employee and INA member.
“It is inevitable, in this context, that we do not move on to the agenda that is 'Out, Xavier!', which is one of our main unifying agendas, precisely because Marcelo Xavier came to Funai to fulfill the promise made by President Bolsonaro to give Funai a poke in the neck. Thus, in his management, the territorial protection of indigenous lands, not only of Javari, but of the whole of Brazil, suffered a lot and has suffered a series of attacks and setbacks”, he adds.
Lages adds that the movement also condemns the militarization of the indigenist agency, with the appointment of members of the Armed Forces and police officers without qualifications or experience for important positions.
During the act in Brasília, the servant and member of INA Luana Almeida explained that the employees were ignored by Xavier in an attempt to dialogue about the claims. After that, the movement decided that it no longer considers him a valid interlocutor. According to the INA, the deputy executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Washington Leonardo Guanaes Bonini, promised to meet with Minister Anderson Torres in the coming days.
“Today, the main objective of the strike is for us to be received by the Minister of Justice to be able to present our claims and to be able to agree with people who actually have decision-making power, to get referrals related to [our] eight emergency points, and also an agenda structuring for the recomposition and reorientation of Funai's performance in favor of its institutional mission, which is to protect and defend the rights of indigenous peoples”, he said.
The eight items mentioned by Almeida were sent to Torres, on the 20th, through a letter. Among the demands are the dispatch of security forces to guarantee the physical integrity of the servers in all the Vale do Javari protection bases; the continuity of the investigations into the murders of Pereira and Phillips and the identification of those in charge; and the departure of the current members of the Funai leadership, including those in higher positions (Check the list in the table at the end of the report.).
Omission of Funai and the State
“Vale do Javari says it will fight to the last Indian and I say: I don’t know how long I will be here, but I would like to emphasize this — we are with you and we will strengthen ourselves because certainly united we will win and, even more, you will not are alone. It's for Dom and Bruno!”, highlighted the legal advisor of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of Vale do Javari (Univaja), Eliésio Marubo, during the act in Brasília.
“They both lost their lives for the omission of the State, for the omission of Funai, which insists on criminalizing the conduct of your servants, which insists on criminalizing the performance of our organizations, our leaders”, he concluded.
In addition to Funai civil servants, this farm's mobilization had the support of representatives of indigenous peoples who reinforced their criticism of the dismantling of the indigenist agency and demands for decent working conditions for civil servants. The indigenous people prayed and paid tribute to Pereira and Phillips.
What are Funai employees demanding?
1) Public statement by the president of Funai, retracting his statements defaming Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips.
2) Immediate deployment of security forces to guarantee the physical integrity of Funai's employees in all the protection bases of the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land and Funai's regional coordinations (CRs) in the region.
3) Immediate dispatch of a task force to support the servers and activities of the Alto Solimões and Vale do Javari CRs, as well as the Vale do Javari Ethnoenvironmental Protection Front.
4) No retaliation to striking servers, including changes in capacity, dismissal of positions and opening of administrative investigations.
5) Payment of days off to strikers without time compensation.
6) Investigation to the end of the responsibilities for the murders, emphasizing that the violence in Vale do Javari has connections with organized crime.
7) That the Minister of Justice immediately receive a commission from the civil servants to discuss the claims.
8) Change of command of Funai, including President Marcelo Xavier and all anti-indigenist members of the team of advisors and senior management and advisory positions.