ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil, June 13 (Reuters) – Search teams found two bodies in Brazil’s Amazon jungle as they searched for a British journalist and a Brazilian indigenous expert, The Guardian reported on Monday, citing a relative of the informed journalist for a Brazilian. diplomatic.
On Sunday, Brazilian police said search teams had found the belongings of freelance journalist Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, a former official of the Funai Indigenous Federal Agency, in a stream near the river where they were last seen. on June 5th.
The Brazilian ambassador to London told Paul Sherwood, Phillips’ brother-in-law, that authorities were working to identify the two bodies, which had been found tied to a tree near the river, according to The Guardian, to which Phillips often contributed. .
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The two men were on an information trip to the remote jungle area near the border with Peru and Colombia, which is home to the largest number of uncontacted indigenous people in the world. The wild and lawless region has attracted cocaine smuggling gangs, along with loggers, miners and illegal hunters.
Brazilian news website G1 reported on Monday that search teams had found their bodies, citing the journalist’s Brazilian wife. However, the report was soon updated to reflect that the bodies had not yet been identified.
Federal police said Monday the reports that the bodies had been found were incorrect. So far only biological material and belongings of the missing men had been found, as previously announced, police said.
More than 100 indigenous people, many with body paint and headdresses, marched on Monday to the riparian city of Atalaia do Norte, near where the bodies were found, to demand better treatment of the native peoples and justice for the two men.
The news of the couple’s disappearance resonated around the world and environmentalists and human rights activists had urged Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to intensify the search.
Bolsonaro, who last year faced a harsh interrogation of Phillips at a news conference on the weakening of environmental law enforcement in Brazil, said last week that the two men “were on an adventure that not recommended “and suggested they could have been executed. Read more
State police detectives involved in the investigation told Reuters that they were focusing on poachers and illegal fishermen in the area, who often clashed with Pereira while organizing indigenous patrols of the local reserve. Read more
Police have arrested a fisherman, Amarildo da Costa, known as “Pelado”, for a gun crime and are holding him in custody while investigating the case. Costa’s lawyers and family have said he fished legally in the river and denied any involvement in the men’s disappearance.
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Report by Jake Spring Additional report by Gabriel Araujo and Steven Grattan in Sao Paulo Edited by Brad Haynes, Christian Plumb and Angus MacSwan
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