Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist October 2019

LATIN AMERICAN CORNER “C aptain Chainsaw”, this is the strangely affectionate nick-name given to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. While in some parts of the world such a name might be given as an insult, in Brazil it is a celebration of Bolsonaro’s economic policies and exploitation of natural resources as a way of boosting the faltering economy. These policies were brought to the attention of the world in August as ﬁ res blazed across the Amazon region, blacking out the sky in Sao Paolo, over 1,500 miles away, stirring international outcry. It quickly became clear that many of the ﬁ res were started deliberately, but while there is a presently a ban on starting new ﬁ res, many continue to rage, with over 121,000 being reported in 2019 up to mid- September, an increase of over 50 percent on previous years. headway, losing a run for federal congress in 2018. He has also been found guilty of altering oﬃ cial documents to support mining companies. This behaviour was rewarded by Bolsonaro with the position of Environment Minister. Since gaining power the two of them have played strongman politics, enacting their policies against the Amazon at an alarming speed. The ﬁ res in the Amazon are not a side product of these policies but are an active part of them. Fires are being encouraged in order to make space for agribusiness, logging and other extractive industries. All part of a push to boost the economy of Brazil. Following the international outcry about these policies, Bolsonaro attempted to distance himself from the situation. First ﬁ ring the Director of the National Institute for Space Research, the organisation who Bolsorano is only paying back those that helped to get him into power. His campaign was heavily funded by Brazil’s hugely powerful agribusiness, who saw in the new president a man who would bend to their will. And it would seem they were right, Bolsorano has already lifted bans on a huge array of pesticides, with little debate or scientifi c evidence of their safety. The ﬁ res themselves have already fallen out of the headlines, but the political and economic policies of Brazil and the rest of the world remain, and without an examination of these, we will see further destruction of the Amazon and other resources vital to human existence. Many have placed the blame for the ﬁ res squarely at the feet of Brazil’s new President, Jair Bolsonaro, and his extremist environmental minister, Ricardo Salles. This blame is well-founded, policies enacted by the pair have not only permitted the ﬁ res but have actively encouraged them – a recent report by MAAP (Monitoring of the Andean Amazon) scientifically linked the fires to government policies of deforestation. The pairs toxic combination of radial ideology, corruption and greed was apparent long before either took oﬃ ce. Bolsonaro had long been a political outsider. Despite 30 years as a congressman, his wild, and abhorrent views, had kept him ﬁ rmly on the periphery, seen by many as an embarrassment. Similarly, Salles failed to make political ﬁ rst showed the extent to which the ﬁ res had gripped the region. He then went on to blame NGOs, suggesting that the ﬁ res were started as a way of discrediting his government. No evidence was oﬀ ered for this claim, which has been widely dismissed. In contrast, Paulo Artaxo, an atmospheric physicist at the University of São Paulo has stated that “there is no doubt that this rise in ﬁ re activity is associated with a sharp rise in deforestation”. Bolsorano’s polices have been called a ‘threat to the climate equilibrium’ by Greenpeace, and more forest has been cleared under the ﬁ rst nine months of his presidency that in the previous three years. Traditional custodians of the Amazon have been swept aside. The ministry of agriculture is now in charge of the demarcation of indigenous territories, rather than the Justice Ministry. This is a clear conﬂ ict of interest, as it is the ministry of agriculture who seeks to gain from the clearing of the forest. Other agencies that support indigenous ownership of land, and protection of the Amazon, have also Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 10 • October 2019, Noida • 41

Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist October 2019 | Page 41