Porto Velho (Brazil) (AFP)
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro again fueled the controversy on Wednesday with French President Emmanuel Macron, creating confusion over the international aid that Brazil would be willing to receive to fight fires in the Amazon.
He also accused "Germany, and particularly France, of buying Brazilian sovereignty" with the fires raging in the world's largest rainforest.
These fires are far from being "under control", contrary to what the government asserts for several days: 1,044 new fire starts were found Tuesday throughout Brazil, more than half of them in the Amazon, said Wednesday. National Institute for Space Research (INPE).
After receiving Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, who was invited to Biarritz (France) on the sidelines of the G7 last weekend, Jair Bolsonaro made bellicose statements that created confusion.
It was unclear whether Brazil, which rejected G7 financial aid on Tuesday morning waiting for Macron to "withdraw his insults" against Bolsonaro, and then accepted it on Tuesday night under certain conditions, rejected it again. Wednesday morning.
Mr. Macron "called me a liar and twice said that the (Brazilian) sovereignty of the Amazon should be relativised," Jair Bolsonaro told reporters. "We will be able to talk to each other again when he has retracted after what he said against me."
The dramatic fires in the Amazon have caused a diplomatic crisis between Brasilia and Paris, which threatens not to sign the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement.
Mr Macron last week accused Mr Bolsonaro of "lying" about his environmental commitments. France was heavily attacked by the Brazilian government, and Bolsonaro called Macron a "colonialist" before attacking his wife Brigitte Macron.
- "Brazil is not for sale" -
As a matter of serious concern, Emmanuel Macron also wondered about the possibility of conferring an international status on the Amazon forest, in the event that the leaders of the region take harmful decisions for the planet.
"It is important to repeat that the Brazilian Amazon is under Brazilian sovereignty," said Bolsonaro, whose country is home to 60% of the gigantic rainforest, before accusing: "Germany and especially France are buying our sovereignty ".
"Brazil is not for sale for 20 million dollars, nor 20 billion," he continued, referring to "the size of Brazil, the eighth largest economy in the world."
He added, however, that "Brazil can accept any bilateral aid".
On Tuesday, the far-right president had already demanded that Macron "withdraw his insults" before any discussion on the Amazon. Then Brasilia had backtracked and announced in the evening to have finally accepted financial aid. The G7 had proposed $ 20 million.
Brasilia had said on Tuesday evening to be "open" to help "foreign organizations and even countries" to fight fires, "provided control of the use of funds."
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera lent his support to Brazil: "It must be remembered that some years there have been much worse fires," he said, taking over the position of Jair Bolsonaro.
He announced the shipment of four planes from Chile, which will be added to the fifteen or so planes that Brazil has deployed since last weekend.
In the state of Rondônia (north-west), one of the most affected by fires, the capital Porto Velho found itself under a smoke cover with fires.
The Brazilian vice president, General Hamilton Mourao, denounced in a tribune published Wednesday by the daily Estado de S. Paulo the "international campaign" against Brazil.
"Brazil does not lie, nor its president," he wrote. He lambasted "those leaders of European countries" who "try to sabotage the historic agreements such as the one signed (end of June) between the European Union and Mercosur", which has yet to be ratified.
© 2019 AFP