Brazilian Foreign Minister Says Amazon Crisis is “False”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo said the increase in fires in the Amazon this year is a “false crisis” that was perpetuated by people’s “ideology”. Speaking in English at an event in Brasilia, he admitted that the fires grew this year, but said they are less than in “many years,” as it is possible to compare them by satellite records. “False crisis, false interpretation of the situation,” he said.

For him, the crisis is a matter of ideology. “People look at the images and don’t look for the facts,” he said. According to the minister, it is difficult for people to believe the facts. “It is the system that is there. It is a virus. It is not the people’s fault. Their heads are being invaded by a kind of thinking that does not allow them to see reality and that is ideology,” he said.

Araújo said that Brazil has many obstacles because there are people who have a different agenda “of mediocrity and stagnation”, but that the government is trying to face the “forces of darkness. Our agenda is popular because people in Brazil understand what we are trying to do. We want to change the system and not just make a change here and there,” he said. He cited that making changes is like the “pain of childbirth”.

Ernesto Araújo also mentioned the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet. He said that her talk about democracy in Brazil losing space is “totally absurd and based on ideology“. He went on to say that some people want to “make Brazil look bad”. At the end of the event, the minister said he has a meeting this Thursday with the Chilean Chancellor.

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