RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sérgio Moro, said yesterday, August 25th, on Twitter that the Federal Police (PF) intend to investigate members of a group that may have planned to set fires in forest areas between the municipalities of Altamira and Novo Progresso, southwest Pará state, on August 10th, a date that was dubbed by local rural producers as “Fire Day”.
The case was denounced in a report by Globo Rural magazine.
“I was contacted today by PR @jairbolsonaro on the matter, requiring a thorough investigation. The Federal Police will, through its expertise, investigate the matter. Criminal fires in the Amazon will be severely punished,” said the minister.
According to the story, over seventy people, including trade unionists, farmers, traders, and land grabbers agreed, through a group on WhatsApp, to set fire to the roadsides of the BR-63 highway, which connects the region of Pará to ports on the Tapajós River and to the state of Mato Grosso.
The report was also shared by Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, in which he reiterates President Bolsonaro’s commitment to a “thorough investigation” and punishment of arsonists.
According to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security advisory services, the Federal Police’s investigation should focus on the case reported in the Globo Rural magazine article.
Last Thursday, August 23rd, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) in Pará reported that it is currently investigating an increase in fires in that same region, including a similar denunciation of arson.
According to the MPF, prosecutor Paulo de Tarso Moreira Oliveira is looking into the call for a “fire day” on which farmers would set fire to large areas of forest, as published in the Novo Progresso newspaper. The day scheduled for the event was said to be August 10th.
Satellites from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) detected a significant increase in fires on August 10th, recording 124 fire outbreaks, an increase of 300 percent over the previous day.
The following day, 203 outbreaks were recorded. In Altamira, the satellites detected 194 outbreaks on August 10th and 237 the following day, an increase of 743 percent.