“We will do everything we can to find them. We will not give up “, promised Fabrício Ferreira Amorim, one of the indigenous supporters who coordinate the last search mission for the two missing. Cristóvão Negreiros, a veteran indigenous defender who works with Pereira and allegedly traveled with the men the day they disappeared, urged volunteers not to lose hope. “We are here to fight for Bruno and ensure that this never happens again,” Negreiro told them as the team prepared to launch along the Itaquaí River for the seventh day of their search for the truth about what happened. to the British journalist and the Brazilian. Advocate of the natives when they disappeared in the early hours of last Sunday. Armed with machetes and shotguns and divided into six small motor boats, the men set off south along the river to where the couple is believed to have been last seen. “Bruno wanted to defend us and teach us how to protect our territories,” said Binin Matisse, a 31-year-old volunteer whom Pereira had taken under his protection. “Now we want to defend him by finding something.” Exactly one week after the disappearance of Pereira and Phillips while returning from a four-day reference trip to Itaquaí, hopes of finding them alive are almost dashed. “She is no longer with us,” Phillips’s Brazilian mother-in-law, a longtime Guardian contributor, wrote on Instagram on Saturday. “Their souls are united with those of so many others who gave their lives to defend the rainforest and the indigenous peoples.” Among the indigenous volunteer groups that tirelessly spearheaded the search process, there is also a growing understanding that they will not be able to bring Pereira and Phillips alive. Map In recent days, as the Guardian followed them deep into the jungles of the area, volunteers began to refer more and more to the missing in the past. On Sunday, rescuers announced that they had found a backpack, a laptop and a pair of sandals near the riverside house of Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, the fishermen’s police have been detained and are investigating the disappearances. “It’s a whirlwind of anger and sadness,” said Luis Fernandes de Oliveira Neto, a 39-year-old indigenous specialist in the search operation. However, this awful realization has done nothing to dampen the resolve of the search team members. Everyone knew Pereira and many had met Phillips in the days before his disappearance. “He interviewed me and asked me what was going on in Javari so he could tell the world,” said Tumi Matis, a member of an indigenous environmental monitoring team known by the Portuguese nickname “Evu.” Shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday morning, the team set sail from the Base Evu River to explore its last search zone: a body of water called Lago do Preguiça or Sloth’s Lake. About an hour later, one of the boats stopped its engine as Binin Matisse spotted something strange floating in the water. «Catch! Catch it! ” he shouted to the boatman – the word for the alligator in the Pano language spoken by his own. Ten meters away a dead caiman was upside down. Celebrated vultures fell on the branches from above, terrified or perhaps outraged by the interruption of their meal. The group looking for Pereira and Phillips near the police movie. Photo: Tom Phillips / The Guardian Half an hour later, two of the military officers traveling with the Indigenous team to provide security saw something else they considered suspicious: a sunken red canoe. The police searched for any traces of the two men but again found nothing. For another three hours the team pushed down igarapés – turns, narrow canals accessible only by canoe or other small boats. In flooded forests they pulled and crossed their path with their claws through dense vines and thorny branches. But beyond the occasional fishing net there was almost no sign of human activity, let alone the two missing. The afternoon brought disappointing news for the indigenous search team, who have spent seven grueling days combing the rivers and forests of the area for clues. As they headed toward the river to continue their hunt, the men overtook the federal police forensics teams who had come to seal part of the river bank where Pereira and Phillips are now believed to have been ambushed or of some kind. A medical examiner pulled a bright yellow ribbon around a dense semi-submerged tree. Behind her, police took pictures of something – perhaps a footprint or an object – in the forest. Outside the river, indigenous scouts stared gloomily at the scene, where the bright yellow line of police contrasted with the red fruits of munguba trees in the jungle behind. “Federal police,” the message read on tape. “Do not pass.” A crowdfunding campaign has been launched in support of the families of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira. Donate here in English or here in Portuguese.
