What: The attorney for The Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA), Indigenous lawyer Eliesio Marubo, is traveling to the U.S. for meetings with members of Congress, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the State Department, journalists, and allies. The objective of his visit is to build Congressional support for action and accountability for Dom and Bruno’s murders and raise awareness among U.S. policymakers about narco-trafficking and violent threats to Indigenous Peoples in Brazil’s Javari Valley.
Eliesio Marubo and fellow UNIVAJA leader Beto Marubo played a key role in coordinating the autonomous search and investigation into the murders of Bruno Araújo Pereira, 41, a licensed employee of the Brazilian National Indigenous Foundation (FUNAI) and a consultant for UNIVAJA; and British journalist Dom Phillips, 57, who disappeared on June 5 in the remote region of the Javari Valley, in the Brazilian Amazon.
Eliesio was also the Indigenous lawyer who led the case against the illegal entry of missionaries into the Vale do Javari Indigenous Land during the pandemic. UNIVAJA became the first Indigenous organization to successfully file and win this type of lawsuit. The Washington Post profiled his legal action in October 2021. Additionally, Eliesio was one of the lawyers who filed the ADPF Case (Allegation of Violation of a Fundamental Precept) No. 709 in the Brazilian Supreme Court denouncing the inaction and failures of the federal government, and demanding the preparation of an emergency plan to control the pandemic on Indigenous lands. He is a member of the network of Indigenous lawyers in the Brazilian Amazon.
When: July 12 -15, 2022
Where: Washington, D.C.
Who: Eliesio Marubo will be accompanied by the Due Process of Law Foundation, Amazon Watch, and Greenpeace USA.
Interviews and Multimedia: For interviews or additional information please contact Camila Rossi who will be on location in Washington D.C. at +55 11 9182 8476 or crossi@amazonwatch.org. Interviews are available in Portuguese. English translation or interpretation provided upon request.
Background
This week in an article for Brazil’s O Globo newspaper, a month after the deaths of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, Indigenous Peoples and FUNAI employees denounced that the Javari Valley continues to be a land without law. Despite legal actions, speeches on the parliamentary floor, and mobilizations by employees, FUNAI and the Bolsonaro administration have not yet taken measures to guarantee the safety of the residents and Indigenous Peoples in the region. Workers continue to receive direct and veiled threats from invaders.
The Javari Valley is an area the size of Portugal and home to the world’s largest concentration of uncontacted Indigenous groups and is now Brazil’s second-largest drug trafficking route, where the interwoven illicit industries of fishing, logging, and mining have proliferated over the past decade.
With sweeping government cuts in the region – there haven’t been any federal environmental agency staff (IBAMA) based there since 2018 and just three, poorly-resourced Indigenous FUNAI outposts – seizures of illicit goods have plummeted under the Bolsonaro administration. The FUNAI outpost closest to where Pereira and Phillips were killed has been attacked seven times in the past two years. This void left advocates like Pereira and UNIVAJA forced to undertake increasingly dangerous surveillance operations with no government support.
