President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) said “to ask God” that the English journalist Dom Phillips and the indigenist Bruno Araújo Pereira – missing since Sunday (5) in Amazonas – be found soon.
“The Armed Forces are working very hard in the region,” said the president in an interview with SBT.
The president raised the possible risks in the trip that the pair was making in the riverside community São Rafael to the city of Atalaia do Norte.
“Just two people, on a boat, in a region like that, completely wild, is an adventure that is not recommended to be done. Anything can happen: it could be an accident, it could be that they were executed,” he said in an interview with SBT News.
A contributor to the British newspaper The Guardian, Dom Phillips traveled to the region in the company of Bruno Pereira to interview indigenous peoples for a book. The indigenist, who acted as a guide on the trip, is a licensed servant of the National Foundation of India (Funai) and had recently received death threats. Drug traffickers and prospectors operate in the region.
According to Bolsonaro, the government has been working on the searches since Sunday. “They [Phillips e Pereira] they left in the morning, a trip between São Rafael and Atalaia do Norte, of about three hours, and in the afternoon we were informed, in this case the Navy, that they had not arrived at their destination. On Sunday afternoon itself the searches began,” he said.
The president also said he had received information that the missing duo found two other people on the way and that the suspects “are being investigated”.
Searches in Atalaia do Norte
The governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima (União Brasil), ordered the sending of specialized police reinforcements to Atalaia do Norte, to support the searches and investigations into the disappearance. The civil and military police set up a task force to investigate the case.
“The Amazonas Public Security Secretariat is taking all appropriate measures to assist in the elucidation of the case, in collaboration with the Federal Public Ministry, Federal Police and Funai”, said the state government.
In a statement, the Navy stated that on Monday morning (6) it had sent a search and rescue team to the city of Atalaia do Norte.
“Seven soldiers from the Brazilian Navy, with the help of a speedboat, are involved in the search activities. Throughout the afternoon, actions were carried out on the Javari, Itaguaí and Ituí rivers, in the interior of the Amazon,” the Navy said on Monday.
Funai also stated that on Tuesday (7th) it had expanded its searches in the Vale do Javari region (AM). “The operation has 15 employees from Funai and the National Public Security Force, under the coordination of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security,” the agency said.
Source: CNN Brasil
