From the first minutes of the disappearance of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips, on the 5th of this month, members of the indigenous surveillance who monitor the territory were certain: Amarildo Oliveira, aka Pelado, and his colleagues were responsible for the disappearance.
Indigenous surveillance documents the invasions of the Vale do Javari indigenous land in Amazonas, which fishermen and illegal hunters mainly carry out.
From the forest and the Itaquaí river, two SMS messages are sent by cell phone each day.
On the 4th, a Saturday, the day before the disappearance, one text was about Pelado, according to members of the surveillance service maintained by the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley.
There was information that Pelado passed by the group showing a weapon. Other evidence was also gathered by the indigenous people and people linked to the surveillance service.
The apparent outcome of the crime in the forest would not have occurred without their reports on the conflict in the Javari region, which pits fishermen and illegal hunters against indigenous people, territory guards, and agents of the Fundação Nacional do Índio.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon