Many Brazilian celebrities, led by three-time Pele World Cup winner, have joined calls for authorities to step up the search for a British journalist and defender of Brazil’s indigenous people who went missing in the Amazon rainforest.
Pele, now 81 and considered one of the greatest players of all time, retweeted a video made by Phillips’ wife, calling for more urgency in the search for her husband and Bruno Pereira.
“The struggle to protect the Amazon forest and local groups belongs to all of us,” the former Santos legend wrote on Twitter.
“I am starting from the disappearance of Dom Phillips and Bruno Ferreira, who are dedicating their lives to this cause. I join the many voices calling for increased demand. “
His remarks came when authorities in a remote region on Brazil’s border with Peru announced they had arrested a man with weapons and ammunition.
The name of the suspect was not named, but earlier police said they had detained Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira. He reportedly threatened Phillips, Pereira and a group of 13 locals on Saturday morning while traveling in the Vale region to Havari.
A witness to the meeting told the Guardian that Da Costa and two other gunmen threatened the group as they stopped on the banks of the Itaquai River in the state of Amazonas.
Police said they still could not link the suspects to the couple’s disappearance.
“We have material that makes us suspect that it has something to do with it,” said Carlos Alberto Mansour, Amazonas police chief. “But this is still a suspicion. It is still under investigation. “
“For now, our main job is to search and our hope is still to find them alive. That they had a problem with their boat, that they went up the river, that they got lost in the jungle. This is the jungle, this is a very complex area.
“We still do not have serious indications of a crime.
Pereira, 41, a longtime defender of indigenous tribes in a vast and remote jungle area, has received death threats for his work, helping to protect local groups from drug traffickers and illegal miners, loggers and hunters who crave land in a wealthy region. of natural resources. .
He and Phillips were last seen on Sunday morning while traveling by boat through the Hawari region of Amazonas. They were returning from a two-day trip to report, but did not arrive on schedule in the town of Atalaya do Norte.
Phillips, a longtime contributor to the Guardian, Washington Post and other international publications, was studying a book on sustainable development in the region.
He received a scholarship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation to write the book and sought to complete it by the end of this year.
On Tuesday, his wife, Alessandra Sampaio, made an emotional call to the authorities to speed up their search, and when the case hit headlines in Brazil, figures from the worlds of sports, culture and the media got involved.
Dr Drazio Varela, a public health expert and television operator who is one of Brazil’s most beloved figures, called Phillips “very serious” and said: “We need to clarify what happened.”
“The whole world is watching us and we need to understand what happened and those responsible, if they exist, must be punished with exemplary punishments,” he said in a video message.
Musician Caetano Veloso said he plans to talk about Phillips and Pereira during his show at the Vivo Rio in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday night.
In addition to Pele, Everton and Brazil striker Richardson retouched an emotional video of Phillips’ wife, and Walter Casagrande, a former Brazilian player who is now a well-known presenter, made his own recorded message in support of two people who said they were dedicated to the protection of human rights and the environment.
“They are friends of our indigenous people and we cannot remain silent,” said the former Corinthians, Porto and Turin striker. “It is the government’s responsibility to step up the search … This is a very serious case.”
Corinthians Football Club tweeted its support; singer Gabby Amaranthos made her own video; and Sonia Guajahara, an indigenous leader who was recently named one of Time magazine’s most influential people in 2022, raised the issue with US climate envoy John Kerry during a visit to New York.
In Britain, the shadow foreign minister, David Lamy, called on the Brazilian authorities “to do everything possible to find them as soon as possible and for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to use all diplomatic channels at its disposal”.
Add Comment