Authorities in Brazil’s Amazon have arrested a man in connection with the disappearance of a British journalist and indigenous advocate as calls for swift action rise in a case that shocks the media and the world.
Police in the far west of Brazil said Wednesday they had detained four witnesses and a suspect in the disappearance of Dom Phillips, a longtime Guardian contributor, and Bruno Araujo Pereira, a defender of indigenous peoples.
The suspect has been identified as Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, the case official said, without giving details of his charge.
Da Costa is nicknamed Pelado and reportedly threatened Phillips and Pereira and a group of 13 locals on Saturday morning.
A witness to the meeting told the Guardian that Da Costa and two other gunmen threatened the group while they were stopped on the banks of the Itaquai River in the state of Amazonas.
Da Costa’s boat was later seized by police.
Pereira, 41, a longtime defender of indigenous tribes in a vast and remote jungle area, has received death threats for his work, helping to protect local groups from drug traffickers and illegal miners, loggers and hunters who crave land in a wealthy region. of natural resources. .
He and Phillips were last seen on Sunday morning while traveling by boat through the Hawari region of Amazonas. They were returning from a two-day trip to report, but did not arrive on schedule in the town of Atalaya do Norte.
Phillips, 57, was in the region researching a book on sustainable development there. He received a scholarship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation to write the book and sought to complete it by the end of this year.
His wife made an emotional call to authorities to speed up their search on Tuesday, and when the case hit headlines in Brazil, figures from the sports and arts worlds joined.
Everton and Brazil striker Richardson retweeted an emotional video of the wife of Phillips and Walter Casagrande, a former Brazilian player who is now a well-known sports cameraman, making his own appeal, as well as singer Gabi Amarantos and Sonia Guajaren, recently elected one of the most influential people in Time magazine for 2022.
US climate envoy John Kerry said he would look into the case.
In Britain, the shadow foreign minister, David Lamy, called on the Brazilian authorities “to do everything possible to find them as soon as possible and for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to use all diplomatic channels at its disposal”.
There is considerable anger at the lack of urgency shown by the Brazilian authorities, and especially by far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
The search was accompanied by delays and contradictory statements by Brazilian military officials in charge of the region.
For the first 24 hours after announcing their disappearance, the army said it was waiting for orders before mobilizing.
The navy then said it was sending a helicopter and two boats before the army finally said it had hired jungle specialists to search.
Bolsonaro showed little sympathy in his first comments Monday, calling their trip an “adventure not recommended.”
“Anything can happen,” he said. “It could be an accident, they may have been executed. We ask God to find them soon. The armed forces are working hard in the region. “
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