In September 2019, Maxciel was shot cold in the streets of the Brazilian city of Tabatinga, located on the three-state border between Peru and Colombia. Almost three years later, the murder remains unsolved. “She never told us about the dangers of work, so we would not have to worry,” said Noemia, 65, at her small Tabatinga home while holding her son’s green suit. “But he said it was a job for brave men.” “I believe his death was ordered by the same people who ordered Bruno’s death.” Noemia dos Santos had not spoken publicly since Maxciel’s murder, but said the deaths of Phillips and Pereira had helped her speak out and seek justice for her son. He has not received any information about the ongoing police investigation for years, and the family has no money to pay for a lawyer. “When I heard about Bruno and Dom, it was the same sadness that came to me once again,” he told the Guardian. “We all demand justice” Maxciel Pereira dos Santos was the youngest of her 11 children, whom she raised as an unmarried mother. A photo of him, standing rigid in his Funai uniform, adorns a wooden shelf in the corner of the living room next to a vase of flowers. During a career in Funai that lasted 12 years, Santos gained a reputation for diligently enforcing federal laws that protect indigenous peoples. He was involved in several seizures – of ammunition, meat and salt – in the valley shortly before he was shot, said members of the Univaja indigenous rights group, who share the family’s belief that Santos was killed because of his job. The area, about the size of Ireland and Wales combined, has only a handful of Funai outposts and has seen an increase in illegal logging, gold mining, hunting and drug trafficking. Documents seen by the Guardian show that Santos’s mission at the time of his assassination was to “carry out territorial surveillance and surveillance” in the territory of the natives. “Bad people do not die as they were killed,” said Manoel Chorimpa, a Univaja member and former councilor in the riverside town of Atalaia do Norte. Maxciel was shot twice in the head, according to an autopsy report. Family members said he was shot dead while riding his motorcycle on the road, with his partner sitting behind him. He was called back to Tabatinga shortly after he was on a mission with Funai, according to several sources. The Brazilian federal police did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation. Santos’s death came just weeks before his friend and mentor Bruno Pereira left Funai amid sweeping changes to the newly elected Bolsonaro government, aimed at limiting his power and ability to enforce it. Following the election, the far-right leader ousted Funai, moving him from the justice department to a newly formed ministry of women, family and human rights. The agency also lost significant know-how, with 37 of the 39 Funai regional coordinators now out of office, most from the military and six with no government experience, according to a recent report by Indigenistas Associados and Inesc. The report claims that many of the service’s experts have been sidelined or fired by Bolsonaro with substantial enforcement action now “impossible due to insufficient budget”. In an unprocessed transcript of an interview with Bruno Pereira published by the Folha newspaper after his death, the former Funai official criticized the agency’s leadership under the current president. “The more he [Bolsonaro] he destroys, confuses with the internal regulations and threatens the employees, the more he succeeds “, said Pereira in comments that were not recorded at that time. Funai’s internal documents, written in the aftermath of Santos’s murder and examined by the Guardian, reveal that agents working in the Javari Valley had asked supervisors to send more resources to the area. In a letter dated 16 January 2020, two Funai agents sent to the area asked their seniors stationed in Brasilia to send more law enforcement resources, claiming that the security situation had become unfounded. The letter lists 27 points, including Santos’s murder, which they claim are “possible retaliation for… seizure of environmental smuggling” and states that a Funai checkpoint in the area came under fire seven times “creating a climate of impunity and fear among professionals. acting to protect this area of the natives “. A Funai spokesman did not answer questions about Santos’s murder. The spokesman said the agency had requested more resources in the Javari Valley area as early as February 2022, but did not provide details. Prior to his death, Maxciel had shared a few details with his family, but they had noticed how precarious his job had become. “The whole family voted for Bolsonso, but everything got worse after his election,” said Ozil Pereira dos Santos,’s older brother. But Santos continued to do his job “because he loved the knowledge that came from the natives.” Subscribe to the First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7 p.m. BST The family remains outraged that little seems to have been done to investigate the crime. They said they were told they were not entitled to any compensation after his murder. Santos left behind two young daughters, 17-year-old Gabriel Christine and 11-year-old Maria Edouarda, whom he supported throughout their lives. “He was a good father and my life changed a lot after his death,” said Gabriel Christine. “We are not hungry, but we do not have money for new clothes.” Although he protected his children from the dangers he took at work, they had a sense of danger out in the river. “He never told us,” said Gabriel Christine. “But then he never invited us to come with him.”
