Brazilian Government Chooses to Reject G7’s US$20 Million Aid for the Amazon

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Palácio do Planalto confirmed on Monday evening, August 26th, that Jair Bolsonaro’s government intends to reject the offer of US$20 million (R$0 million) from the G7 countries to help in the fight the fires in the Amazon.

News of the rejection came from the Secretary of Social Communication (SECOM).

Emmanuel Macron, the French president with whom Bolsonaro has been trading barbs since last week, has announced the money donation.

Over the course of the day, the Brazilian president’s spokespersons had stated that should the rich countries’ offer be conditioned on any compensatory measures or require monitoring of its application, it would most likely be rejected.

In Macron’s announcement, part of the funding earmarked for reforestation was tied to work with NGOs.

Late Monday afternoon, after a meeting at the Ministry of Defense between Bolsonaro and some of his ministers, spokesman Otávio do Rêgo Barros said the decision would be up to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Shortly afterward, in a social media publication, Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo — who had also attended the meeting — pointed out that the government might not accept the offer announced by the French president.

According to the minister, “the effort by some political currents to extrapolate real environmental issues and turn them into a fabricated ‘crisis’ is very evident, as a pretext to introduce foreign control mechanisms for the Amazon.”

“Brazil will not accept any initiative that implies relaxing sovereignty over its territory,
whatever the pretext and whatever the guise”, wrote Araújo.

The Brazilian government found that French president Emmanuel Macron tried to hold Brazil accountable for the fires in the Amazon Forest during the G7 nations’ meeting in Biarritz, France.

According to sources close to president Jair Bolsonaro, after this “win” over Macron, the Palácio do Planalto and Itamaraty are now working on three fronts: to accept only the aid of their South American neighbors and Israel; to set up a working group with the United States, to build a joint environmental policy proposal; and to adopt more “drastic” actions to minimize the effects of fires in the north of the country.