The wife of a British journalist who disappeared in the Amazon has urged Brazil’s authorities to find “the love of my life”.
Veteran journalist Dom Phillips, 57, was last seen Sunday in a remote part of the Amazon along with Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira. He is a contributor to publications such as The Guardian and Finacial Times.
In an emotional video appeal, Mr Phillips’s wife Alessandra Sampaio said she still had “some small hope” of finding them.
“Even if I don’t find the love of my life alive, they have to be found, please,” she said on Tuesday.
According to the Reuters news agency, Brazilian police investigating the disappearance have questioned a possible suspect among several fishermen known to have previously clashed with authorities over fishing rights.
The pair had been reporting in the remote Javari Valley, which is home to the world’s largest number of uncontacted indigenous people, as well as cocaine-smuggling gangs.
Brazilian federal officials said navy, army and police personnel had been dispatched to search for the pair in the vast area.
Mr Pereira, 41, an expert on isolated tribes in the Amazon, is formerly an official with the government’s indigenous affairs agency Funai.
Police said tensions between Pereira and fishermen plundering protected fishing stocks was being treated as a key issue.
It was uncertain whether a crime had been committed or the missing men had become lost, Guilherme Torres, the head of the interior department of Amazonas state’s civil police, told Reuters.
“Even if I don’t find the love of my life alive, we must find them, please”: @domphillips’s wife Alessandra makes emotional plea for help 😭 pic.twitter.com/IPtCerJiKf
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsin) June 7, 2022
But he said Pereira had recently received a threatening letter from a fisherman.
Amazonas state police said they had interviewed five people so far, "four people as witnesses and another ... as a suspect."
The disappearance of Mr Phillips and Mr Pereira, who both had years of experience working in the Amazon, has sparked global concern from environmentalists, politicians and press freedom advocates.
The Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA), which first raised the alarm over the pair’s disappearance, criticised Brazil’s security forces for what it called unnecessary delays in deploying search teams.
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has also been criticised after saying the two men “were on an adventure that is not recommended.”
“It could be an accident, it could be that they were executed, anything could have happened," he said. "I hope, and we pray to God, that they are found soon."
