RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro supported yesterday, July 27th, the Ministry of Justice’s bill that provides for summary deportation of suspects of certain crimes. He denied, however, that the ministerial order was intended to target U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald, whose website has disclosed alleged messages between Justice Minister Sérgio Moro and Lava Jato’s prosecutors.
“So much so that the crime he is committing does not fall within the scope of the ordinance. After all, he is married to another man [federal deputy David Miranda, who is Brazilian] and has adopted boys in Brazil. He’s not leaving. Glenn can rest assured. Maybe he’ll go to jail here in Brazil. He won’t go to jail abroad,” he said during a graduation ceremony for paratroopers in Rio de Janeiro.
[Under Brazilian immigration law, foreign spouses and parents of Brazilian citizens cannot be deported or expelled from Brazil if they commit crimes here.]
Bolsonaro said suspected criminals must be “thrown out of Brazil.” “I’m not a xenophobe, but in my house, only whomever I want can enter. And my home, at the moment, is Brazil.”
New data on deforestation
While in Rio, Bolsonaro said this Saturday that he would disclose new data on deforestation from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) next week. The president recently expressed discontent with information from the institution showing an increase in the deforested area in the country.
“The data has come in now. The release of these data is in the hands of Marcos Pontes [Minister of Science and Technology] and Ricardo Salles [Minister of Environment], perhaps by Wednesday,” he said.
The president once again advocated the economic exploitation of the Amazon and other protected areas, such as the coast of Angra dos Reis. “We can’t deal with the environment as an environmental psychosis,” he said.