Bolsonaro on Environmental NGOs: ‘I Can’t Kill This Cancer’

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Criticized for his administration’s environmental policy, President Jair Bolsonaro named Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working in the area as a “cancer”. “You know that NGOs, for the most part, do not have a chance with me. I’m going all out to break these people, I can’t kill this cancer, mostly called NGOs,” said the President during his weekly live stream on social media.

During the stream, Bolsonaro ironized questions about the record increases in patch-burn grazing in the Amazon and Pantanal region since last year. “People think somewhere is on fire and all it takes is just get there and put it out, with a blanket, to spit on the fire,” he said. He also downplayed the satellite monitoring of the fire outbreaks and said that even “St. John’s bonfire” (a traditional Northeast Brazilian festival in June) is accounted for.

The President complained that his government gets “beat up all the time” on the environmental issue and said that “scoundrels” are campaigning as if he were “setting fire to the Amazon”. Bolsonaro also rejected the possibility of increasing the delimitation of indigenous lands to reach 20 percent of the territory. “Can you imagine that? The country can’t take it. We would put an end to our agribusiness,” he said on the matter.

He reiterated that he intends to economically develop the Amazon and repeated that he is willing to accept foreign capital to implement the plan, but stressed that while he is President, he will decide which countries will inject funds. “We are doing our best to integrate the Amazon, but it is not easy,” he said.

Source: Estadão Conteúdo