Lieutenant Paulo Sérgio Cordeiro, from the Independent Dog Policing Company (Cipcães), told the agency Real Amazon that the Military Police of Amazonas ended the search for the nine miners who disappeared for more than five months inside the Uatumã Biological Reserve, which is located in the municipality of Presidente Figueiredo (AM), 107 kilometers from Manaus. The third group search operation ended with no results, as in the other two previous actions.
According to Lieutenant Paulo Sérgio Cordeiro, the operation took place from March 24 to 1st. of April and had the participation of five soldiers of the PM, two radio operators, four pilots and a server of the Instituto Chico Mendes da Biodiversidade (ICMBio), an agency linked to the Ministry of the Environment, responsible for the management of the Uatumã reserve, in addition to three dogs, two for search and one for guard.
“The searches have ended. But if the Civil Police show us a new track, in a place we haven’t been, we’ll go back there”, said Lieutenant Paulo Sérgio Cordeiro.
The disappearance of nine prospectors, including a woman, was recorded on November 8, 2015. The Civil Police of Amazonas says that the group entered illegally to mine gold inside the Uatumã reserve.
According to the Civil Police, the missing miners are: José Helenilton Moura Alves, 51 years old, Afonso Pereira de Souza, 26 years old, Emerson Neves Nascimento, 19 years old, Luiz Ferreira dos Santos, 54 years old, Ivanildo Marques dos Santos, 39 years old , Lucas Santos de Souza, 18 years old, Jolar André Broch, 53 years old, João Batista Sobrinho – age unknown – and Cristiane Batista Barbosa, 18 years old.
Deputy Valdinei Silva, from the 37th Interactive Civil Police Precinct of Presidente Figueiredo, which coordinates the investigations and reported the investigation to the Justice, presented two suspicions for the disappearance of the group: crime related to illegal exploitation of gold or an accident. A third suspicion, a possible attack by uncontacted Indians, was ruled out. Silva announced the end of the search for Civil in January this year.
Cleonice Santos, wife of fisherman Luiz Ferreira dos Santos, one of the missing. (Photo: Alberto César Araújo/AmReal)
wanted by Real Amazon , the family members said they do not accept the end of the search by the police and will continue to carry out a parallel investigation. “There are nine people missing, our families are desperate. The authorities cannot forget this case,” Cleonice Santos, 59, the wife of fisherman Luiz Ferreira dos Santos, one of the missing, told the report.
In addition to Cleonice Santos’ husband, two more family members are missing: her nephew Emerson Neves Nascimento and José Helenilton Moura Alves, married to her niece.
Emerson’s father and José Helenilton’s father-in-law, retired Adelson dos Santos Nascimento, 63, said the three times he was at the Uatumã Biological Reserve looking for his relatives was also unsuccessful, but he will continue to look for them.
“We are sad, we had no response. [das autoridades]. Let’s keep looking, let’s seek the truth. My son is there, other family members too, in addition to other people, we cannot leave it the way it is. I want the truth,” she said.
Nascimento said he is raising money to return to the reserve. “The police say they have already done their duty, so now we are the family who are going to continue the search,” he said, without saying when he would return to the place where the nine miners disappeared.
The failure of forest searches
Civil Police search operation in the Utumã reserve in January (Photo: PC Disclosure)
The first operation to search for missing miners in the Uatumã Reserve, coordinated by the Civil Police, was carried out from January 18 to 24 and was supported by the Military Police, Fire Department, municipal guards and ICMBio employees. Police found traces of them like a gravel washing machine, hoses and clothes. A family member recognized the clothes of one of them.
At the time, another group of illegal miners was located within the Uatumã Biological Reserve. Six people were arrested for environmental crimes.
According to Civil Police investigations, in depositions the arrested miners said they had no relationship with the nine missing people. They also stated that when they entered the reserve, the group was already reported missing inside the Uatumã reserve.
The second operation to search for the disappeared was carried out by Cipcães in February. The group specializes in finding the lost in the wild. Lieutenant Paulo Sérgio Cordeiro said that during this action the entire area of the Pitinga River, an arm of the Uatumã River, was searched. He said that, on that occasion, the police went up the tributary, passing behind Mineradora Taboca. The searches continued to a place called Pedrão, arriving close to BR-174, but did not find the missing.
