Category Archives: Brazil

Brazil: killing of Lula’s party treasurer raises fears of violent run-up to election

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Marcelo de Arruda was shot at his birthday party by a supporter of President Bolsonaro

Brazilian political leaders called for calm this week after the killing of a Workers’ party member prompted fears that political violence in the polarised nation will erupt in the run-up to October’s presidential election.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the leftwing former president and Workers’ party leader who is currently leading the polls for the ballot on 2 October, sent his condolences to the family of the dead man, who belonged to his party, and called for “dialogue, tolerance and peace”.

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‘Extinct’ parrots make a flying comeback in Brazil

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The Spix macaw, a bird that had once vanished in the wild, is now thriving in its South American homeland after a successful breeding programme

Twenty years ago, the future of the Spix’s macaw could not have looked bleaker. The last member of this distinctive parrot species disappeared from the wild, leaving only a few dozen birds in collectors’ cages across the globe. The prospects for Cyanopsitta spixii were grim, to say the least.

But thanks to a remarkable international rescue project, Spix’s macaws – with their grey heads and vivid blue plumage – have made a stunning comeback. A flock now soars freely over its old homeland in Brazil after being released there a month ago. Later this year, conservationists plan to release more birds, and hope the parrots will start breeding in the wild next spring.

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Man linked to killing of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira arrested over fake ID

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Rubens Villar Coelho ‘produced a fake Brazilian ID’ to investigating officer and had other aliases in Peru and Colombia

Police have arrested a man linked to the killing of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira but officials in the Amazonian city of Manaus warned his detention has not yet produced any evidence he is implicated in the 5 June murders.

Media in the area around Brazil’s border with Peru and Colombia where the couple went missing named Rubens Villar Coelho as a possible suspect in the case that brought global attention to the remote Amazonian region last month.

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Victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster to get day in UK courts

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Court of appeal judgment allows £5bn lawsuit against mining giant BHP by more than 200,000 victims of 2015 Mariana dam disaster

More than 200,000 victims of Brazil’s worst environmental disaster will have their case heard in a UK court, making it the largest group claim in English legal history.

The lawsuit is against the Anglo-Australian mining company BHP – one of the biggest companies in the world – for their involvement in the collapse of the Mariana dam in 2015, which released toxic mining waste down 400 miles (640km) of waterways along the Doce River. Claimants are seeking at least £5bn ($6bn) in compensation.

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Brazil: Boris Johnson’s fall met with hope and humour by foes of Bolsonaro

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UK prime minister’s fellow populist is facing a tough re-election fight in October against former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Tremors from the political earthquake that shook the United Kingdom have reached Brazil, where the left is hoping the demise of a British populist leader presages the downfall of their own far-right authoritarian.

Boris Johnson’s political collapse was met with a mixture of hope and humour, with Ciro Gomes, one of the presidential candidates in October’s Brazilian election, describing the leaders of both nations in similar terms.

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Wild species support half of world’s population, report finds

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Sustainability is key to survival of billions of people, says UN study, which notes income from wild species incentivises conservation

• Patrick Vallance: ‘We need to change if we’re to survive’

Wild plants, animals, fungi and algae support half of the world’s population but their future use is threatened by overexploitation, according to a new assessment by leading scientists.

From the 10,000 known wild species that humans harvest for food to the firewood that one in three people need for cooking, nature is key to the livelihoods and survival of billions of people in developed and developing countries, says a new UN report.

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Bolsonaro’s ‘surrender of Amazon to crooks played role in murders of Phillips and Pereira’

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Brazilian president’s dismantling of environmental safeguards partly to blame, says politician leading inquiry

Jair Bolsonaro’s demolition of Brazil’s Indigenous and environmental protection services and “surrender of the Amazon to crooks” played a direct role in the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, the politician leading a congressional inquiry into the crime has claimed.

One month after the British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous advocate were killed on the River Itaquaí, three men are in custody: two local fishermen and a third man called Jeferson da Silva Lima.

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Murdered British journalist Dom Phillips laid to rest in Brazil

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My brother was killed because he tried to tell the world what was happening to the rainforest, says Sian Phillips

The British journalist Dom Phillips has been laid to rest in Brazil, exactly three weeks after he was gunned down while journeying through the Amazon with the Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira.

Pereira and Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor, disappeared while travelling on the Itaquaí River on Sunday 5 June.

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‘Dom Phillips was natural storyteller – for us, he was always Uncle Dom’

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Nieces of journalist killed in the Amazon pay tribute to their uncle, who sent frequent and funny emails about life in Brazil

Dom Phillips was a storyteller. Through his career as a journalist, he told the stories of those who were unable to speak out and whose views were overlooked. His second book, How to Save the Amazon, aimed to do exactly this – to speak the story of the Amazon and the Indigenous people within it, and provide solutions to preserve their culture in conjunction with current Brazilian society.

For us, however, he was always Uncle Dom. He has been present in our lives since we were born and was very much involved with our upbringing when we were small children. He remained a positive influence, even when he moved to Brazil in 2007.

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Bruno Pereira buried in his home state after ceremony led by Indigenous tribes

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Funeral held in Pernambuco of Indigenous expert who was killed in Amazon region with journalist Dom Phillips

The murdered Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira has been buried in his home state of Pernambuco in Brazil after a small ceremony attended by family members and local tribes.

