Brazilian Government Agency Had Three Days’ Prior Warning About “Fire Day”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On August 7th, three days before the fire that spread through the region of Novo Progresso, in Pará, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) sent a letter to IBAMA, a body under the Ministry of the Environment, to warn that rural producers were planning a fire in the municipality as a means of protest.

On August 10th, as the Globo Rural Magazine ascertained, more than seventy people — from Altamira and Novo Progresso — among trade unionists, rural producers, traders, and land grabbers, agreed through a group on WhatsApp to burn the margins of BR-163, a highway bridging this region of Pará to the river ports of Tapajós and the State of Mato Grosso.

Their purpose was to show President Jair Bolsonaro that they supported his ideas to “loosen” IBAMA’s inspection and, perhaps, to get a pardon for the fines imposed for environmental violations.

The Prosecutor’s Office’s document alerting the government about the day of the fire, which Globo Rural Magazine accessed, also called for a contingency plan from IBAMA in case “the event was confirmed.” The plan to carry out the fires, scheduled for August 10th, was released by the newspaper Folha do Progresso, from Novo Progresso.

IBAMA’s reply to the MPF, dated August 12th, states that “the Coordination of Inspection Operations and the Intelligence Center of the Superintendence of Pará had been informed about the impending incidents and points out that due to the several attacks suffered and the lack of support from the Pará State Police” its inspection actions were impaired because they “would entail risks related to the safety of teams on the ground”.