But the area is also a lawless area where criminals go unpunished, said Wallace, now an associate professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut. Javari’s tropical generosity has made it a hotspot for poachers, fishermen and illegal loggers, sparking violent clashes between indigenous peoples and riparian communities who vehemently opposed the establishment of the shelter in 2001. It is also a smuggling route for smugglers. presence and battle for control of smuggling routes between Brazil, Peru and Colombia. This was the scene in which the British journalist Dom Phillips and the native’s lawyer Bruno Araούjo Pereira went missing on Sunday. They traveled along the Itaquaí River, the main waterway accessing the Javari Valley. A suspect has been arrested in connection with their disappearance, although police say they have not yet found evidence of a crime in the case. Map The last decade has seen an explosion of drug trafficking through Javari’s secret waterways as coca cultivation – the plant used to make cocaine – spurs across Peru. Coca cultivation increased by almost 20% between 2019 and 2020 to 61,777 hectares (152,654 acres) in Peru, the second largest producer after Colombia, according to UN figures. General Mauro Esposito, a former coordinator of special border operations for Brazil’s federal police, said the triple border had become the most dangerous part of the country’s 10,492-mile border due to the “massive” increase in coca cultivation in Peru. “Since the 2000s, there has been a movement of coca fields on the border between Peru and Brazil,” he said. Esposito oversaw the arrest in 2014 of the infamous cartel leader Jair Ardela Michué, nicknamed “Javier”, who was personally responsible for at least 50 killings, including of a Peruvian police officer. But the capture of the Peruvian bonnet in a joint Peruvian-Brazilian police operation did not quell the bleeding. Colombian criminal factions, including militias made up of dissident former rebels, are also involved in the conflict, a police source said. “It is a war with a lot of violence, a lot of cruelty.” But the remote area is also a haven for non-contact tribes. It is home to around 6,000 indigenous peoples belonging to 26 ethnic groups, 19 of whom live in isolation. It was the unspoiled beauty of the Javari Valley that brought Wallace to the area two decades ago, when he accompanied the legendary Brazilian explorer and indigenous defender, Sydney Possuelo, on a mission to locate contactless tribes. “Twenty years ago, there were signs of drug traffickers beginning to infiltrate the area, especially around the shelter,” he added. Today, he regretted that it was much worse as the current Brazilian government showed much less interest in “exercising the rule of law”. Zaire Bolsonaro and his government “appear to be in favor of mining activities that end up looting the forest,” Wallace said, adding that the right-wing president’s stance gave “ample room for criminal gangs to operate.” “They have ceded these areas to criminal companies.” Environmental and indigenous rights groups have long argued that Bolsonaro’s public stance on indigenous lands has encouraged land invaders and criminal gangs to go unpunished. “Bolsonaro’s narrative facilitates illegal mining and any use of land for many [extractive] activities “, said Antenor Vaz, the former head of the Brazilian National Foundation of India, Funai, in the area where the couple is missing. Meanwhile, the Brazilian Congress is considering legislation that would open up indigenous territories to mining industries such as mining and logging, Vaz said. “There is organized crime in the Javari Valley. “State institutions do not fight it and do not do justice,” he added. “Criminals feel very empowered by the president’s speech.”
