Authorities believe the two are dead and although the bodies have not yet been identified, something will happen in Brasilia on Thursday morning.
The remains were discovered by federal police after one of the main suspects in the disappearance confessed to killing British journalist and aboriginal Bruno Arazo Pereira and taking federal agents to the place where the bodies were buried.
At a press conference of the Crisis Management Committee in Manas State, Eduardo Fondes, regional superintendent of the Federal Police, pointed out that human remains were found during the excavations, which are still ongoing.
“Last night we got a confession from the chief of the two suspects arrested (…) who told us in detail how they committed the crime and where the bodies were buried,” he added.
The area where the bodies were found in Vel Do Javari has “very complex” access, which delayed the process, Eduardo Fondes admitted.
The alleged perpetrators of the murder were the fishing brothers Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, also known as “Bellato” and Ozini da Costa de Oliveira, also known as “Das Santos”. The first person was detained last week and is being held as the main suspect while the second person was detained on Tuesday.
During a news conference, authorities said a third suspect in the crime was still at large.
“The purpose was to find them alive,” Civil Police spokesman Gilherm Torres admitted, sending condolences to the families of the journalist and activist.
Tom Phillips, a journalist and contributor to The Guardian, and Bruno Arazzo Pereira, a tribal rights activist, have been missing since June 5 in Vel Do Javari, a remote and wild area in the Brazilian Amazon near the border with Peru and Colombia. Threats of invaders and criminals against the tribal people were investigated.
The disappearance of the journalist and tribal activist has caused great concern among environmental movements and some international organizations, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has called on the Brazilian government to step up its search.
The Jawari Valley is known as the scene of conflicts dominated by Brazil’s second largest domestic reserve, drug trafficking, logging and illegal mining.
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