Brazil: objects of the missing British journalist have been found in the Amazon and hopes are vanishing

The Federal Police (PF) of Brazil announced that they had found her items belonging to the British journalist Dom Philips and the indigenist Bruno Araújo Pereira, who disappeared eight days ago in the northwestern Brazilian Amazon.

Phillips, newspaper contributor Guardianand Araújo Pereira, carried out a work on indigenous communities suffering from hostilities at the hands of gold and diamond hunters, “garimpeiros”, woodcutters, poachers and drug traffickers who cross that area near the border with Colombia and Peru.

“In the region where the searches are concentrated, personal effects of the disappeared were found: health card and black trousers of Mr. Bruno Pereira, a pair of boots and a backpack with clothes of Mr. Dom Phillips”, the PF announced is a declaration.

Phillips’ backpack was discovered on Sunday afternoon tied to a partially submerged tree, a firefighter told reporters in Atalaia do Norte, the city closest to the research area, which is located near the indigenous territory of the Javari Valley. It is the end of the rainy season in the region and part of the jungle is flooded.

Phillips and Araújo disappeared while sailing from the community of Sao Rafael to the municipality of Atalaia do Norte, in the Vale do Javari indigenous reserve, where several indigenous communities live. never had contact with civilization.

The personal effects of both were found near the home of Amarildo Costa de Oliveira, aka “Pelado”, who had been in prison since Friday for having been suspected of having participated in a possible attack on the missingreported the coordinator of the Fire Brigade Barbosa Amorim.

Witnesses claim to have seen Costa de Oliveira on a boat behind the boat in which the disappeared were on their way to Atalia do Norte on the morning of Sunday 5 June.

Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the government strengthens searches and submits an investigation report, while the UN Human Rights Council noted the slowness in the work done by the military and police.

Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, they were last seen on June 5 near the entrance to the indigenous territory, which borders Peru and Colombia. They both returned alone on a boat on the Itaguaí River to Atalaia do Norte, but never arrived.

The area has been the scene of violent conflicts between fishermen, poachers and government agents. Violence is on the rise at a time when drug trafficking groups vie for control of waterways over cocaine transfer, although it is not known that the Itaguaí is a smuggling route.

“This delay really kills hope because it is very difficult “for the victims to find themselves alivesaid Alessandra Sampaio, Phillips’ wife, in an interview with the Tv program Globo Fantástico on Sunday evening.

“I don’t have much hope, to tell the truth, but I still have that little bit of imagination that maybe, who knows,” Phillips and Araújo Araújo Pereira are found aliveSampaio added.

Source: ANSA and AP