Brasilia/Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Reuters
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday he wants French President Emmanuel Macron to withdraw the “insults” made against him before he considers accepting a $US20 million offer from the G7 nations to help fight forest fires in the Amazon.
The two leaders have become embroiled in a deeply personal and public war of words in recent days, with Bolsonaro mocking Macron’s wife and accusing the French leader of disrespecting Brazil’s sovereignty. Macron has called Bolsonaro a liar, and said Brazilian women are probably ashamed of their president.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro speaks during the Brazilian Steel Conference in Brasilia, Brazil, on 21st August. PICTURE: Reuters/Adriano Machado/File Photo
The fires in the Amazon have created a major crisis for Bolsonaro’s far-right government. The Brazilian leader is losing popularity at home and finding himself increasingly isolated on the global stage over his response to blazes that threaten what many view as a key bulwark against global climate change.
His response to the fires is being closely watched by world leaders increasingly concerned by climate change, and could threaten Brazil’s trade deals and powerful agribusiness sector, which is a crucial driver of its recession-plagued economy.
A tract of the Amazon jungle burns as it is cleared by loggers and farmers in Porto Velho, Brazil, on 27th August. PICTURE: Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino
BRAZIL’S NEIGHBOURS CALL FOR MEETING AND AMAZON PACT AS FIRES RAGE
Lima, Peru
Reuters
Peru and Colombia called on Tuesday on fellow Amazonian countries to attend a presidential meeting next month on the forest fires raging in Brazil and Bolivia and to forge a pact to protect the world’s largest tropical forest.
The meeting is scheduled to take place in the Amazonian region of Leticia in Colombia on 6th September, the two countries said in a statement after Peruvian President Martin Vizcarra and Colombian President Ivan Duque met.
“We have to raise our voice to a presidential level and make a pact where we all coordinate our actions to protect our Amazon,” Duque told a news conference in the Amazonian city of Pucallpa in Peru.
Vizcarra said the meeting would seek to commit countries to a common plan for protecting the rainforest in the Amazon basin, which is shared by Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana and Suriname.
“It shouldn’t just be a reactive policy due to the emergency that neighbouring countries are facing with these fires. Rather it should have a long-term view on how to avoid deforestation,” Vizcarra said alongside Duque.
The fires in Brazil have created a major crisis for the far-right government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who is losing popularity at home and finding himself isolated on the global stage over his response to blazes that threaten what many view as a key bulwark against global climate change.
Duque called the fires in Brazil “worrisome” but added that people around the world need to become more aware of how they contribute to climate change.
The fires are not limited to Brazil, with at least 10,000 square km burning in Bolivia, near its border with Paraguay and Brazil.
Leftist Bolivian President Evo Morales called for an emergency meeting of Amazonian countries on Friday, but said “some countries” had shown a lack of interest for ideological reasons.
– MARIA CERVANTES
However, the offer of aid from the Group of Seven wealthy nations, which was made at a leaders summit in the southern French town of Biarritz on Monday, has stirred up emotions within Bolsonaro’s nationalist government. Some officials are grateful for the much-needed help, and others view it as a colonial token that undermines Brazil’s control of its lands.
Bolsonaro raised Macron’s ire on Sunday when the Brazilian leader responded to a Facebook post that compared the looks of his wife Michelle, 37, with Macron’s 66-year-old wife Brigitte. “Do not humiliate the man hahahah,” Bolsonaro wrote, in a comment widely criticised as sexist.
Macron, who has accused Bolsonaro of lying about climate change policy, called the remarks “extremely disrespectful” to his wife.
On Tuesday, Bolsonaro said he would only countenance accepting G7 money if Macron retracted his earlier comments.
“First of all, Macron has to withdraw his insults. He called me a liar. Before we talk or accept anything from France…he must withdraw these words then we can talk,” Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasilia. “First he withdraws, then offers [aid], then I will answer.”
The French president’s office declined to comment on Bolsonaro’s remarks.
Later, in an at-times fraught discussion with members of his cabinet and governors of Amazon states, Bolsonaro said he did not have anything against the G7 countries, but rather against the president of one of them – a thinly veiled reference to Macron.
He also said he appreciated the environmental work of the G7, but said any efforts to harm Brazil’s agribusiness sector would hurt Latin America’s largest economy.
Other members of his team took a more adversarial tone.
“Where they have passed they have left a trail of destruction, confusion and misery, so they can’t give that kind of advice to anyone,” Augusto Heleno, a retired Brazilian general who is Bolsonaro’s top security adviser, said about France. He also labelled Macron’s posture as childish.
In a boost for the Brazilian leader, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday tweeted his support for Bolsonaro, an ideological peer on the environment, China and trade.
Bolsonaro “is working very hard on the Amazon fires and in all respects doing a great job for the people of Brazil – Not easy. He and his country have the full and complete support of the USA!” Trump tweeted.
The Brazilian president responded on Twitter: “We’re fighting the wildfires with great success. Brazil is and will always be an international reference in sustainable development.”
Leaders of the G7 made the aid offer after discussing the fires ravaging the world’s largest tropical rainforest – often dubbed “the lungs of the world”.
Initially, as the fires gained global headlines, Bolsonaro said Brazil did not have the resources to tackle the blazes. Then, in the wake of the G7 offer, his Environment Minister Ricardo Salles called the aid “welcome.”
However, on Monday evening, Bolsonaro’s chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni said Brazil would reject the G7 offer, although his office said that was his personal view.
Meanwhile, Norway’s environment minister called on major Norwegian companies with business in Brazil to ensure they do not contribute to destruction in the Amazon. In a meeting, the minister urged representatives of oil firm Equinor, fertilizer-maker Yara and aluminium producer Norsk Hydro to make sure their supply chains are not linked to deforestation.
The number of blazes recorded across the Brazilian Amazon has risen 79 per cent this year through to 25th August, according to Brazil’s space research agency. The fires are not limited to Brazil, with at least 10,000 square kilometres burning in Bolivia, near its border with Paraguay and Brazil.
But Brazil is at the epicentre of the blazes, which Bolsonaro has blamed on environmentalists, non-government organizations and the weather. He has also said fires in the Amazon were more prevalent under previous left-wing governments.
Weak rainfall is unlikely to extinguish a record number of fires raging in Brazil’s Amazon anytime soon, with pockets of precipitation through to 10th September expected to bring only isolated relief, according to weather data and two experts.