The agency Real Amazon , Lieutenant Cordeiro said that the third search operation for the nine missing began on March 24 and ended on April 1. The Uatumã Biological Reserve has more than 938 thousand hectares of dense forest, with many water courses and the presence of wild animals. He said the search began for the lake at the Balbina hydroelectric plant. The boat that took the team down the river to the ICMBio base.
“From there, we went straight to the second base, inside the bush, and went up the Pitinga River, where there are two crossings: one to the Pitingão River, which we have traveled before, and the other to the Pitinguinha River, which we are now traversing, but we didn’t find anything. We went as far as it was possible to go,” said Lieutenant Cordeiro.
He said that more than 20 GPS-mapped points were surveyed. The searches were carried out by boat and with hiking trails. “We went to a place that said they had a new mining operation, but there was nothing. We also followed two trails that led to ancient mines, but we didn’t find anything either. We arrived at places that ICMBio itself had never traveled,” he said.
The last place searched was the camp set up by the miners as soon as they arrived at the reserve. The police have been to this place other times and have not found them. “It was all the same. Only the dog that found a hole where [os garimpeiros] they kept game meat, wrapped in banana leaves. She was salty and buried. It was the right measure, compatible with the time they were there,” she said.
The lack of civil structure
Police officers found several environmental crimes in the Uatumã reserve (Photo: PC Disclosure)
Wanted by the report to talk about the end of the searches by the Military Police, delegate Valdinei Silva, who is in charge of the investigations, said that the Civil Police cannot carry out a new search for the disappeared. “We need a large logistical structure to carry out this investigation. We need at least 50 men and aircraft support,” he said.
The delegate has already reported the investigation to the Justice, even without a response to the disappearances, and awaits the return of documentation with the measures that must be adopted. “When the investigation returns, I will make new inquiries, as it has not been concluded. I need to check the judge’s and prosecutor’s dispatches in the case, as well as evaluate new information we have received,” he said.
For Silva, the case is emblematic and needs support from the bodies that make up public security. “We have no recourse to resume searches at this time. But we continue to investigate, we recently received information and we are investigating ”, she said, without revealing more details.
Garimpeiros departed from Rumo Certo According to Civil Police investigations, the nine missing miners entered the Uatumã Biological Reserve on November 8, 2015.
Police say the group was taken to the reserve by a boatman from the Rumo Certo Community, in Presidente Figueiredo. This place is located at km 15 on the bank of the Pitinguinha River and was where the miners set up the base of illegal activity.
“They dug in some places and did tests to find gold. Apparently the river dried up and they went to mine elsewhere. During the search, we went up the river a little more, but we didn’t find any trace of them”, said Deputy Valdinei Silva.
During the search, the police arrested six miners inside the Uatumã Biological Reserve, but in a place called “Garimpo do Estevam”. This group was arrested for an environmental crime, but posted bail and is responding to the process in freedom. In the statements, the delegate says that these miners claim that they had been in the region for three days and had no relationship with the disappeared group.
According to the delegate, the “Estevam mine” had recently been passed on to the six garimpeiros who were arrested. The case caught the attention of the deputy. “There was a previous group working, but they left in a hurry. I don’t know if afraid of the inspection that we would carry out [à procura dos desaparecidos] or if there is another reason. All the equipment we found in this mine was sold to this detained group. But nobody leaves a mine like that”, observed the delegate.
The man identified as the former owner of the mine and after whom the place is named, Estevam, lived in Rumo Certo, but he left the community, says delegate Silva, who has tried to question him, but has not found him. The policeman believes that Estevam may have information about the disappearance of the miners.
The agency Real Amazon contacted the Chico Mendes Biodiversity Institute (ICMBio) press office, which manages the Uatumã reserve, but the agency did not respond to questions sent about actions to combat illegal mining within the unit. The Federal Police, which is responsible for investigating crimes within federal conservation units, said earlier that it was carrying out a survey on possible records of mining in the region, but did not announce when it would release the document.
Read the special report on the case:
Group of nine miners is missing for more than 120 days in the Amazon rainforest
Cleonice Nascimento dos Santos (Photo: Alberto César Araújo/AmReal)
