British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenist Bruno Pereira have been missing for a week in a remote area of the Amazon. This Sunday, personal effects belonging to them were discovered in Brazil.
The discovery includes a health card, black pants, a black sandal and a pair of boots belonging to Bruno Pereira, and a pair of boots and a backpack full of clothes belonging to Dom Phillips, Federal Police said. State of Amazonas. The objects were found near the house of Amarildo Costa de Oliveira, the only detainee in the case.
A book on the protection of indigenous lands
The 41-year-old suspect was taken into custody. Traces of blood on his boat must be analyzed. Witnesses said they saw him speed past in a boat going in the same direction as the journalist and the native. Bruno Pereira (41), an expert for the Brazilian government agency for indigenous affairs (Funai), served as a guide for Dom Phillips, 57.
The journalist from Guardian was preparing a book on environmental conservation in this region on the border of Peru and Colombia, which is home to 8.5 million ha of protected indigenous lands. According to local indigenous activists, Bruno Pereira was frequently threatened for his fight against encroachment on indigenous lands.
The two men were traveling together by boat in the Javarí Valley, a remote region in the far west of the Amazonas, conducting interviews for this book. They were last seen on June 5 in the locality of Sao Gabriel, not far from their destination, the city of Atalaia do Norte.
Research too late?
Search teams traveled about 25 km carrying out a “thorough search” in the area’s jungle, police said on Sunday. Footage released by authorities shows police in waterproof suits and latex gloves working in small canoes in an area of flooded vegetation surrounded by trees.
Several dozen people gathered this Sunday in Rio de Janeiro, where Dom Phillips previously lived. “At first we had the wild hope that they would have sensed danger and hid in the jungle,” said the journalist’s mother-in-law. But not anymore. »
The government of Jair Bolsonaro has been criticized by relatives of the disappeared and indigenous groups and even by the UN for its delay in the deployment of searches. The far-right president, who had called the expedition of the two men an “adventure not recommended”, replied this Friday during a summit that the authorities had been conducting a “tireless search” since day one.