Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is telling other nations not to meddle in its growing crisis in the Amazon rainforest as fires continue spread across region, shortly after he said Brazil didn’t “have the resources” on its own to extinguish the blaze.
“These countries that send money here, they don’t send it out of charity,” the right-wing president said in a live broadcast on Thursday, Reuters reports.
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“They send it with the aim of interfering with our sovereignty,” he added.
However, shortly before those comments on Thursday, Bolsonaro said his country could not fight the growing blaze alone.
“The Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?” Bolsonaro reportedly asked local media. “We do not have the resources for that.”
Bolsonaro faces international criticism for the blaze as his administration has worked to rescind environmental protections for the region since he took office this year.
Ahead of the Group of Seven summit host by France, French President Emmanuel MacronEmmanuel Jean-Michel MacronTrump, UK’s Boris Johnson to meet on sidelines of G-7 summit France deploying 13K officers, drones to lock down G-7 summit site Trump, France’s Macron discuss G-7 ahead of annual meeting MORE called the situation in Brazil an “international crisis,” vowing to make it a priority point of discussion.
As wildfires continue to engulf the Amazon rainforest at a record pace, Bolsonaro, who has called for the development of the Amazon region in his country, has come under immense scrutiny, with advocates saying fires have increased in areas of the world’s largest rainforest where deforestation has also risen.
On Wednesday, Bolsonaro tried to shift the blame to nongovernmental organizations for the wildfires, accusing NGOs of starting the fires in an effort to hurt his image after his administration cut their funding.
However, according to Reuters, Bolsonaro has recently acknowledged that local farmers could also be the culprit behind the blaze in the world’s largest rainforest.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation in Brazil. Federal prosecutors in the country are reportedly looking into an advertisement that was placed in a local newspaper that encouraged farmers to set parts of the rainforest on fire for an effort called “Fire Day.” The demonstration was reportedly promoted as a way “to show Bolsonaro their willingness to work.”
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