Brazil expert, British journalist still missing in Amazon

RIO DE JANEIRO >> A British journalist and an Indigenous affairs official were still missing in a remote part of Brazil's Amazon on Tuesday as authorities said they were expanding search efforts in the area, which has seen violent conflicts between fishermen, poachers and government agents.

Dom Phillips, who has been a regular contributor to the British newspaper The Guardian, and Bruno Araújo Pereira were last seen early Sunday in the Sao Rafael community, according to the Univaja association of people in the Vale do Javari Indigenous territory, for which Pereira has been an adviser.

The pair was returning by boat to the city of Atalaia do Norte, about an hour away, but never showed up.

Pereira is one of the Brazilian Indigenous affairs agency's most experienced employees operating in the Vale do Javari area. He oversaw the agency's regional office and the coordination of isolated Indigenous groups before going on leave. He has received a stream of threats from illegal fishermen and poachers, and usually carries a gun.

Univaja said the two had been threatened during their reporting trip. On Saturday, while they were camped out, a small group of men traveled by river to the Indigenous territory's boundary and brandished firearms at a Unijava patrol, the association's president, Paulo Marubo, told The Associated Press. Phillips photographed the men at the time, Marubo said.

Phillips, 57, has reported from Brazil for more than a decade and has been working on a book about preservation of the Amazon with support from the Alicia Patterson Foundation, which gave him a yearlong fellowship for environmental reporting that ran through January.

The pair disappeared while returning from a twoday trip to the Jaburu Lake region, where Phillips interviewed local Indigenous people, Univaja said. Only the two were on the boat.