“Unjustified Hysteria,” Says Brazil Embassy Head on Reaction to Amazon Fires

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Nestor Forster, Brazil’s Chargé d’Affaires in the U.S., publicly agreed with the Bolsonaro administration and said on Wednesday, August 28th, that it is “dishonest” to relate the fires in the Amazon to the environmental policy of the Jair Bolsonaro government.

According to the ambassador, the negative international repercussion of forest fires is an “unjustified hysteria.”

In an interview with NPR (National Public Radio), Forster said that the Amazon should not only serve as a tourist attraction for Europeans and that the problem in the region is environmental and not political.

“Last June, we had the largest operation against illegal deforestation. The biggest ever, before the first headline saying that the Amazon is burning and all this unjustified hysteria, if I may say so,” Forster said.

“Based on facts, if the fires are within the average of the last fifteen years, why all the hoopla now? Trying to link it to president Bolsonaro seems dishonest to me.”

Close to Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo and polemicist Olavo de Carvalho, the government’s ideological guru, the diplomat was the favorite to take over the Brazilian
embassy in Washington, before Bolsonaro announced he would appoint his youngest son, Eduardo, to the post.

Like the president, Forster said the fires are part of a “seasonal phenomenon that happens in the driest season in the Amazon,” with numbers within or even below the average of recent years, but that the government recognizes the gravity of the situation.

“President Bolsonaro made a statement on national television last Friday stating that he would mobilize 43,000 troops to provide logistical support for those on the ground fighting the fire.”

However, according to the government’s own data, deforestation has increased, with fires 82 percent higher than last year and the largest in the last seven years in the period from January to August.

Bolsonaro has been accused by his opponents of conducting a negligent environmental policy, with reduced fines and inspections.

The Brazilian president supports the premise that while there is international interest in the forest, national sovereignty requires defending the interests of the region.

In Wednesday’s interview, the diplomat in Washington echoed the same line and said he doesn’t want to see the Amazon “surrounded by big European tourists with money
who go on vacation to visit the exotic fauna while 25 million Brazilians are there without opportunity.”

The fires in the Amazon have brought Brazil to the center of criticism from several European countries, led by French President Emmanuel Macron. He said the fires were an
international crisis and that the G7, a group of rich industrialized countries, should discuss solutions to the problem during a meeting last weekend.

Macron announced an R$83 million grant to fight the fires at the end of the summit, which was initially refused by Bolsonaro.

The Brazilian president, however, changed his mind and said he would accept the money if Macron withdrew what he considered “insults” to Brazilian sovereignty.

Forster reiterated that the country is open to international cooperation “as long as there are no strings attached.”

“We don’t like the headlines (saying) “the Amazon belongs to the world,
to humanity”. No, within Brazilian borders the Amazon belongs to Brazilians.”