Brazil indigenous defender, sidelined under Bolsonaro, gave life for 'abandoned' tribes

Members of local indigenous group Univaja attend a protest after the British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira went missing while reporting in a remote and lawless part of the Amazon rainforest, in Atalaia do Norte, Amazonas state, Brazil, June 13, 2022. Picture taken June 13, 2022. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly

ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil (Reuters) - Six tribes from Brazil's remote Javari Valley packed into an assembly hall on June 11 to lament the disappearance of Bruno Pereira, an advisor to their collective, and Dom Phillips, a British journalist reporting on his work.

Native patrolmen organized by Pereira, formerly a senior official for indigenous affairs agency Funai, were still hunting for signs of the missing men on an Amazon tributary that runs through their reservation.