(London) The family of a British journalist who has been missing since Sunday in the Amazon with a Brazilian expert called on British and Brazilian authorities in London on Thursday to step up their efforts to locate the two men, whom they still “hope” to find.
Posted at 10:17 a.m.
Dom Phillips, 57, regular contributor to the daily The Guardianand Bruno Pereira, 41, a recognized specialist in indigenous peoples, have disappeared since Sunday in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.
“Where’s Dom Phillips?” Where is Bruno Pereira? asked the journalist’s sister, Sian Phillips, in a statement to the press during a rally of around 30 people organized in front of the Brazilian embassy.
“We want the British authorities to put pressure on the Brazilian government,” she added, before being received with other family members by the ambassador.
“We want the research to continue. We want to know what happened to them and we want anyone who has committed a possible criminal act to be brought to justice. We want a determined, thorough and open investigation,” she continued.
She criticized the Brazilian authorities for having delayed starting the search but said she remained “hopeful” that they would be found, describing her brother as “a great writer and journalist”, “a caring man” who “cares about the environment and loves Brazil”.
The Brazilian authorities have said they remain hopeful of finding them alive, but do not exclude “any track”, including that of homicide, in a region where many trafficking activities are carried out.
This disappearance has triggered the mobilization of personalities and groups for the defense of the environment and human rights, and the government of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has been accused of delays in starting the search.
“We have been assured that everything is being done” to find them, said after the interview the husband of Sian Phillips and brother-in-law of Dom, Paul Sherwood.
Located in the western Amazon, near Peru, the Javari Valley in the state of Amazonas, where the two men were reported missing, is very difficult to access. This region is experiencing an escalation in armed violence due to the presence of miners, gold miners, poachers and drug traffickers.