International news editors have called on authorities in Brazil to “urgently step up” their efforts to locate British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Araujo Pereira, who have worked Go missing in a remote part of the Brazilian Amazon.
In an open letter On Thursday morning, the editors of The Guardian, The New York Times, The Associated Press and several other major media outlets expressed “extreme concern for the safety and whereabouts” of the two men. .
“We are now very concerned by reports from Brazil that search and rescue efforts So far, with minimal resources, the national authorities have been slow to offer more assistance than are very limited,” wrote the letter to President Jair Bolsonaro and the Brazilian Foreign and Defense Ministers.
“We ask that you urgently step up and devote all your resources to finding Dom and Bruno, and providing all possible support to their family and friends.”
Witnesses said they last saw Phillips, a freelance journalist who wrote for The Guardian and The Washington Post, on Sunday.
He was on a reporting trip in the Javari Valley, a remote jungle area on the border between Peru and Colombia that has the largest population of least-socialized Indigens in the world, along with Pereira, a former official of Brazil’s federal Indigenous agency, FUNAI.
Gangs of cocaine smugglers, as well as illegal hunters and fishers, are active in the area.
The man’s disappearance prompted calls for urgent action, with politicians, press freedom groups, journalists and indigenous leaders in Brazil demanding it. BolsonaroThe government spends more resources looking for them.
The far-right president was also widely criticized after he described the couple’s work at the Amazon as an “adventure”.
“Really, just two people on a boat in such a complete wilderness is not an adventure that is recommended. Anything can happen. It could have been an accident, it could have been they were killed,” he said in an interview with SBT TV channel. “We hope and pray to God that they will be found soon. The armed forces are working hard.”
Brazilian authorities have begun using helicopters to search, after a Brazilian federal court issued an order Wednesday ordering authorities to provide helicopters and more boats under required by the local indigenous association Univaja and the federal office of public protection.
At an evening news conference, federal police showed numerous photos and videos of the area taken from helicopters earlier in the day.
In her decision, Judge Jaiza Maria Pinto noted that she had ordered the Indigenous Affairs Authority to maintain safeguards in the area following a 2019 lawsuit filed by Univaja. Multiple attacks by criminals. Despite that order, she said, the territory “remains in a state of low protection and surveillance”.
Civilian police in the state of Amazonas also said on Wednesday that they had identified a suspect, who was arrested for allegedly carrying a firearm without a license, a common practice in the area.
“We’re looking for a possible link, but right now, we don’t have any,” Carlos Alberto Mansur, the state’s public security secretary, said at a news conference. The suspect, Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also known as “Pelado”, remains in custody, he said.
Police have questioned five other people since the investigation began, but no arrests related to the disappearance have been made, authorities said in their first joint statement.
Reuters news agency, citing three Brazilian policemen who requested anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said police were focusing on those involved in illegal fishing and poaching in the country. Indigenous land.
“The main criminal hypothesis at this point is that the people involved, and their motives, were involved in illegal fishing and poaching activities in the Indigenous territories,” said a federal police officer. Brazil is closely monitoring the incident told the news agency.
Meanwhile, Phillips’ family and supporters held a vigil outside the Brazilian embassy in London on Thursday and called on officials to explain why it took so long for the call. search begins.
“We had to come this morning, to ask the question: Where is Dom Phillips? Where is Bruno Pereira? Phillips’ sister, Sian, told reporters. “We are here to explain why it took so long for them to start looking for my brother and Bruno. We want the search to continue.”
The fight for the preservation of the Amazon Forest and of indigenous groups belongs to all of us. I am deeply moved by the disappearance of Dom Phillips and Bruno Ferreira, who have dedicated their lives to this cause. I join the many voices that make up the call to strengthen the search.
– Pelé (@Pele) June 8, 2022
