Looking for an indigenous expert and a journalist who Disappeared in a remote area of the Brazilian Amazon The rioting continued on Monday after a backpack, laptop and other personal belongings were found submerged in the river.
The items were taken by federal police officers boat to Atalia do Norte, the nearest town to the search, and police said Sunday night they had identified items belonging to the missing, including a health card and Bruno Pereira’s clothing. Indigenous experts of Brazil.
A firefighter told reporters in Atalia do Norte that the backpack, identified as UK freelance journalist Dom Phillips, was found tied to a tree, half submerged. It is the end of the rainy season in the region and some parts of the forest have been flooded.
Paulo Marubo, president of the local indigenous union Uniwaza, to which Pereira was a consultant, told The Associated Press that search teams from the army, navy, federal police, civil defence, firefighters and military police were working in the area where the goods were found. was. ,
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Returning to Atalia do Norte after a full day’s search on Monday, a federal police officer told reporters that they found neither the man’s body nor any other belongings.
Federal police issued a statement earlier on Monday denying media reports that the bodies of two people had been found. Last week, police recovered organic material of apparent human origin in the river, which has been sent for analysis. He did not elaborate on what the material was, but President Jair Bolsonaro told local radio on Monday that it was “human viscera”.
Police have also reported traces of blood in the boat of a fisherman, who is arrested as the only suspect in the disappearance.
Search teams focused their efforts around a spot on the Itakai River where a tarp from a boat used by the missing people was found on Saturday by volunteers from the Matisse indigenous group.
“We used a small canoe to go in the shallow water. Then we got a tarp, shorts and a spoon,” Binin Beshu Matisse, one of the volunteers, told AP.
Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, were last seen on June 5 near the entrance to the Javari Valley indigenous region, which borders Peru and Colombia. They were returning to Atalia do Norte alone by boat on Itakai but never arrived.
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Hundreds of people from several indigenous groups took to the narrow streets of Atalia do Norte to protest the pair’s disappearance on Monday.
Indigenous people carry a banner with text in Portuguese that read “Bruno’s Fight for Valle do Javari, now Valle do Javari Bruno and Dom” during a protest against the disappearance of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and independent British journalist Dom Phillips in Atalia fights for”. Do Norte, Valle do Javari, Amazonas State, Brazil, Monday, June 13, 2022. (AP photo)
Dressed in traditional clothing, a bow and arrow and a mobile phone, she carried placards criticizing President Jair Bolsonaro, who is widely seen as an opponent of indigenous rights.
There are seven known indigenous groups in the Javari Valley – some have recently contacted, such as the Matisse. There are also at least 11 non-contact groups in the valley, making the region the largest center of isolated tribes in the world.
Officially, the indigenous area has a population of about 6,300 people. Many of them live in small urban centers so that their children can attend non-Indigenous public schools. They also travel to the city to seek medical treatment and collect federal benefits.
There have been violent conflicts between fishermen, poachers and government agents in that area. Violence has escalated as drug trafficking gangs fight for control of waterways to ship cocaine, although Itakai is not a known drug trafficking route.
Officials have said police are investigating possible links to an international network that pays poor fishermen to fish illegally in the Javari Valley reserve, Brazil’s second-largest indigenous region.
One of the most valuable targets is the world’s largest freshwater fish with scales, the Arapaima. It weighs up to 200 kg (440 lb) and can reach 3 m (10 ft). The fish is sold in the surrounding towns.
But the federal police have not ruled out other methods of investigation, such as drug trafficking.
The only known missing suspect is the fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also known as Pellado, who is under arrest. Indigenous people living with Pereira and Phillips say he had fired a rifle at them the day before they disappeared. He denied any wrongdoing and said military police tortured him for trying to confess, his family told the AP.
Pereira, who previously headed the local bureau of the Brazilian government’s indigenous agency, known as FUNAI, has participated in several campaigns against illegal fishing. In such operations, as a rule, fishing gear is confiscated or destroyed, while the fishermen are fined and detained for some time. Only indigenous people can legally catch fish in their territories.
In 2019, Funai officer Maxsil Pereira dos Santos was shot in front of his wife and daughter-in-law in Tabatinga. Three years later, the crime is still unsolved. His FUNAI colleagues told AP that they believed the killing was linked to his work against fishermen and poachers.
Rubber tappers established all the riverside communities in the area. In the 1980s, however, rubber tapping declined and they resorted to logging. That too ended when the federal government created the Javari Valley Indigenous Territory in 2001. Since then fishing has become the main economic activity.
An illegal fishing trip in the vast Javari Valley lasted about a month, said Manoel Felipe, a local historian and teacher who also works as a parishioner. For each illegal infiltration, a fisherman can earn at least $3,000.
“The financiers of the fishermen are Colombians,” said Felipe. “In the city of Leticia, everyone was angry with Bruno. This is no small game. It is possible that they sent a gunman to kill him.”
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