British journalist, Indigenous official missing in Amazon rainforest

ATALAIA DO NORTE, Brazil — Brazilian authorities began using helicopters Wednesday to search a remote area of the Amazon rainforest for a British journalist and Indigenous official missing more than three days.

Civil police in Amazonas state also said they had identified a suspect, who was arrested for allegedly carrying a firearm without a permit, which is common practice in the region. But Gen. Carlos Alberto Mansur, the state’s public security secretary, said later that officials did not have any concrete evidence to tie the man to the disappearances.

“We’re looking for a possible link, but for now, we have nothing,” Mansur said at a news conference. The suspect remained in custody, he said.

Police have questioned five others since the investigation started, but no arrest related to the disappearances has been made, authorities said in their first joint public address.

Journalist Dom Phillips, who has been a regular contributor to newspaper The Guardian, and Bruno Araújo Pereira, an employee of the Brazilian Indigenous affairs agency with extensive experience in the region, were last seen early Sunday in the Sao Rafael community, in the Javari Valley Indigenous territory.

The two had been threatened Saturday when a small group of men traveled by river to the Indigenous territory’s boundary and brandished firearms at a patrol run by Univaja, which is a local association of Indigenous people. The association’s president, Paulo Marubo, previously told the Associated Press that Phillips photographed the men at the time and the suspect was one of them.

Phillips and Pereira were returning by boat to the nearby city of Atalaia do Norte, but never arrived.

Indigenous leaders on the ground, family members and peers of Pereira and Phillips have expressed concern that authorities’ search efforts were slow to…