RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro has suggested that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) receiving funds from abroad may be behind the increase in forest fires occurring in the Amazon rainforest.
According to him, the aim is to run a “campaign” against the federal government. Bolsonaro also accused some of the region’s governors of “colluding” with the criminal fires, without providing any evidence.
“The crime exists, and that’s when we have to do everything we can so that this crime doesn’t increase, but we took the money away from NGOs. Out of foreign donations, forty percent was going to NGOs. There is none of that anymore. We also put an end to the transfer of public money. So these people are missing the money,” said Bolsonaro.
“There may be — although I’m not stating there is — criminal activity by these NGOs to draw negative attention against me, against the Brazilian government. This is the war that we are facing,” the president told reporters when leaving the Palácio da Alvorada.
He said environmental organizations “lost their privileges” and raised the possibility that the very people who have been recording images of forest fires in the Amazon for publicity would be behind the fire, claiming that “the fire was started in strategic places in the whole of the Amazon,” he said. “Everything suggests that people went there to film and set the fires. This is my opinion.”
When asked if the blocking of resources from the Amazon Fund could jeopardize firefighting actions, Bolsonaro said that forty percent of such resources were being used to support NGOs. “Show me one tree that has been planted using these funds from abroad,” he challenged. The president also said that it is “naive” to think that countries like Norway and Germany would send funds from abroad without wanting anything in return. “There is no friendship between countries; there is interest,” he said.
Bolsonaro stated that he is against arson and that he will do “everything possible” to fight the fires, but that he intends to “show the truth” of what is presumably happening through NGOs. “We have to fight crime; then we’ll see who’s potentially responsible for it. But, in my opinion, there is interest for these NGOs, which represent interest from outside Brazil.”
Governors
Bolsonaro also said that governors are “colluding” with the fires in the Amazon. “I don’t want to mention names of those colluding with what’s going on and putting the blame on the federal government. There are states in the North, which I do not wish to mention, where the governors are not lifting a finger to help fight fires. They’re enjoying it,” stated the president.
He suggested that journalists should seek out the press offices of the region’s governors to ask what is happening and what the state governments have already done. “There are state governments which have done nothing, and they can do it,” he said.
The president reported that the government has been discussing since yesterday in what way it can help fight the fires, mentioning the ministries of defense, environment, and justice. “Justice can send forty men from the National Force there, believe me. It’s only a drop in the bucket. We should deploy the armed forces, perhaps as of tomorrow, units from the region because there is no way to move them from here to there. Food will be lacking for the army as of September. That’s the situation we’re in.”