Bolsonaro, an unrecommended adventure

Abstract

President Jair Bolsonaro has suggested that the expedition in which Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips disappeared on Sunday, May 5th, near the Javari Valley Indigenous Land (in the state of Amazonas, Brazil) was an ‘adventure’ in a ‘completely wild’ region, ‘where anything can happen,’ and, thus, ‘unrecommended.’ Yet, Bruno and Dom are far from being two reckless adventurers. Bruno is one of the most experienced Indigenous experts in the country, working for over 11 years in this region of the Amazon, respected by Indigenous peoples and admired by his colleagues at FUNAI (National Indian Foundation), the government's Indigenous affairs agency for which he worked. In turn, Dom Phillips carries over 30 years of experience in journalism, 15 of them in Brazil, a period during which he got to know and write about the Amazon, its Indigenous peoples, traditional communities, and the deterioration of environmental conflicts.