Searches for missing journalist and indigenist resume in Amazonas

Teams from the National Indian Foundation (Funai), the National Force and the Federal Police resumed, this Tuesday (7th), the search for the indigenist Bruno Araújo Pereira and the English journalist Dom Phillips, correspondent for the newspaper “The Guardian”, who have been missing since Sunday (5) in Vale do Javari, in Amazonas.

The information was published by the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Anderson Torres, on Twitter.

According to the Union of Indigenous Organizations of Vale do Javari (Univaja), Phillips was going to a place called Lago do Jaburu to interview indigenous people, accompanied by Pereira.

In an interview with CNN Univaja’s coordinating assistant, Soraya Zaiden, said she does not consider the possibility that the two were lost in the region.

“We didn’t even consider that possibility. Bruno knows the region very well, he knows it very well. And he has worked there for several years. Dom has already participated in some expeditions that Bruno coordinated, mainly during the period he was at Funai. So don’t think about it, that possibility doesn’t exist,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we believe that some event of greater severity may have occurred”, he adds.

For Soraya, the team may have suffered some act of violence.

“Yes, that is what we think might have happened and for that, even so that we can respond and act with better results, we needed speed, which is what is not happening, time is passing, the we have been going for almost 72 hours and all these searches started very late”, he said.

Federal Police (PF) delegate Eduardo Fontes told CNN that the searches are being carried out in partnership with the Navy by boat and flying over the region.

“We are with the Navy on the river and flying over the region to try to find the missing,” said Fontes.

threats

Soraya Zaiden says that the region is the target of illegal actions and that the Univaja team has already received threats before.

“The region is one of conflict, we have many illicit acts, there is drug trafficking, drug trafficking and border region, and we have logging, illegal fishing, mining, all of this happening. […] this explains a lot the threats that our teams have been suffering for some time”, he said.

According to Soraya, the occurrences have been reported by the group to the authorities.

“At the end of April, we had an occurrence of aggression within the municipality of Atalaia, which was the reason for our report. We have been constantly reporting to the authorities, both evidence of threats and evidence of invasion on the land that our surveillance teams have notified, documented and presented in the form of reports to the authorities so that they can take some action”, he said.

Read the note from Itamaraty about the disappearance below

Disappearance of indigenist Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips in the Amazon

The Brazilian Government became aware, with great concern, of the news that British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenist Bruno Pereira are missing in the Vale do Javari region, in the Amazon.

Mobilized from the outset, the Federal Police Department (PF) is working in that region and taking all measures to locate them as quickly as possible. The PF has made repeated incursions and has had the support of the Brazilian Navy, which has joined efforts in the search efforts of both citizens.

The Brazilian Government will continue to monitor the search with the zeal that the case demands and will make the necessary efforts to promptly find the British press professional and the employee of the National Indian Foundation.

In the event that the disappearance was caused by criminal activity, all measures will be taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Family members and co-workers of the missing will be kept abreast of the progress of the search.