SÃO PAULO, Brazil – A British journalist and a Brazilian expert on indigenous peoples have now been missing deep in the Amazon rainforest for more than a week, with mounting signs suggesting the two men may not be found alive.
Brazilian authorities said late last week they had found human remains in the area where the men were last seen, as well as blood on a suspect’s boat, and the samples were being tested. Then, over the weekend, authorities found the two men’s belongings, including clothes, a sandal, a bag and a health card.
“I pray to God they find them alive, but the evidence at this point suggests otherwise,” Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro told local media on Monday.
Dom Phillips, a freelance writer for the British news organization The Guardian, and Bruno Araújo Pereira, an indigenous group expert who has done extensive work in the Amazon, were last seen on June 5 while traveling in a boat on the Itaquaí River in the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas, near the border with Peru.
Pereira had faced threats in the region due to his work creating teams of local indigenous people to patrol the rivers and forests for illegal fishing, hunting and mining.
Officials from Univaja, a local indigenous association that helps organize the patrols, said illegal activities had worsened in the area in recent years as budget cuts and policy changes by the Bolsonaro government reduced the presence of government agencies there.
Mr Phillips had traveled with Mr Pereira to the Javari Valley Indigenous Reserve to report on the Indigenous patrols for a book. On June 4, while the two men were on a boat with a patrol, another boat with three men on board who are known to be illegal fishermen passed by, Univaja said. The men showed the patrol boat their guns, Univaja said.
The next morning, Mr. Phillips, 57, and Mr. Pereira, 41, began their journey home, sailing down the Itaquaí River on a new boat with enough fuel for the journey. They have not been seen since.
State police officials have since arrested Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, a fisherman known locally as “Pelado” or “naked” in Portuguese, for having illegal ammunition. Officials said he is the prime suspect in the disappearances of Mr Phillips and Mr Pereira and that he tracked the two men in his boat just before they went missing. Univaja said Mr de Oliveira was also one of the fishermen who showed their guns to the patrol boat the previous day.
The human remains are being tested at the National Forensics Laboratory in Brasília, the country’s capital. Officials said they collected genetic samples from Mr Phillips and Mr Pereira at their home to see if there was a match.
Jack Nicas reported from São Paulo, Brazil, and André Spigariol from Brasilia. Flavia Milhorance contributed reporting from Santarém, Brazil.