Retaking of Vale do Javari is ‘act of responsibility’, says Joenia

The president of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai), Joenia Wapichana, said that the event held today (27), at the headquarters of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Univaja), is not only a symbolic act, “but of responsibility”, in view of the vulnerability in which the State left indigenist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips. For her, the federal government owes a debt to the families of both victims, who were murdered for denouncing crimes in the Vale do Javari region, such as illegal mining and hunting: “We have to seek justice, investigation, not only for Bruno or Dom, or for Maxwell, for other servants, who are here with us, for our leaders, who continue to be threatened and have been warning about this for some time”, argued Joenia. Present at the event, Bruno Pereira’s widow, anthropologist Beatriz Matos, said that her children also suffered threats after Bruno’s death. She regretted the episode and stressed that she will do everything to prevent the indigenous people in the region from going through the same situation. This month, she became Director of Territorial Protection and Isolated and Recent Contact Indigenous Peoples at the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples. The minister said that Funai is now regaining its strength and bringing “concrete news, not just dreams”. The precariousness with which the agency’s teams work is one of the aspects that deserve attention, according to her. “Without a restructuring of the protection networks, without working conditions, it is difficult for us to continue this obligation of the State”, said the minister.

Agência Brasil