RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “The plan drawn up by Bolsonaro’s government for the region shows that the administration’s priority is to destroy the forest in order to exploit wealth, extract ore, facilitate the intervention of mega-corporations, build, occupy farmable land, and attract new residents,” says a new report published by Glenn Greenwald’s Intercept Brasil.
While the first protests of 2019 regarding the Amzaon were happening, Jair Bolsonaro spoke on national television: “The protection of the forest is our duty.”
But the plan that his government drew up for the region shows that the priority is different: to destroy the forest to exploit wealth, extract ore, facilitate the intervention of mega-corporations, build, occupy farmable land, and attract new residents. It is the most daring project since the military dictatorship – and the word “preservation” does not seem to be part of its design.
The project, called Barão de Rio Branco (Baron of Rio Branco), has existed since February 2019 and has been presented by the government in closed meetings for authorities and businesspeople.
The Intercept Brasil obtained from an anonymous source, unpublished documents and the recording of one of these meetings and exclusively revealed Bolsonaro’s plan for the
the exploitation of the Amazon.
Behind him, there are miraculous ideas – such as the fear of an alleged Chinese invasion through the Suriname border and the idea that the region should represent half of the national GDP.
In the view of the Bolsonaro administration, the traditional population, indigenous and “quilombolas,” are an obstacle to the presence of the state in the area. According to the project, the “economic situation of Brazil,” together with the paradigms of “indigenism,” “quilombolism,” and “environmentalism” were obstacles of the past.
The material to which The Intercept had access helps the website understand what supports these ideas: the fear of the military that Brazil will lose control of the Amazon, whether through indirect actions aimed at weakening the state in the area or through territorial invasions.
In audio recorded during a meeting in April, the Special Secretary for Strategic Affairs, General Santa Rosa, details his concern about sovereignty in the region.
He says: “On the western border of Siberia there are more Chinese today than Cossack. Russia is waking up to a severe national security problem. We have to wake up here before the same problem occurs.”
The Amazon has been the most significant international crisis in the Bolsonaro government so far. Because of record-breaking deforestation and large scale fires, foreign authorities have shown concern about Brazil’s efficiency in caring for the world’s largest tropical forest.
There is no doubt that, more than ever, the forest is at risk. The intensification of forest fires and the government’s plan are signs of a dangerous threat.
The predatory occupation of the Amazon seems to be one of Bolsonaro’s main agendas. The Intercept Brazil says it will continue to investigate, running after sources and traveling through the north of the country to bring to light every step of this dark operation.