Concern is rising another notch in Brazil, three days after the disappearance of a specialist in indigenous peoples and the English journalist who accompanied him to the Amazon. President Jair Bolsonaro claims they may have been executed after embarking on an unsavory adventure.
With our correspondent in São Paulo, Martin Bernard
The federal police, supported by a Navy helicopter, are continuing their research in the Amerindian reserve of the Javari Valley, near the Peruvian border. Located in the west of the Amazon, this valley is very difficult to access and is home to tribes that are often totally isolated. This region is experiencing an escalation of armed violence due to the presence of minors,miners and poachers. The Indians who live in the area also undertook their own research.
According to unverified testimony published by the Amazonia Real news site, the journalist Dom Phillips and his guide Bruno Pereira allegedly fell into an ambush after receiving threats from miners. They had ” received threats on the ground the week (before) their disappearance “, revealed in a press release the Union of Indigenous Organizations of the Javari Valley (Univaja) and the Observatory for the Human Rights of Isolated and Recently Contacted Indigenous Peoples (OPI).
Bruno Pereira, already threatened several times with death
President Bolsonaro referred to the case, describing the region as ” completely wild “:” Really, two people alone on a boat in an area like that, completely wild, it’s a disreputable adventure. Everything can happen. There may have been an accident, they may have been executed, anything is possible. I hope and ask God that we find them safe and sound soon. »
Bruno Pereira, who worked for a long time at the Indian Foundation (Funai), has regularly been the subject of threats, including death, from illegal loggers and miners coveting indigenous lands. His family says they still want to believe in the possibility of an accident. Dom Phillips’ wife has called for the search to be intensified. The Amazonas Civil Police, which is involved in the investigations, said on Tuesday evening that they were questioning a ” suspicious “. Four other people were interviewed. as witnesses “.
(and with AFP)