RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Tuesday, December 10th, President Jair Bolsonaro criticized the media coverage of Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old he called a “brat”.
Bolsonaro made the statement when asked by journalists, on his way out of the Alvorada Palace, if he was worried about the deaths of two Guajajara Indians in an attack on Saturday, December 7th, in Maranhão.
Hours after the Brazilian president’s speech, Greta ironically changed her biographical description on Twitter to “Pirralha” (“Brat”).
At the age of 11, Greta was diagnosed with Asperger, a type of autism. Since her childhood, she has been protesting to demand concrete actions from governments to fight climate change.
The Swedish girl would miss classes to protest in front of the Swedish parliament and, this year, she crossed the Atlantic on a sailboat to attend a United Nations (UN) conference on climate.
The president asked for help in recalling Greta’s name and criticized the activist and the media coverage of the adolescent’s statements.
“Greta already said that the Indians died because they were defending the Amazon. It is amazing that the press is giving space to a brat like that, a brat”, he said.
Afterward, Bolsonaro said that “any death is a concern” and that his government wants to “comply with the law”, taking a stand against deforestation and illegal fires.
On Saturday, on a social media network, Greta shared a video about the deaths of indigenous Brazilians and wrote that these people are being murdered in an attempt to protect the forest from illegal deforestation.
On Monday, December 9th, Greta mentioned the indigenous peoples again during a UN summit that organizes the COP 25.
“Their rights are being violated all over the world, and they are also among those most affected, and most quickly, by the climate and environmental emergency,” said the Swede.
The number of indigenous leaders killed in conflicts in the countryside in 2019 was the highest in at least 11 years, according to data from the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) released on Monday.
The survey on the killings:
“There were seven deaths in 2019, compared to two in 2018. This year’s data are only preliminary: the final assessment will not be made until April next year.”
“Last weekend, three indigenous activists were killed in the country: in Maranhão, in Jenipapo dos Vieiras, two Guajajara Indians died and two others were injured during an attack on Saturday, December 7th, in Manaus, Tuyuca activist Humberto Peixoto Lemos died in hospital after being beaten on Monday, December 2nd.”
Source: Globo