The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, said on Monday that “human viscera were found floating in the river” during the search for British journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who disappeared a week ago in the Amazon.
Bolsonaro’s statements were made in the midst of conflicting announcements about the alleged discovery of two bodieswhich generated a great deal of confusion about the case.
“The searches continue. But the indications lead us to believe that they did something evil with them, because human viscera have already been found floating in the river, which are in Brasilia to identify their DNA,” the president said during an interview with a local radio.
“Human viscera” in the Amazon: what is known about the search for the journalist and the indigenista
Phillips, 57, is a contributor to the British newspaper The Guardian and has been working in Brazil for 15 years. Passionate about the Amazon, of which he wrote dozens of reports, the journalist had been in the region for several days working on a book on environmental conservation and local development, with the support of the US Alicia Patterson Foundation.
Pereira, 41, is an expert at the government agency for indigenous affairs in Brazil (Funai) and a recognized defender of the rights of these communities. He was the regional coordinator of the Funai of Atalaia do Norte, the municipality where they were going with Phillips when they disappeared.
His work in defense of indigenous peoples earned him frequent threats from these criminal groups.
Phillips and Pereira were last seen on Sunday morning, June 5, in the Sao Gabriel community, not far from their destination, Atalaia do Norte, where they were sailing down the Itaquaí River.
The search took a turn on Sunday with the discovery of personal belongings of both: a backpack, clothes, shoes and the Pereira health card that, according to firefighters, the objects were found submerged “near the house” of the only suspect arrested so far related to the case.
The police also carried out tests on a bloodstain found on a detainee’s boat. Also, on Friday the search team found “apparently human” material near the port of Atalia do Norte which is also being analyzed.
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