Pereira produced a list of officials linked to invaders of Indigenous land

On May 8, 2022, Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira called an old ally in Atalaia do Norte (AM). He had a list of names and surnames of people who could be part of the political network that protected the group involved in poaching and illegal fishing in the Javari Valley Indigenous Land. A former coordinator of Funai (the Brazilian government's Indigenous agency) in the region, Pereira investigated the links of the land invaders with the city hall, as revealed in a June 28, 2022 report by the Tim Lopes Program of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji). 

During the call, Pereira's ally identified the supposed links between illegal activities and the city government. It was the last time they talked. Among the suspects nominated in Pereira's list are the officials Janio Souza and Laurimar Alves, known as "Caboclo." Both were appointed to positions of trust by mayor Denis Paiva. Caboclo is married to one of the sisters of Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, known as "Pelado", arrested for allegedly participating in the murders of Pereira and Phillips on June 5, 2022.  

Exactly one month after the murders of the Brazilian Indigenous expert and the British journalist, Abraji reveals details of the investigation conducted by Bruno Pereira weeks before his death. Abraji's work is based on the accounts of two of its main associates. In exclusive interviews, they appoint the suspicious relationships between drug trafficking, poaching, and illegal fishing with politics supporting the invasion of the Indigenous land. According to the interviewees – whose identities will be kept secret for security reasons – it is an extensive network with branches in the city hall, the city council, and even in the National Congress.

To preserve the interviewees – who, despite fearing for their lives, decided to continue the investigation initiated by Bruno Pereira –, Abraji identifies both here as Pereira's associates.

According to one of these associates, Pereira planned to deliver copies of the report with the suspects' names and positions in the municipal administration to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the Federal Police, and the journalist Dom Phillips. The British journalist was writing a book on Vale do Javari Indigenous Land.

Pereira realized that the group involved in the invasions for poaching and illegal fishing in the Indigenous land had changed its profile. They were no longer riparian fishers in small boats. "Pelado had a boat with a powerful engine and capacity to carry up to 2 tons. Before moving to the city of Benjamin Constant, Pelado lived precariously, like most of the riparians," said the source.

Pelado's financial rise matches the period in which he lived in Benjamin Constant, a neighboring city of Atalaia do Norte, in early 2019. At that time, Pelado started organizing illegal expeditions to invade the Indigenous land with funding from Peruvian drug dealer Rubens Villar Coelho, according to the associates. Coelho - or Colombia, as he is known in the region – use the cities Benjamin Constant, on the Brazilian bank of the Javari River, and Islandia, a peninsula on the Peruvian side of the river, where he officially lives, to conduct his criminal activities. 

By acquainting Colombia, Pelado played a leading role in the coastal villages of Sao Gabriel and Sao Rafael. Several members of his family live in both villages, on the banks of the Itacoaí River, about 30 kilometers from the entrance of the Indigenous land. The strategic position turns the locality into a support point for clandestine expeditions. From there, pirarucu fish and tracajá turtles are taken to Benjamin Constant and resold in Leticia, Colombia, and Santa Rosa de Yavari, Peru.     

   

Tracajás on sale on WhatsApp 

Recognized as a delicacy in the Amazon region, tracajá's meat is highly valued, and its consumption represents high status. Even with the legal ban on the capture and sale of these turtles, it is common to find these animals being grilled on the wood on barbecue grilles in front of the houses in Atalaia do Norte. Their eggs are also freely marketed.

"We know when you have tracajás and eggs being sold in the city. There are some WhatsApp groups with city hall officials as members. Pereira knew it and asked me for help in identifying those involved. The last time we spoke, he asked me to provide a list of the names and positions of Caboclo, Janio, and Clovis. Caboclo is the brother-in-law of Pelado and has a position in the Health Department. Janio de Souza works in the Interior Department. He moved to Sao Rafael and always announced merchandise in the groups," said one of the associates.

The interviewee also cited a third name raised by Pereira in the mentioned call: "Clovis is a health agent. He is from an inland region and had an increase in assets that no one can explain. Pereira knew that Clovis had two masonry houses rented for the town hall. In one of them, there is a nursery and, in the other, the Health Surveillance Department."

 

Children play in a house in Atalaia do Norte. 

The associate was trying to confirm the suspect's identity when he learned that Pereira and Phillips had gone missing. The news of their disappearance arrived in Atalaia do Norte on Sunday morning, June 5, 2022. The two associates knew that their unknown fate foreshadowed the worst scenario. "Pereira went after powerful people. I thought they were dead, but I never thought they could perpretrate such a vicious crime. That is not common here. They were quartered and burned," he said.

Contract murder  

For the second associate interviewed by Abraji, Pereira's death was commissioned by a powerful group of people of the region. "Pereira did his work with excellence and courage. This had always been the case since he began coordinating Funai in the region. He went after powerful people. Pereira mapped the garimpo (illegal mining) dredgers on the river, with the locations of each one by geo-referencing. He did this using his own mobile phone. He wrote a report and handed it to the authorities. Soon after, a major operation took place with the military and the Federal Police. They exploded 60 dredgers. A boat like that is sold for no less than R$ 500,000 (US$ 92,000). It can reach 1 million if you add logistics, personnel, and fuel. This happened in 2019. Soon after, Pereira was dismissed from the coordination of Funai."