Dozens of Indigenous people from the Xukuru tribe paraded around his coffin chanting farewell rituals to the beat of their percussion instruments on Friday.

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Calls for justice amid fears inquiry into killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira stalling

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Three men are in custody and more arrests are planned, but the suspected murder weapon has not been found

Scores of protesters have congregated outside the offices of Brazil’s Indigenous protection agency Funai in the riverside town of Atalaia do Norte, renewing calls for justice over the murders of journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira.

Demonstrators – mostly Indigenous people from the Javari Valley – held orange and yellow banners, which read: “Protection for our Amazon forest”, “Amazon resist! Who ordered the killing?” and “Out Bolsonaro!”, amid growing fears that the criminal investigation into the murders was slowing.

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Dom Phillips was ‘collateral damage’ in drunken ambush, claims Brazil vice-president

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Hamilton Mourão’s claim sparked anger from Indigenous communities who believe organised crime was involved

Brazil’s vice-president has claimed that British journalist Dom Phillips was “collateral damage” in an attack on his travelling partner, the Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira, as grisly details emerged about the killing of the two men in early June.

One of the three men in custody for the killings said he and his accomplices tried to burn the bodies after shooting them dead at the edge of a river in western Brazil.

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Brazil police identify five more people linked to killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Officers have already arrested three people, one of whom confessed to killing British journalist and indigenous advocate

Police investigating the murder of the British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira have identified five more people connected with the killings, bringing to eight the number of suspects in a crime that has shocked Brazil.

Police had already arrested two brothers, one of whom confessed to the crime, and a third man handed himself in to authorities on Saturday.

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Brazil police arrest third suspect in killings of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Jefferson da Silva Lima turned himself in to Amazon police as autopsy finds journalist and indigenous expert were shot

Brazil’s federal police said Saturday that a third suspect in the deaths of British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira has been arrested. The pair, whose remains were found after they went missing almost two weeks ago, were shot to death, according to an autopsy.

Phillips was shot in the chest and Pereira was shot in the head and the abdomen, police said in a statement. It said the autopsy indicated the use of a “firearm with typical hunting ammunition.”

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Four jailed in Colombia for honeymoon murder of prosecutor

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Gang members given 23-year terms for shooting dead Paraguayan anti-corruption prosecutor Marcelo Pecci

Four people who confessed to taking part in the murder of a Paraguayan prosecutor who was on his honeymoon have each been sentenced to 23 years in jail.

Marcelo Pecci, 45, known for fighting organised crime, was shot dead on the Colombian island of Barú near the Caribbean city of Cartagena on 10 May.

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Police say remains found in Brazilian Amazon belong to Dom Phillips

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Officials give confirmation after forensic tests, as police suggest killings were not carried out upon orders from organised crime

Forensic tests carried out on human remains found in the Brazilian Amazon have confirmed that they belonged to Dom Phillips, the British journalist who went missing with the Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira.

Brazil’s federal police said late on Friday that it could “confirm that the remains of Dom Phillips are part of the [human] material” found on Wednesday after an 11-day search along the banks of the Itaquaí river. They had been buried in a densely forested area two hours from the nearest town.

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In his own words: Dom Phillips’ reporting on Brazil and the Amazon

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Dom Phillips, whose death in the Amazon has shocked many, was a frequent contributor to the Guardian. Here are some of his outstanding pieces of journalism

Over some of the most tumultuous years in Brazil, Dom Phillips bore witness to the politics of his adopted home and to the fate of the Amazon rainforest. Travelling into the forest is a slow and laborious process, yet Phillips returned again and again.

Phillips wrote regularly for the Guardian and other publications. Here, we have collected some of his most outstanding pieces of journalism.

For more than a decade after the reserve was set up in 1998, its 16 uncontacted Indigenous tribes were among the best protected in Brazil. Yet today it is invaded on multiple fronts, leaving its isolated groups – who hunt with bows and arrows or blow-pipes, and avoid contact with modern society – at risk. Contact with outsiders can be deadly for these groups, who lack immunity to diseases like flu.

“The vulnerability of these peoples is growing,” Beto Marubo, a Javari Indigenous leader, told the United Nations permanent forum on indigenous issues in New York in April. “There is no effective protection.”

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Police losing narco war in deadly Amazon region where duo disappeared

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A key police outpost lies in ruins after a daring raid – a sign of the growing danger on an increasingly lucrative smuggling route

In the crime-infested tri-border region where Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira disappeared, rumours abound over what happened at Puerto Amelia in January this year.

Were Brazilian drug traffickers responsible for burning the Peruvian police outpost on the River Yavarí to the ground?

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‘Heartbroken’: family pay tribute to Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira

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Colleagues call for journalist and Indigenous activist’s work to be inspiration to others

The family of Dom Phillips have spoken of their heartbreak over the murder of the British journalist and the Indigenous activist Bruno Pereira as colleagues called for the men’s work to be an inspiration to others.

In a statement issued on behalf of Phillips’ sister Sian, his brother Gareth, and their partners and children, the family offered thanks to those who had taken part in the 10-day search.

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