Brazilian police accuse Pereira, Phillips homicide mastermind
Nov. 5, 2024
Brazilian police concluded that Indigenous rights activist Bruno Pereira was killed in retaliation for his work. Pereira was murdered two years ago in the Brazilian Amazon, as was journalist Dom Phillips who was traveling with him. (See yesterday’s briefs.)
Pereira’s work made him enemies among illegal fishermen and poachers. One was Ruben Dario Villar, who is accused of masterminding the double homicide, providing the munitions and financial resources to poachers who carried out the killings, and later coordinating how to hide the victims’ bodies, reports the Washington Post.
According to the federal police investigation, da Silva Villar financed an illegal fishing operation inside the Javari Valley Indigenous Territories, where thousands of Indigenous people live, including the world’s largest concentration of uncontacted groups, reports the Associated Press.
Brazil’s federal public ministry must now decide whether to file charges against Villar.
“Police said their final report identified nine people who had played some role in killings that drew attention to the criminal assault on the world’s largest tropical rainforest and the Indigenous communities that call that region home,” reports the Guardian.
Regional
In Latin America, like elsewhere around the globe, people are watching election day in the U.S. — though, as James Bosworth points out, the region is hardly paralyzed. “Beyond the policy issues and their impact, one of the factors that will most determine Washington’s future influence in Latin America will be the climate of U.S. domestic politics after the election, no matter who wins,” he writes in World Politics Review.
Mexico
Mexico’s Supreme Court is in session, discussing a resolution that would invalidate a large part of the judicial reform passed by the ruling Morena party in September. The decision will set up a potential constitutional crisis, depending on how President Claudia Sheinbaum reacts, reports Animal Político. (See also Aristegui Noticias and last Thursday’s post.)
Yesterday Sheinbaum said a court rollback of the judicial reform would be overstepping the judge’s functions: “It has to be made very clear that eight justices cannot be above the people,” Sheinbaum said. (Guardian, El País)
Mexico’s Congress continues to advance with reforms proposed by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador: next week the Chamber of Deputies will vote on eliminating seven autonomous government bodies. (La Jornada)
Netflix will release a film adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s revered novel, Pedro Páramo — Guardian
Migration
Mexico’s National Guard fatally shot two Colombians and wounded four others near the U.S. border, reports the Associated Press.
Bolivia
Thousands of women resort to small-scale illegal mining in Bolivia in order to scrape by — Guardian
Caribbean
Tropical Storm Rafael is headed towards the Cayman Islands today and is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane en route to Cuba, reports the Associated Press.
Argentina
Argentina’s legal disputes with former investors could cost the country billions of dollars in damages, and “complicate President Javier Milei’s attempts to fix the country’s struggling economy,” reports the Financial Times.
Critter Corner
A trial investigating the 2021 slaughter of hundreds of Magellanic penguins in the south of Argentina has got underway — Buenos Aires Times