PostedJune 26, 2022, 11:50 PM
The funeral of British journalist Dom Philipps, shot dead in the Amazon with Brazilian expert Bruno Pereira, took place on Sunday in Brazil, the country “he loved”.
The two men were killed on June 5, while returning by boat from an expedition in the Javari Valley.
AFP
“Dom will be cremated in the country he loved, Brazil, the one he had chosen as his home,” his widow, Brazilian Alessandra Sampaio, said in tears during a ceremony reserved for friends and family at the cemetery. Parque da Colina in Niteroi, near Rio de Janeiro (southeast).
Sian Phillips, the 57-year-old journalist’s sister, said he was “murdered because he wanted to tell the world what is happening in the Amazon rainforest and its people”. “His mission went against the interests of some, determined to exploit the Amazon,” she added.
The two men were killed on June 5, while returning by boat from an expedition to the Javari Valley, a region known to be dangerous at the edge of the Brazilian Amazon, near the triple border with Peru and Colombia. , where drug traffickers, gold panners and poachers practicing illegal fishing are rampant. Four suspects have been arrested so far, with the last surrendering to authorities on Thursday.
The funeral of Bruno Pereira, 41, an expert on indigenous peoples, took place on Friday in Recife, in Pernambuco (northeast).
Dom Phillips, author of dozens of articles on the Amazon and long-time contributor to the British daily ‘The Guardian’, had traveled to the Javari Valley as part of research for a book on environmental conservation In the region. Bruno Pereira, who served as his guide, had already traveled with him in 2018 in the region.
(AFP)