Brazil: Lula’s indigenous lands’ demarcations will be the end of agribusiness, says Bolsonaro

Former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) criticized Wednesday (22) the statements of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) that he will make new boundaries of indigenous lands.

According to the former head of the Executive, the action would represent the end of agribusiness in the country.

The comment was made in a lecture in Florida, in the United States, where Bolsonaro has been since December 2022.

“Proportionally, I don’t know any country with more reserves than we do. There are more than 400 requests to mark new indigenous lands; if 20% of that is granted, agribusiness in Brazil ends,” he said.

Bolsonaro recalled speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June 2022 about the fertilizers trade.

“I came in for criticism from all the Brazilian media for talking to President Putin because Brazil is still dependent on fertilizers.”

“Even though, just there at the mouth of the Madeira River, we have fertilizers for 400 years, but you can’t do anything because it is an indigenous reserve.”

“That is, a people can doom their economy without agribusiness, but they can’t exploit it because it is indigenous land”, he declared.

JEWELRY CASE

At the event, Bolsonaro also said that the jewelry he received from Saudi Arabia and the Arab Emirates became more expensive after they discovered it was for him.

The statements were made during a lecture in Florida, in the United States.

“We learned, still unconfirmed information, that when the jewels arrived and were seized, which I only found out one year later, it was worth US$1 million.”

“When they found out they were for me, they became worth US$3 million. That is, there comes a question of interpretation, right?

At another moment, the former president ironized a TCU (Federal Audit Court) decision forbidding him to use or sell the luxury set.

“What is in the injunction from a TCU minister is that the jewelry could stay with me, but I couldn’t wear it.”

“I will never wear a watch different from this one [pointed to his wrist] in Rio de Janeiro. I have no vocation to be suicidal,” he declared.

Bolsonaro also criticized the press coverage of the case: “I don’t take any pleasure in talking to the press in Brazil; after all, everything is distorted.”

According to the former head of the Executive, the press gave him “beatings all the time,” and now, “it would be saying that he stole the accessories.”

“The jewelry given to us as a gift stayed at the airport. Mine is with me. Where is the jewelry of the other presidents? Where are they kept? In their respective collections, which may be in their own homes,” he commented.

*Journalism trainee Gabriela Boechat wrote this text under the supervision of assistant editor Gabriel Máximo.

With information from Poder360