Brazilian police identify mastermind behind killings of journalists and indigenous people

Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) said on Monday that Rubens Villar Coelho, known as “Colombia”, was the mastermind behind the murders in the Amazon of British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous activist Bruno Araujo Pereira.

“I have no doubt that Columbia was the inspiration. We have evidence that he gave Jefferson and Amarildo – the perpetrators – the same ammunition found in the case,” said PF Amazonas superintendent Alexander Fontes. press conference.

At a press conference in Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas region, Colombia “paid for the original lawyer” for Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, who confessed to the murder, as did his accomplice Jefferson da Lima Silva, the police chief said.

“Motivation is illegal fishing in the Javari Valley region. Therefore, the brain, and I have no more doubts about it, “Columbia”. It was he who provided boats for illegal fishing in the region,” he said. Sources.

Rubens Villar Coelho, known as “Colombia”, was arrested in late December for violating a parole granted to him in October, after posting bail of 15,000 reais (about $3,000) and agreeing to be monitored by an electronic bracelet. allowed to leave Manaus.

When witnesses linked him to the death of a journalist and a native, “Colombia” presented himself to the authorities with a Peruvian document, but he also had a Brazilian one in the name of Rubens Villar Coelho.

For the use of two names, “Colombia” was arrested, and authorities later identified him as Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, a citizen of Colombia, but this origin has also not been fully proven.

After the confessions of two of the seven defendants in the double murder, the bodies of Phillips and Araujo were found lifeless near Atalaya do Norte, where they went to gather information for a British journalist’s book.

One of the accused, Edvaldo da Costa Oliveira, Amarildo’s brother, who only hid the bodies, was also considered a criminal, as he was responsible for obtaining weapons and delivering them to the killers.

In addition to Colombia and the two criminals, the prison also houses another of the Amarildo brothers, Autumn da Costa Oliveira, who was on a boat carrying a journalist and an indigenous representative.

The hearing, which was scheduled for this week, has been rescheduled for March 20-22 due to “technical” issues the investigation team has said.

Phillips of The Guardian has written about the threats to indigenous peoples in the Jawari Valley, one of the most non-contact ethnic groups in the world, where fishing and poaching coexist with drug trafficking and piracy.