From FABIANO MAISONNAVE, Associated Press
ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil – The search for an indigenous expert and journalist who went missing in a remote area of the Brazilian Amazon continued Monday after the discovery of a backpack, laptop and other personal belongings immersed in a river.
The items were taken by federal police officers by boat to Atalaya do Norte, the nearest town to be searched, and police said on Sunday they had identified the items as belonging to the missing men, including a health card and clothes of Bruno Pereira, a Brazilian expert. on the indigenous population.
The backpack, which was identified as the property of freelance journalist Dom Phillips of Britain, was found tied to a tree that was half submerged, a firefighter told reporters at Atalaia do Norte. The end of the rainy season in the region and part of the forest is flooded.
Pereira was an adviser to the Uniwaya Indigenous Association and its searchers were still searching for the men on Monday, according to Orlando Posuelo, a member of the group. Federal police issued a statement denying reports that their bodies had been found. reported that she found traces of blood in the boat of a fisherman who was arrested as the only suspect in the disappearance.
Last week, officials also discovered organic matter of apparently human origin in the river. The materials were analyzed.
Search teams had focused on a site in the Itaquai River where a tarpaulin was found on Saturday from a boat used by the missing men by volunteers from the Matisse group.
“We used a little canoe to get to the shallow waters. Then we found a tarpaulin, shorts and a spoon, “one of the volunteers, Binin Beshu Mathis, told the Associated Press.
Pereira, 41, and Phillips, 57, were last seen on June 5 near the entrance to the local Havari Valley, which borders Peru and Colombia. They returned alone by boat on the Itakuai to Atalaya do Norte, but never arrived.
Violent conflicts between fishermen, poachers and government agents are taking place in the area. Violence is on the rise as drug trafficking gangs struggle to control waterways to deliver cocaine, although Itaquai is not a known drug trafficking route.
Authorities say police are investigating possible links to an international network that pays poor fishermen to fish illegally in the Havari Valley Reserve, Brazil’s second-largest local area.
One of the most valuable targets is the world’s largest freshwater fish with scales, arapaima. It weighs up to 200 kilograms (440 pounds) and can reach 3 meters (10 feet). The fish is sold in nearby towns.
However, federal police do not rule out other lines of investigation, such as drug trafficking.
The only known suspect in the disappearances is the fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also known as Pelado, who has been arrested. Locals who were with Pereira and Phillips say he brandished a rifle at them the day before they disappeared.
The suspect denies wrongdoing and said military police tortured him to try to obtain a confession, his family told the AP.
Pereira, who previously headed the local office of the Brazilian government’s Indigenous Peoples Agency, known as FUNAI, is involved in several operations against illegal fishing. In such operations, fishing gear is normally seized or destroyed and fishermen are fined and detained for a short time. Only indigenous peoples can legally fish in their territories.
In 2019, Funai employee Maxiel Pereira dos Santos was shot dead in Tabatinga in front of his wife and daughter-in-law. Three years later, the crime remains unsolved. His FUNAI colleagues told the AP that they believe the killing is linked to his work against fishermen and poachers.
Rubber rubber founded all the communities on the banks of the river in the area. In the 1980s, however, the suction of rubber decreased and they resorted to logging. This also ended when the federal government established the local territory of the Jawari Valley in 2001. Since then, fishing has become a major economic activity.
Illegal fishing in the vast Havari Valley has been going on for about a month, said Manoel Felipe, a local historian and teacher who was also an adviser. A fisherman can earn at least $ 3,000 for each illegal intrusion.
“Fishermen’s financiers are Colombians,” Felipe said. “In (the city of) Leticia, everyone was angry with Bruno. This is not a small game. It is possible that they sent an armed man to kill him.
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