What terrible truth were they trying to expose?

Dear reader,

This week marks three years since the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian indigenous defender Bruno Pereira vanished without a trace while on a reporting trip near Brazil’s remote Javari valley.

Dom Phillips was a versatile correspondent who started his career as the editor of the British clubbing magazine Mixmag, before reinventing himself in Brazil as an environmental correspondent for newspapers including the Guardian.

Pereira was a renowned Indigenous rights expert who helped create an Indigenous patrol group to protect the Javari. He dedicated his life to advocating for the Amazon rainforest.

The last time the two men were seen alive was when they set off along the Itaquaí river in a boat in June 2022.

I’ve made more than half a dozen trips to different parts of the Amazon to find out exactly what happened to Dom and Bruno, and why - three years on - so many unanswered questions remain.

Missing in the Amazon is a six-part investigative podcast series which will bring to light the unheard testimonies, exclusive interviews and deep reporting from the ground to unravel a story of courage, corruption and violence.

This is a series not only about their disappearance but also about what led Dom and Bruno to risk everything for this lawless region plagued by organised crime.

Tom Phillips
Latin America correspondent

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