Concern is growing over the fate of Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira, who went missing on Sunday in the Javari Valley, at the western end of the state of Amazonas. They had reportedly received death threats a few days earlier.
At a news conference on Wednesday, Amazon Secretary of State for Security Carlos Alberto Mansur said the suspect is still under investigation in police custody.
Mansur said the man was arrested after being found in possession of “a lot of drugs” and ammunition used for illegal hunting.
Authorities said Wednesday they were pursuing several lines of investigation, including the homicide, adding that they still “can’t rule out anything.”
Mansur noted that five more people have been questioned by police in connection with the disappearance of Phillips and Pereira, who had traveled to the region to conduct research for a book project on conservation efforts in the region.
Prior to the press conference, the media and relatives of the two missing men called on the federal government to intensify its search efforts. Federal Police Superintendent Eduardo Alexandre Fontes said on Wednesday that a total of 250 men, two helicopters, three drones and 16 boats had been deployed for the search and rescue operation.
Phillips and Pereira have been missing for more than 72 hours, according to the Coordination of the Indigenous Organization. The organization, known as UNIVAJA, said the satellite information showed the couple’s last known location in the community of São Rafael in the early hours of Sunday morning, where they were expected to meet with a leader. local that was never presented.
A “dangerous” region.
Home to thousands of indigenous people and about 16 uncontacted groups, the Javari Valley, the second largest indigenous territory in Brazil, is a mosaic of dense rivers and forests that make access very difficult. The area has been increasingly threatened by illegal miners, loggers, hunters and international drug traffickers who exploit its vast network of rivers.
On Wednesday, Federal Police Superintendent Fontes described the area where Phillips and Pereira disappeared as “complicated” and “dangerous.”
Phillips and Pereira had traveled to the region to research a book on conservation efforts there. Phillips, an Amazon specialist, had previously reported for the British newspaper The Guardian on the threats posed by illegal mining and ranchers to uncontacted indigenous groups in the region. Despite being under government protection, the Javari Valley can be a hostile environment for journalists and indigenous rights. activists. According to the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office, an indigenous affairs worker was killed in the area in September 2019.
“In this region, violence is advancing in an increasingly uncontrolled manner in the context of the invasion of indigenous and state-owned lands, the repression of freedom of the press and the work of journalists,” UNIVAJA reported in a statement.
In 2018, Phillips reported on the threats posed by illegal mining and ranchers to indigenous groups not contacted there, with Pereira at the center of this article.
Survival International, an NGO that defends indigenous peoples, said Pereira had previously received “many threats” as a result of his work as an “ally of the indigenous struggle.”
Tara Subramaniam wrote from Washington, DC. Camilo Rocha and Marcia Reverdosa reported from Sao Paulo, Brazil.