DemocraciaAbierta had access to PowerPoints from a meeting that took place earlier this year in the state of Pará between members of the Bolsonaro government.
The slides show that the current government intends to use the president’s hate speech to diminish the power of minorities living in the region and to implement predatory projects that could have a devastating environmental impact for the Amazon.
The Bolsonaro government has as one of its priorities to strategically occupy the Amazon region to prevent the implementation of multilateral conservation projects for the rainforest, specifically the so-called “Triple A” project.
“Development projects must be implemented on the Amazon basin to integrate it into the rest of the national territory in order to fight off international pressure for the implementation of the so-called ‘Triple A’ project. To do this, it is necessary to build the Trombetas River hydroelectric plant, the Óbidos bridge over the Amazon River, and the implementation of the BR-163 highway to the border with Suriname,” one of slides read.
In February, ministers Gustavo Bebianno (Secretary-General of the Presidency), Ricardo Salles (Environment) and Damares Alves (Women, Family and Human Rights) traveled to Tiriós (Pará) to speak with local leaders about the construction of a bridge over the Amazon River in the city of Óbidos, a hydroelectric plant in Oriximiná, and the expansion of the BR-163 highway to the Suriname border.
During the meeting, the ministers used a PowerPoint presentation that detailed the projects announced by the Bolsonaro government for the region. The presentation argues that a strong government presence in the Amazon region is important to prevent any conservation projects from taking roots.
The slides are clear. Before any predatory plan is implemented, the strategy begins with rhetoric. Bolsonaro’s hate speech already shows that the plan is working. The Amazon is on fire. It’s been burning for weeks and not even those who live in Brazil were fully aware. Thanks to the efforts of local communities with the help of social networks, the reality is finally going viral.
The Amazon rainforest provides 20% of the world's oxygen. People are deliberately starting fires in effort to illegally deforest land for cattle ranching. President Bolsonaro is letting this slide!! #AmazonRainforest #PrayforAmazonas pic.twitter.com/9pWraNgWu6
— hannah ? (@negativiq) August 21, 2019
Attacking non-governmental organizations is part of the Bolsonaro government’s strategy. According to another of the PowerPoint’s slide, the country is currently facing a globalist campaign that “relativizes the National Sovereignty in the Amazon Basin,” using a combination of international pressure and also what the government called “psychological oppression” both externally and internally.
This campaign mobilizes environmental and indigenous rights organizations, as well as the media, to exert diplomatic and economic pressure on Brazilian institutions. The conspiracy also encourages minorities – mainly indigenous and quilombola (residents of settlements founded by people of African origin who escaped slavery) – to act with the support of public institutions at the federal, state and municipal levels. The result of this movement, they say in the presentation, restricts “the government’s freedom of action”.
So it is unsurprising that Bolsonaro’s response to the fires comes in the form of an attack on NGOs. On Wednesday, August 21, Bolsonaro said he believed non-governmental organizations could be behind the fires as a tactic “to draw attention against me, against the government of Brazil.”.
Bolsonaro did not cite names of NGOs and, when asked if he has evidence to support the allegations, he said there were no written records of the suspicions. According to the president, NGOs may be retaliating against his government’s budget cuts. His government cut 40 percent of international transfers to NGOs, he added.
Part of the government’s strategy of circumventing this globalist campaign is to depreciate the relevance and voices of minorities that live in the region, transforming them into enemies. One of the tactics cited in the document is to redefine the paradigms of indigenism, quilombolism and environmentalism through the lenses of liberalism and conservatism, based on realist theories. Those are, according to a slide, “the new hopes for the Homeland: Brazil above everything!”
By Manuella Libardi | openDemocracy.net | Creative Commons
Bolsonaro’s fire attack on the Amazon will harm not only those indigenous people and the millions of fauna and flora that call this rainforest, the lungs of our planet, home. But will have disastrous affects on every living thing on this planet and as such he needs to be stopped and bought before the Hague for crimes against humanity! Because that’s what this is! His moronic ideas will affect all of us! And so because of one man’s (if we can call this idiot Bolsonaro a ‘man’) stupidity and greed, the whole world will have to suffer! Not on! The world needs to step in and stop him NOW before it’s to late!
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