By: FOLHAPRESS – PAULO EDUARDO DIAS
03/08/2022 at 16:30
Brazil and the World
SÃO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS) – The Fire Department has two teams in search of environmentalist Adolfo Souza Duarte, 41, known as Ferrugem, who has disappeared since Monday night (1st) at the Billings dam, in the Grajaú region, south of Sao Paulo.
Duarte is president of the NGO Meninos da Billings, which, in addition to working on issues of preservation around the dam, takes boat trips around the site.
According to the incident report, around 7:30 pm, Duarte approached a group that was in a bar on the banks of the dam to publicize the tour.
According to testimonies from the group, one of the friends paid R$ 55 so that everyone could enter the vessel and travel part of the dam. At the end of the ride, which would have lasted about 30 minutes, there was a bump, and Duarte and one of the passengers fell into the water.
The woman managed to be rescued by the other crew members of the vessel. Duarte, in turn, disappeared.
One of the passengers would have taken control of the boat, which was about 20 meters from the point where they had boarded. When they returned, they asked the patrons of a bar who knew Duarte for help.
The group says they were attacked by people at the bar who were surprised by the environmentalist’s absence. One of the women who were on the boat told the Civil Police that her cell phone was taken at the time of the confusion. Examinations of corpus delicti at the IML (Instituto Medico Legal) showed injuries in part of the group.
In a statement to the 101st DP (Jardim das Imbuias), the group declared that they did not know Duarte and that they had no reason to attack him.
The environmentalist’s wife, hairdresser Uiara Duarte, 39, also said she was unaware of possible threats against her husband.
Posted on Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:26:00 -0300