Former Mixmag editor Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Araújo Pereira were killed while investigating for Phillips’ book, How To Save The Amazon.
A case nearly two and a half years old is now closed as Rubens Villar Coelho has been charged with plotting the murder of journalist Dom Phillips and activist Bruno Araújo Pereira.
Phillips and Pereira were on a trip together in the remote western Amazon Rainforest, gathering information for Phillips’ upcoming book, How To Save The Amazon. Police in the Amazon town of Manhaus issued a statement saying that they had identified eight men as having conspired to murder the two men in retaliation to their investigative efforts, and Brazilian newspaper O GLOBO named Villar Coelho as their mastermind.
Villar Coelho, who goes by the nickname Colômbia, reportedly ran a drug trafficking front under the guise of a fishing business, among other schemes. According to the police statement, he “provided ammunition for the commission of the crime, funded the criminal organization’s activities, and intervened to coordinate the concealment of the victims’ bodies.”
Phillips, who previously served as editor of dance music publication Mixmag, had primarily covered issues pertaining to the environment and indigenous communities of Brazil since 2007. How To Save The Amazon will be released posthumously.
Pereira once worked for the Brazilian government and centered his career around addressing the plight of uncontacted tribes. A Javari leader named Beta Marubo who was close to Pereira said that his and Phillips’ deaths weren’t likely to lead authorities to increase security in the region, according to The Guardian.
“Who is bankrolling these people so they are able to continue their criminal activities?” asked Marubo. “Why is it that so many politicians in the region helped these criminals? Why is this criminal organization still operating in the region?”
