July 14, 2022

18:07

Marcela Leiros – from Amazon Agency

BRASILIA – Widow of the licensed server of the National Indian Foundation (Funai) Bruno Pereira, anthropologist Beatriz Matos, said on Thursday, 14, that the family of the indigenist has not received any support or at least condolences from the federal government, and expects a retraction on the part of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), Hamilton Mourão and the president of the foundation, Marcelo Xavier.

“The family did not receive a word of condolence. At Bruno’s funeral there were representatives from the municipal government, the state government, not the federal government. With the exception of you, senators, and the members of the House committee, we didn’t have any support”, the widow said.

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The statement was made during the fourth meeting of the temporary external commission of the Senate, which proposes to investigate in loco, within 60 days, the actions taken in the face of the disappearance of British journalist Dominic Mark Phillips, “Dom Phillips”, and Bruno Pereira.

Beatriz recalled that the indigenist was considered a dedicated public servant and committed to the work, and that Xavier, as president of the foundation, should not have accused him of being in the Javari Valley “illegally”.

“The president of Funai accuses the employee of doing something, instead of taking it upon himself to investigate, to protect, to be indignant, to care for his family, his children. It is indignant the lack of support that we had from the federal sphere of this country. As a family, I would like a retraction”, said the widow.

The anthropologist also highlighted the irreparable loss, for Brazilian indigenism, of Bruno’s death. “Our loss is irreparable, Bruno’s loss for Brazilian indigenism, for the policy of isolated peoples, is irreparable. He was 41 years old and still had at least 30 years of work ahead of him. What we have lost is priceless”, he added.

Emergency plan

Beatriz Matos has worked in Vale do Javari since 2005 and is a member of the Observatory of Human Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples and Recent Contact (OPI). She and Bruno have two children, ages 2 and 3. The anthropologist also demanded an emergency plan for the protection of indigenous peoples and their territories in the Alto Solimões region, in Amazonas.

Read also: ‘Bruno’s death was the last straw’, say Funai employees at a national strike

“We have more than a month of the event and we still don’t have the execution of an emergency plan for the security of the Javari Valley. The Funai employees are unprotected, the indigenous movement is unprotected, and the indigenous themselves are unprotected”, she said.

“It is because of this work that Bruno and Dom were murdered. It should be public policy and not a source of threat”, she concluded.