“The investigations continue and there are indications of the participation of more people in the criminal practice” added the note.
One of the suspects, a 41-year-old fisherman named Amarildo da Costa de Oliveiraknown as ‘Pelado’, confessed on Tuesday night to having buried the bodies in the Amazon, an assertion that the next day led the authorities to the exact place where human remains were actually found, which were transferred to Brasilia, where they are being analyzed.
According to the police, there is a “99% chance” that they belong to the two men.
Dom Phillips, 57, and Bruno Pereira, 41, a renowned expert on indigenous peoples, were in the Amazon as part of the preparation of a book on environmental conservation.
They were last seen on June 5, when they were going by boat to Atalaia do Norte, in the Javarí Valley, an area known for its danger and where there are illicit activities, such as drug trafficking and illegal fishing and mining.
The Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javarí Valley (Univaja), whose members actively participated in the searches, refuted this Friday the version of the Brazilian police.
“It is not just about two murderers, but about an organized group that planned the crime in detail,” Univaja said in a note, explaining that the authorities had ignored numerous complaints about the activities of criminal gangs in the Amazon.
In April, the organization sent a report to the authorities explaining that ‘Pelado’ was involved in illegal fishing activities and had already been “accused of being the author of attacks with weapons of fire in 2018 and 2019 against a Funai base”, the Brazilian government agency for indigenous affairs.
Univaja refers to “a powerful criminal organization that tried at all costs to cover its tracks during the investigation” of the double murder, recalling that Pereira, who worked at Funai, had already been the target of “death threats.”
Several experts believe that the illegal fishing of endangered species in the Javarí Valley is, in most cases, under the control of drug traffickers, who use the sale of fish to launder drug money.
The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, He regretted the crimes on Twitter today and expressed solidarity with the families after having said days ago that both embarked on an “adventure” in the Amazon and that Phillips was “frowned upon” by the garimpeiros (illegal mining) for his notes against the crime on indigenous lands.
Pereira -as he is mentioned in Brazil, although his full surname is Araújo Pereira- spoke four native languages and was licensed by Funai, a state agency that the government filled with soldiers and police, removing anthropologists and specialists from high positions.
Source: Ambito
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