Brazil’s Bolsonaro diverts blame for Amazon fires, defends handling of epidemic

Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has blamed indigenous people for the catastrophic fires that have raged through the Amazon region’s rain forest, and rebutted international criticism of his handling of the coronavirus epidemic.

Bolsonaro defended his controversial environmental policies in a pre-recorded speech to a remote session opening the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

Devastating wildfires have returned to the Amazon a year after they caused global outrage and prompted the international community to blame Bolsonaro’s policies for the catastrophe. The region is now experiencing its worst rash of fires in 10 years, and the Pantanal wetlands, the world’s largest, are experiencing the most blazes ever recorded.

Official data shows fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest surge in July

The space research agency Inpe recorded 6,803 fires in the Amazon last month

Bolsonaro blamed the native peoples of the land instead.

“The fires practically occur in the same places, on the east side of the forest, where peasants and Indians burn their fields in already deforested areas,” he said.

Bolsonaro asserted that humidity prevents fire from spreading to rainforests.

This is while experts say ranchers use fires to clear newly deforested land for pasture, which in dry years can burn into woodland.

Furthermore, Bolsonaro’s administration has legalized land deforestation for construction work.

The head of Brazil’s main indigenous umbrella organization, Sonia Guajajara, said in response that Bolsonaro was lying to the world.

“We must denounce this political catastrophe that destroys the environment and our future,” the indigenous leader said.

Experts say the wildfires are likely to continue until October.

Bolsonaro defends handling of Brazil’s disastrous epidemic

Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly downplayed the gravity of the coronavirus disease, also defended his government’s response to the crisis, accusing the media of “politicizing” the pandemic and causing panic among Brazilians by telling them to stay home.

He said that restrictive measures had led to “social chaos” while his government “boldly” took emergency economic measures to protect jobs and incomes.

Brazil has recorded 4,595,335 cases of COVID-19 — the world’s third highest, after the United States and India — and a record 138,159 related deaths. Bolsonaro has actively opposed restrictive measures to contain the spread of the disease. Earlier this year, he contracted COVID-19 himself.

Brazil rejects deforestation concerns on EU-Mercosur deal

One day after Bolsonaro defended his environmental policies, his government denounced the European Union (EU) for its reluctance to finalize a trade deal with the South American trade bloc Mercosur over concerns that the agreement would further encourage deforestation.

A report on deforestation last week analyzed the link between the expansion of beef production in Brazil and deforestation in the Amazon, where environmentalists accuse farmers, ranchers, and land speculators of razing trees to make way for crops and pasture.

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rose 10.7% percent in June: Agency

‘The deforestation data by itself shows that we now have a very complicated situation that is out of control in the Amazon.’

Brazil, however, reacted angrily to the report, which it said was commissioned by the French government.

The report “reveals the real protectionist concerns of those who commissioned it when dealing with the agricultural concessions made by the EU to Mercosur,” Brazils Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture said in a joint statement.

An official in the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that the EU’s trade deal with the Mercosur countries would not be ratified until progress was made on climate change, deforestation, and food safety standards, Bloomberg reported.

The official, who declined to be identified, said the deal was not acceptable in its current form and that it had to come into compliance with commitments under the 2015 Paris climate accord.

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