(Manaus) Ten days after the disappearance of British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian expert Bruno Pereira in the Amazon, the worst fears were confirmed on Wednesday: a suspect admitted to having buried their bodies and “human remains” were found on research locations.
Posted at 8:08 p.m.
Updated at 10:02 p.m.
“Last night we obtained the confession of the first of the two suspects arrested […] who recounted in detail how the crime was committed and told us where the bodies had been buried”, explained during a press conference in Manaus (north) the head of the federal police of the state of Amazonas , Eduardo Alexandre Fontes.
The policeman said that the suspect, a 41-year-old fisherman named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, admitted to having participated in the “crime”, but without specifying his role. The fisherman had been brought by the police to the search site to show them the precise location.
“Excavations have been carried out on the spot, the excavations will continue, but human remains have already been found,” added Mr. Fontes. “As soon as we have been able to verify thanks to the expertise that it is indeed the remains of the bodies of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, they will be returned to the families”.
The journalist’s Brazilian wife, Alessandra Sampaio, thanked in a statement “all the teams that carried out the research, especially the indigenous volunteers” whose absence from the press conference was criticized by many observers.
“Even if we are still awaiting final confirmations, this tragic outcome puts an end to the anxiety of not knowing where Dom and Bruno were. Now we can take them home and say goodbye with love,” she said.
“Today we also begin our fight for justice […] We will only have peace when the necessary measures are taken to ensure that such tragedies do not happen again”.
Dangerous zone
The British journalist and the Brazilian expert were last seen on June 5, during an expedition to the Javari Valley area.
This region close to the border with Peru and Colombia is reputed to be very dangerous, there are multiple drug trafficking, fishing or illegal gold panning.
It has become in recent years a strategic axis for gangs of drug traffickers who transport cocaine or cannabis produced in neighboring countries by river.
Author of dozens of reports on the Amazon, Dom Phillips, 57, living in Brazil for 15 years, had once again traveled to the region as part of research for a book on the preservation of the environment.
Bruno Pereira, 41, a recognized expert and defender of the rights of indigenous peoples, worked for many years at the Brazilian government agency for indigenous affairs (Funai).
In particular, he directed the Funai branch in Atalaia do Norte (north-west), a locality where the two men were supposed to return by boat when they disappeared, as well as a program to protect isolated indigenous groups in the area.
“Poorly seen”
Father of three children, Bruno Pereira has repeatedly recounted having been the target of threats from loggers, miners and illegal fishermen who tried to encroach on protected land.
The disappearance of the two men has sparked outrage around the world, with reactions from high profile political figures and celebrities such as members of Irish rock band U2.
Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who favors the mining and farming of indigenous reserves in the Amazon, has been heavily criticized for calling the two men’s expedition an “unsavory adventure”.
On Wednesday, he claimed that Dom Phillips was “frowned upon” in the Amazon because he had written “many reports against gold miners, on the environment”. “In this very isolated area, a lot of people didn’t like it,” he added.
“It’s very sad”, reacted the former left-wing president Lula da Silva (2003-2011), presidential candidate of 2022, to the announcement of the Federal Police. “People who died defending indigenous lands and the environment. Brazil can’t be that,” he wrote on Twitter.