Bolsonaro says at the UN that Brazil is ‘victim’ of a ‘brutal disinformation campaign’ about the Amazon and the Pantanal | Politics

The speech was delivered via recorded video. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s UN meeting, based at the organization’s headquarters in New York, is virtual.

Bolsonaro said that Brazil has the “best legislation” on the environment in the world and that the country respects the rules of nature conservation.

For him, the wealth of the Amazon motivates criticism that the country suffers in the environmental area. Bolsonaro said that Brazilian and “impatriotic” entities are joining international institutions to harm the country.

“Even so, we are victims of one of the most brutal disinformation campaigns about the Amazon and the Pantanal. The Brazilian Amazon is known for being very rich, this explains the support of international institutions for this campaign, supported by shady interests that add to Brazilian, lucrative and impatriotic associations, with the aim of damaging the government and Brazil itself, ”Bolsonaro said in the video.

The environmental management of the Brazilian government is one of the main reasons for criticism that the country receives from the international community. Since last year, entities, countries and personalities have challenged the environmental policies of Brazil. European countries point to deforestation in Brazil as an obstacle to the confirmation of the Mercosur-European Union trade agreement.

Bolsonaro’s speech comes in the wake of the intense fires that have ravaged the Pantanal in recent weeks. In September, the biome held the all-time fire record for the month.

In the Amazon, the main target of concern for the international community, deforestation alerts increased by 34% from August 2019 to July 2020.

In his speech, Bolsonaro said that the Amazon rainforest is humid. Therefore, according to him, the fire does not spread inside the forest. According to the president, the fires occur only on the edges of the Amazon and are led by “Indians” and “caboclos.”

“Our forest is humid and does not allow the spread of fire inside. The fires occur in practically the same places, in the eastern environment of the Forest, where the caboclo and the Indian burn their gardens in search of their survival, in already deforested areas. “continued the president.

Bolsonaro also said that he maintains a “zero tolerance attitude towards environmental crimes.”

He reiterated, as government officials have, that the fact that Brazil is a powerhouse in agribusiness motivates distorted information about the environment in the country.

“Brazil is emerging as the largest food producer in the world. Therefore, there is a lot of interest in spreading misinformation about our environment,” he argued.

See other points from Bolsonaro’s speech:

Still on the environmental issue, Bolsonaro described the oil spill that hit the Brazilian coast last year as “criminal.” Of Venezuelan origin, the filtered oil, according to him, was “sold out of control.”

“In 2019, Brazil was the victim of a Venezuelan criminal oil spill, sold uncontrollably, causing serious damage to the environment and serious damage to fishing and tourism activities,” he said in his speech.

The president said that Brazil considers it important to respect freedom of navigation, but that “environmental protection rules must be respected and crimes must be investigated quickly.”

However, last month, a year after the largest oil spill in the country, the Brazilian Navy ended the first part of the investigations without pointing out the culprits and without revealing the exact origin of the spill that affected the coasts of nine states. from the northeast. and two from the Southeast, totaling 130 municipalities.

According to the investigation, it was confirmed that the oil is of Venezuelan origin, which does not mean that it has been launched by ships or companies in that country.

Right at the beginning of the speech, Bolsonaro said he regretted “every death” of Covid-19. Brazil is the second country with the most deaths from the disease and the third with the highest number of infected, according to the US Johns Hopkins University.

In his speech, he reiterated one of his main phrases about the pandemic: that he always defended actions to combat the virus and the economic effects of the pandemic.

“From the beginning I warned, in my country, that we had two problems to solve: the virus and unemployment, and that both should be treated simultaneously and with the same responsibility,” said the president.

Since the start of the pandemic, he has criticized measures of social isolation and restriction of movement of people, identified by health authorities around the world as the most effective measures to prevent contagion and deaths from Covid-19.

At the UN, Bolsonaro said that the press in Brazil “politicized” the virus and that the isolation measures “almost” led the country into “social chaos.”

As happened in much of the world, a part of the Brazilian press also politicized the virus, sowing panic among the population. Under the slogan ‘stay home’ and ‘the economy we’ll see later’, they almost bring social chaos to the country. “said the president.