Published
Tue, Jun 7, 2022, 09:30
- The British journalist was on a reporting trip with Bruno Araújo Pereira in one of the rainforest's remotest zones.
British journalist and former Mixmag editor Dom Phillips is missing in the Brazilian Amazon, the Guardian reports.
The Salvador-based freelancer, who was editor at Mixmag from 1993 through '99, was last seen over the weekend in the Javari region of the vast Amazonas state, which borders Peru. He was on a reporting trip with Bruno Araújo Pereira, a former government official and expert in Brazil's Indigenous tribes.
According to the Guardian, the pair recently received threats. Pereira has long been the target of miners and loggers who want to industrialise the Amazon. Phillips, who is 57 and moved to Brazil in 2007, is currently working on a book about the environment.
News of the pair's disappearance was triggered by local Indigenous leaders yesterday, June 6th, after they failed to return from what should have been a three-hour boat trip on Sunday morning. The police and the navy, as well as various activist groups, have reportedly began searching the area. Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, AKA Lula, has tweeted in support.
Areas of the Amazon like the Javari region—which is home to more than 20 Indigenous tribes—have become increasingly dangerous in recent years under the presidency of right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro. Illegal groups of miners, loggers, hunters and drug traffickers operate with impunity and often violently.
DJ and fellow journalist Bill Brewster, who is friends with Phillips, has urged people to spread the news of the pair's disappearance far and wide, particularly if they live in Brazil.
Before moving to São Paulo and earning bylines in the Guardian, The New York Times and more, Phillips worked at Mixmag in London between 1991 and '99. According to the UK magazine, he coined the term "progressive house" in a 1992 article. In 2009, he wrote a book about dance music called Superstar DJs Here We Go!: The Rise and Fall of the Superstar DJ.
We'll report more on this story as it unfolds.