BRASÍLIA —
Rights groups and families of a British journalist and Brazilian Indigenous expert
who went missing deep in the
Amazon after receiving threats pleaded Tuesday for
authorities to accelerate the search operation.
اضافة اعلان
Veteran freelance
journalist Dom Phillips, 57, and respected Indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira,
41, went missing early Sunday while traveling by boat in Brazil’s Javari
Valley, near the border with Peru, where Phillips was researching a book.
As the 48-hour mark
passed, speculation swirled around whether they could have fallen victims to an
accident or foul play. As of Tuesday night, authorities had no reports on their
whereabouts, but Amazonas state civil police said they were questioning a
“suspect” and that four other people had testified as “witnesses,” though no
arrests were made.
Local Indigenous
activists said the pair received threats last week for their work in the remote
region, which has seen a surge of illegal logging, gold mining, poaching and
drug trafficking. Loved ones were holding out hope the pair would be found.
“I want to make an
appeal to the government to intensify the search,” Phillips’s Brazilian wife,
Alessandra Sampaio, said in a video message. “We still have some small hope of
finding them. Even if I don’t find the love of my life alive, please find
them,” she said, choking back sobs.
The Brazilian government
expressed its “grave concern,” and said police were taking “all possible
measures to find (the men) as quickly as possible.” But the authorities faced
accusations of failing to act urgently enough.
The
Ministry of Defense said in a statement that since Monday the army had deployed 150
soldiers who are “specialists in jungle environment operations, who know the
terrain where the searches are being carried out.”
But three
Indigenous rights groups in the region earlier said in a joint statement that just
six state police officers were actively working on the operation and urged the
government to deploy helicopters and a task force. “The Brazilian government
was very slow to act, in a situation where acting quickly is absolutely
essential,” the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Brazil office said in a statement.
Brazil’s federal
police later said they had deployed a second helicopter to aid the effort.
Bolsonaro response criticized
President
Jair Bolsonaro drew criticism for appearing to blame the missing
men, both of whom have extensive experience in the Amazon rainforest basin.
“Two people in a
boat in a region like that, completely wild — it’s an unadvisable adventure.
Anything can happen,” Bolsonaro said. “Maybe there was an accident, maybe they
were executed.”
The far-right
president has faced accusations of fueling invasions of Indigenous lands in the
Amazon with his pro-mining and pro-agribusiness policies. Pereira, an expert
currently on leave from Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency FUNAI, has spent
much of his career fighting such invasions — making him a target of frequent
threats.
‘Anguished’ wait
The men’s families urged the authorities to act fast. “Time is a key
factor in rescue operations, particularly if they are injured,” Pereira’s
family said in a statement. It said his partner, three children and other
relatives were in “anguish.”
Phillips’s sister
Sian posted a video message online, fighting back tears. “We are really worried
about him and urge the authorities in
Brazil to do all they can,” she said.
“Every minute counts.”
A group of about 40
reporters and friends of Phillips appealed to Brazilian authorities in a letter
published in O Globo newspaper to expand the search effort. In addition, 11
press organizations requested an emergency meeting with the justice minister
and other high-level officials to get a progress report on the hunt.
Phillips, who is
based in the city of Salvador, had previously accompanied Pereira in 2018 to
the Javari Valley for a story in Britain’s Guardian newspaper, where he was a
regular contributor. The 85,000sq.km. reservation is home to around 6,300
Indigenous people from 26 groups, including 19 with virtually no contact with
the outside world.
FUNAI’s base there,
set up to protect Indigenous inhabitants, has come under attack several times
in recent years. In 2019, a FUNAI officer there was shot dead.
The region has seen
a surge of illegal mining, logging, and poaching in recent years, and its
remoteness makes it a haven for drug traffickers, said Fiona Watson, research
director at Indigenous rights group Survival International. “You’re talking
about dense tropical forest,” she told AFP. “The operation to try and locate
Bruno and Dom is immensely challenging.
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