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The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, will not be able to participate in the summit of Amazonian countries scheduled for Saturday Friday in the Colombian city of Leticia for health reasons and is studying to send a high-level substitute or propose that the appointment be postponed, they announced Monday official sources.

The summit was proposed by Brazil's own head of state to be able to study with joint counterparts in neighboring countries joint measures to combat and prevent forest fires that multiplied this year in the largest rainforest in the world.

"By medical recommendation (due to the preparation for the surgery to which he will undergo Sunday) the president will need to start a liquid diet next Friday, which makes his trip to Leticia unfeasible," said Brazilian Presidency spokesman Otavio Rego Barros, at a press conference.

The spokesman explained that the recommendation that prevents the trip was made by doctors who will undergo Bolsonaro next Sunday to a new operation in the abdomen, the fourth since he was stabbed about a year ago, this time for the "correction of an incision hernia, which arose as a result of previously performed surgical interventions. "

"The Government studies that Bolsonaro can be represented by a high-level substitute (at the summit of Amazon countries) or, eventually, request that the appointment be postponed so that the president himself can participate," said Rego Barros.

According to the spokesman, the postponement is the possibility preferred by the Brazilian head of state given that "he wishes to be present because of the importance he attributes to that meeting."

The summit was announced by Bolsonaro himself last week after the meeting he had in Brasilia with the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, and in which he analyzed the effects that the fires of the Amazon have had throughout the world.

After the bilateral meeting, the Brazilian ruler announced the summit to be held in Leticia, a Colombian city located on the borders of that country with Brazil and Peru, and expressed his desire to meet with all the presidents of the countries of the Amazon region, "Except for Venezuela", Nicolás Maduro.

The nearly 7 million square kilometers of the Amazon are shared by Brazil (which owns almost 70%), Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, overseas territory of that European country.

Bolsonaro said Monday that, despite the new surgery since he will need at least ten days of rest, he will go to the United Nations General Assembly on September 23 to "show the world" the way Brazil takes care of the Amazonia

"I want to talk about the Amazon," said the president, who has been accused by environmental groups and even by the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, for having abandoned the programs that the country had on environmental protection and having led to the llamas that still consume part of that biome.

Bolsonaro said he intends to "show the world, with enough knowledge and patriotism," that this is not the case, that the plans for the care of the environment are maintained and that fires, which are frequent in the months of August and September due to the drought of the time, have been used as an "excuse" to attack his Government.

He also repeated his thesis that there are major powers interested in "controlling" the Amazon, in order to seize their wealth, and to ignore the sovereignty of the countries of the region.

The fires in August in the Brazilian Amazon were the largest for the month in that region. According to the state National Institute of Space Research (INPE) in August, 30,901 sources of fire were registered, almost three times those presented in the same month of 2018 (10,421). Between January and August, 46,825 fire bulbs were registered in the Amazon, 11% more compared to the same period of 2018.

The situation generated a strong tension between Brazil and some European countries, such as France and Ireland, which continued to stop supporting the free trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union (EU) announced in July if Bolsonaro does not change its environmental policy in the Amazon

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