The second associate pointed out that the explosion of the dredgers was a blow to illegal mining activity. "But that had not been the first investigation by Pereira from accounts of the original peoples living in the Javari Valley. Previously, Pereira had mapped out traders from Atalaia do Norte who had taken the Bolsa Familia and retirement cards" of Indigenous residents. Bolsa Familia is a social welfare program that grants money to impoverished people countrywide. Grantees use a card to collect their allowance. "They spent months in their small villages, and when they came to the city, there was no money on the cards. Many found that they had unpayable debts hired on their names. Traders also made loans on behalf of these grantees."

The complaints kept growing, and Bruno Pereira went on to investigate the traders to report the case to the authorities. "The Federal Police conducted an operation and found hundreds of cards with traders. Denis (Linder Rojas de Paiva, current mayor of Atalaia do Norte) had more than 100 cards. Why has nothing happened to them? You have to ask the Federal Police. We know that no one has been arrested nor sentenced."  

In Atalaia do Norte, families gather at the entrances of the houses.

The team from the Tim Lopes Program of the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) tried to listen to mayor Denis Paiva (from Uniao Brasil party) while in the city covering the work of the Federal Police, but the mayor had gone to Manaus. According to his office, the trip aimed to gather resources for Atalaia do Norte. Nevertheless, at the same time, the Folk Festival of Parintins took place - rumors have it that the mayor traveled to the festival. Abraji also sent messages to the office's institutional e-mail but did not get answers.

To Abraji, one of Pereira's associates said he believed that mayor Denis Paiva's relationship with Pelado did not have a political-elector or a family friendship character. "He had a complicity with Amarildo," he said. The version presented by the Indigenous person – the one on the above mentioned call – would explain the mayor's visit to Pelado's house on the day of his prison and why a town hall prosecutor had presented himself to defend the suspect. On occasion, the mayor gave an interview to GloboNews's Studio I show and denied defending Pelado.

A suspect shot

In the interview with Abraji, the first associate heard by the team reported an episode of violence involving Amarildo de Oliveira, or Pelado, and an Indigenous person during an invasion of the Javari Valley Indigenous Land. "We know they shot at an Indigenous person who approached an illegal expedition of poachers and fishers on the Indigenous Land. Luckily, he escaped without injury. The shooter had a 16-caliber shotgun and would have been Pelado." The gun is of the same type used to kill Pereira and Phillips.

The episode described by him happened in Feb 2019. Soon after, Benjamin Constant's Patrol Station officers found 200 cartridges of a 16-caliber shotgun in Pelado's house. Agência Pública revealed the discovery of ammunition on June 29, 2022. The story shows that, despite the circumstances, Pelado did not remain imprisoned, nor was he was brought to justice.  

Seven months after the discovery of the 200 ammunition in the house maintained by Pelado in Benjamin Constant, a former contractor of Funai called Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was killed with two shots in the back. He was riding a bike through Amizade Avenue, which connects the Brazilian city of Tabatinga to Letícia, Colombia. The murder occurred on September 6, 2019, two weeks after Santos took part in the seizure of a vessel loaded with pirarucu fish, tracajás, and game meat, valued at R$ 100,000 (US$ 18,500). 

The material seized came from the Javari Valley Indigenous Land. After participating in the operation, Maxciel dos Santos no longer worked for Funai. "Maxciel [Santos] and Bruno [Pereira] were removed from their functions because their work was damaging the activities of the invaders. They were killed for this. I do not doubt that many powerful people are involved. If you investigate, you will see state representatives, governments, and senators [in it]," said Pereira's second associate heard by Abraji.

The mayor's political group

The interviewee adds that mayor Denis Paiva is the son of a logger, a historical ally of the Galate family. The patriarch of the clan, Rosario Conte Galate, was a councilor and mayor of Atalaia do Norte for two terms. "He has been exploring for decades the extraction of hardwood in the Javari Valley. He owns the sawmill to these days. His son is Giuliano Galate, deputy mayor of Denis [Paiva]. Galate and the mayor's father – who is deceased – took more than 2,000 logs of hardwood per month. Now the trees are sent to sawmills in Peru, where the wood is prepared and sent abroad."

The source told that Galate father no longer lives in Atalaia do Norte but in Manaus, but that he was the leading supporter of invasions when he was a councilor there. "He and the mayor's father never accepted the landmarking of the Indigenous Land. Now his children own local politics. This group has a connection with federal representatives and senators," he said. The version presented in the interview with Abraji is reinforced by a story disclosed on the website "De Olho nos Ruralistas" showing Galate with a senator.

The two associates believe that the Galate political group – which became known in the region for defending an old policy known as "a good Indian is a dead Indian" – will keep trying to invade the Javari Valley Indigenous Land. According to the source, 90% of the population of Atalaia do Norte do not like Indigenous people: "It is common to hear people here saying that they [Indigenous people] have a lot of land for such a small amount of people. And [they ask] what they come to do in the city since people from the city cannot enter their land," he said.

For the two interviewees, the disassembly of Funai's supervisory structure has encouraged the activities of the invaders. "This is a government policy. The National Security Force (FNS) sent troops to operate around the Indigenous land but did not approach poachers and illegal fishers. They said it was not their assignment. They only ate and slept. They were there for nothing." Currently, the FNS does not maintain troops on the triple border between Brazil, Peru, and Colombia. The image of the building serving as a shelter for the men of the National Force is proof of public authorities' abandonment of the region. Without doors and windows, the site became a meeting point for crack addicts and users of other drugs.

The abandoned building of the National Security Force.