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  • The Amazon burns, the Sun obscured in Sao Paulo
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24 August 2019

To help control the fires in the Amazon, which have now become an international crisis, Jair Bolsonaro orders the sending of the army and promises zero tolerance towards the arsonists.

"We are a government with zero tolerance towards crime and in the field of the environment there is no difference: we will act decisively to put the fires under control," he said in a televised speech on the eve of the G7 in France , where the issue will be among the topics at the top of the agenda ..

Fires cannot be a pretext for sanctions
For Bolsonaro, fires in the Amazon cannot justify international trade sanctions against Brazil. "Forest fires occur all over the world - he observed - and cannot be used as a pretext for international sanctions". The Brazilian president has therefore declared that the Amazon forest "is an essential part" of the history of Brazil and that protecting it is a duty. "We are aware of this and are working to combat illegal deforestation," he said. "We are a government of zero tolerance against crime and the environmental sector - he warned - is no different".

Pots and protests against Bolsonaro
During the broadcast of the "paneladas" speech (protests beating pots) they resonated in various areas of San Paolo, Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian cities, at the end of a day marked by protests against the government's environmental policy throughout the country.

In São Paulo, on Paulista Avenue - the main artery of the center of the metropolis, and the traditional venue for the protests of squares - tens of thousands of protesters concentrated and blocked traffic, before taking off towards the headquarters of the environmental protection agency Ibama. In Rio, protesters crossed the center of the city from Cinelandia to the headquarters of the Development Bank (Bndes), blocking traffic in various streets and repeating slogans against Bolsonaro and his Environment Minister, Ricardo Salles, whose impeachment was asked the Supreme Federal Court (Stf) from the Sustainability Network party, whose leader, Marina Silva, was Minister of the Environment of the Government of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and moved away from the cabinet, because she was dissatisfied with the forest protection policy Amazon.