Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said today that human viscera were found in the region where a British journalist and a Brazilian activist went missing in the Brazilian Amazon, amid growing confusion over their whereabouts.
The Brazilian president assured that there are indications that illegal groups operating in the Amazon committed what he described as “evil” against the journalist Dom Phillips and the indigenist Bruno Araújo, who disappeared a week ago in Vale do Javari, one of the most remote areas of the country.
“The evidence suggests that they did something wrong with them, because human viscera have already been found floating in the river and are already in Brasilia to make DNA,” Bolsonaro said in an interview with CBN Recife radio.
“And because of the weather, we’ve already been here eight, nine days, it’s going to be very difficult to find them alive. I pray to God that they are found alive, but the indications are contrary at the moment,” Bolsonaro added, without referring to the information provided by Phillips’ wife about the possible discovery of two bodies in a forest in the search region.
The journalist André Trigueiro, from Rede Globo, a personal friend of Alessandra Sampaio, wife of Dom Phillips, reported that the British embassy and the Federal Police informed him on Monday morning of the discovery of two bodies.
According to information from Alessandra Sampaio, due to the advanced state of decomposition, the bodies would be sent to Manaus, the regional capital, or to Brasilia to undergo an expert opinion to confirm the identification of the victims.
Another news published by The Guardian newspaper mentioned that the Brazilian ambassador to the United Kingdom will also have called the family of Dom Phillips today to inform them that the search teams found two bodies.
The British newspaper, which cited Phillips’ brother-in-law Paulo Sherwood as a source, reported that the Brazilian ambassador informed the family that two bodies were found tied to a tree in the middle of the forest.
After the disclosure of this information in the local and UK media, the Brazilian Federal Police issued a note highlighting that “the information that is being disseminated about the bodies of Mr. Bruno Pereira and Mr. Bishop Phillips.
“As already disclosed, biological materials were found and are being examined. [examinados] and the personal effects of the disappeared. As soon as the meeting takes place, the family and the media will be informed immediately,” added the Brazilian police officer.
Phillips, a contributor to The Guardian, and indigenista Araújo, an activist for indigenous rights, have been missing since Sunday June 5 in Vale do Javari, a remote and jungle region in the Brazilian Amazon near the border with Peru and Colombia. where they were conducting an investigation into threats against indigenous peoples.
On Sunday, the Crisis Management Committee, created to coordinate the raids and headed by the Federal Police, reported that firefighters had found a backpack with a computer and other personal belongings of the disappeared.
According to the commission, which is also made up of the Civil and Military Police, the Fire Department of the state of Amazonas, the Regional Secretariat of Public Security, the Army and the Navy, in addition to the backpack – which would belong to Phillips and which also contained books and some clothes – a health card in the name of Araújo and other belongings of the indigenista.
The material was found near the house of Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, better known as “Pelado”, until now the only suspect in the disappearances and who was arrested on Friday after authorities found traces of blood on one of his boats. .
Source: Observadora
