A vigil was held outside the Brazilian Embassy
(Picture: PA)A vigil has been held outside the Brazilian Embassy in London for a British journalist and indigenous affairs official who went missing in the Amazon rainforest earlier this week.
Well-wishers gathered outside the Embassy just after 8am, carrying signs reading “Find Dom and Bruno”.
Meanwhile, legendary Brazilian footballer Pelé joined calls for authorities to investigate the pair’s disappearance.
Pelé, 81, retweeted a video made by Mr Phillips’s wife calling for an urgent search for the pair.
“The fight for the preservation of the Amazon forest and of the Indigenous groups belongs to all of us,” the three-time World Cup winner wrote on Twitter.
“I am moved by the disappearance of Dom Phillips and Bruno Ferreira, who dedicate their lives to this cause. I join the many voices that make the appeal to intensify the search.”
Mr Phillips, 57, has reported from Brazil for more than a decade and has been working on a book about preservation of the Amazon.
A suspect named as 41-year-old Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, also known as Pelado, was arrested for allegedly carrying a firearm without a permit, a common practice in the region.
Police did not clarify why he was being treated as a suspect but he is thought have been among a group of men who threatened the pair near an indigenous territory on Saturday.
Mr Phillips photographed the men following the confrontation after they travelled by river to the territory’s borders, according to the Univaja association of people in the Vale do Javari indigenous territory.
Four other people have been questioned since the investigation started but no arrests related to the disappearances have yet been made, according to authorities.
A luta pela preservação da Floresta Amazônica e pela proteção dos povos indígenas é de todos nós. Estou comovido com o desaparecimento de Dom Phillips e Bruno Ferreira, que dedicam suas vidas para isso. Me junto as muitas vozes que fazem o apelo para intensificarem as buscas. pic.twitter.com/ak0RDqCemF
— Pelé (@Pele) June 8, 2022
His wife, Alessandra Sampaio, recorded a video pleading with the government to intensify the operation.
“We still have some hope of finding them.
“Even if I don’t find the love of my life alive, they must be found,” she said in the video posted on Twitter.
Mr Pereira has long operated in Javari Valley for the Brazilian indigenous affairs agency as an advocate of the indigenous tribes and had received a number of threats from illegal fisherman and poachers.
