Brazil’s Bolsonaro Strikes a Blow to the Amazon and its People

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/democracy-hongkong. 7 Ibid.

8 Maizland. 9 Lily Kuo, “Hong Kong ‘Umbrella Movement’: Nine Convicted Over Protests,” The Guardian, April 9, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/09/ hong-kong-umbrella-movement-protesters-guilty-overpro-democracy-rallies-jail. 10 Maizland.

11 Kuo. 12 Laignee Barron, “With Opposition Lawmakers Exiting the Legislature, What is the Future of Hong Kong’s Democracy Movement?” TIME, Nov. 20, 2020, https://time.com/5912573/hong-kong-democracyfuture/. 13 Maizland. 14 Austin Ramzy, “Hong Kong Court Convicts Democracy Leaders Over Protest March,” New York Times, March 31, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/world/asia/ hong-kong-democracy-protest.html. 15 Barron.

16 Maizland. 17 Zen Soo, “Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Lawmakers to Resign En Masse,” Associated Press, Nov. 11, 2020, https://apnews.com/article/hong-kong-pro-democracyresign-en-masse-7434a6f1ac28a059827b51d02987f71c.

By Niva Cohen

Like other demagogues in recent years, President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has gained power through divisive rhetoric and a tough persona. He governs based on self-interest, not ideology. Many have paid the price for Bolsonaro’s egotistical and irresponsible approach. The trees of the Amazon rainforest die, and the lungs of the world blacken, as the president rolls back environmental regulations and pushes development of the Amazon. Indigenous people struggle in unclean towns, trying to ward off invaders who poach their land as Bolsonaro turns a blind eye. Nothing encapsulates his flawed leadership so much as his response to COVID-19, which killed Amazonians at three times the rate of urban Brazilians.1 The president did not enforce travel rules and did little to protect the vulnerable. Jair Bolsonaro’s policies wreaked havoc on the Amazon region because of their effect on the environment and Indigenous communities, made worse by COVID-19. The Amazon rainforest is vast and lively. It includes one in ten known species and 1.4 billion acres of trees, which combat greenhouse gas emissions by trapping 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon.2 The Amazon makes up 40% of South America, and 60% of it lies in Brazil.3 Bolsonaro’s policy of exploiting the Amazon will negatively impact not only Brazilian citizens but everyone on Earth. Bolsonaro’s attitude toward the Amazon is politically motivated and shows little concern for the environment. He preys on the nationalistic fears of his base that other countries will take the Amazon away if leadership does not develop it, labeling foreign interference a product of “collonialist spirit.”4 Brazil’s urban citizens view the Amazon as an empty wasteland, despite an industry boom since the 1970s.5 The timber and mining

industries give financial support to Bolsonaro, so he champions deforestation as a development tool that will uncover hidden wealth where Amazonian trees once stood. The president’s opportunism shines through in his past environmental policies, or lack thereof. Bolsonaro has defunded environmental protection programs and authorized illegal activities such as logging, mining, and deforestation. His government has ignored calls from other countries to seek more sustainable paths toward economic success.6 A lack of governmental supervision has encouraged illegal activities in the Amazon, creating a host of environmental disasters. While Bolsonaro turns the other way, invaders enter the rainforest to mine precious substances and displace vulnerable communities from their land. In 2020, wildfires were 28% more common than the year before. People illegally start fires to deforest parts of the Amazon for agriculture and industry, but they lose control, and the flames spread. The government could enforce deforestation laws, but Bolsonoro has yet to make them a priority. Set free by the president’s environmental apathy, miners and loggers have brought destruction to land that much of Brazil regards as sacred.7 The human victims of illegal activity are members of Indigenous communities. Ten years ago, there were one million Indigenous Brazilians. Most of them live in Amazonian villages in Northern Brazil. Their towns are extremely remote: Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city, is 50 hours away from Sao Paulo by car.8 Many Amazonians are poor and undernourished. Their water is dirty and their towns lack good sanitation. Their isolation and relative misfortune leave them susceptible to disease. Despite natives’ vulnerability, Bolsonaro has neglected their rights and, in this time of need, their health, too. Much like his approach to the environment, Bolsonaro’s attitude toward Indigenous people is careless and inhumane. His racist language has alienated Indigenous communities and emboldened prejudiced citizens. In January, 2020, he remarked on Twitter that “more and more, the Indian [Indigenous person] is a human being the same as us,” normalizing language that portrays natives as “the other.”9 Bolsonaro’s policies reflect his rhetoric. He has denied Indigenous territorial rights and appointed leaders to Amazon regions with little knowledge of native peoples. Using the economy as an excuse, Bolsonaro vetoed a law in July, 2020 that would bring fresh water and healthcare to remote areas. He has allowed missionaries to take positions that historically belonged to Indigenous people.10 They disrupt native communities by forcing their religion and interfering with ancient traditions. As much as he talks about developing the Amazon, Bolsonaro hardly mentions the 10% of Brazil that lives there. COVID-19 spread throughout the Amazon by the river, undeterred by Bolsonaro’s halfhearted resistance. Even after commercial boating paused, rural citizens continued to travel by private boat, contracting COVID-19 and bringing it deeper into the forest.11 Miners and loggers carried the disease into remote communities. Bolsonaro has not proposed straight-forward quarantine guidelines or contact tracing.12 His administration has consistently mocked and minimized the effects of the virus, neglecting to appoint medical experts to the health ministry.13 When the president finally sent officials to protect remote

populations, he did not equip them with tests, so they brought COVID-19 with them.14 These government vectors, combined with infected invaders and missionaries, fostered the pandemic’s Amazon explosion, which killed 700 people in six months.15 Because of limited government help, Indigenous Brazilians resorted to desperate measures as the pandemic devastated their communities. In Manaus, they dug mass graves to bury their dead. They made emergency calls to medical professionals, who took days to reach the rainforest by boat and lacked adequate protective equipment.16 As hospitals ran out of stretchers, they turned to hammocks and boat ambulances. Medivacs often arrived too late, and patients onboard faced the danger of lowered blood oxygen levels.17 Bolsonaro offered some support in stimulus checks. To get their money, however, people had to go into the cities, which led to infection. Bolsonaro claimed that he was lending a hand, but his help put native people at greater risk. Bolsonaro’s negligence has taken its toll on the Amazon. By August, more than 21,000 Indigenous people had become infected, and more than three percent of them had died.18 People were as likely to get COVID-19 in the most remote villages as if they had lived in New York City. During the worst of the pandemic, 100 people died daily in Manaus.19 The loss to native people is not only of loved-ones but also of tradition. Indigenous elders serve as libraries to people depending on the oral transmission of culture, and more than 200 of them have died.20 They were the most valuable and esteemed members of their communities, but their age left them vulnerable. Had Bolsonaro acted with more care and diligence, perhaps they could have survived. There is a price to President Jair Bolsonaro’s laissez-faire approach to the Amazon, a price that the rainforest and its inhabitants pay. He seeks to exploit the Amazon’s resources and assimilate its people. What Bolsonaro and his base fail to realize is that the rainforest and Indigenous communities hold inherent value. As he turns a blind eye to deforestation, everyone worldwide could experience the consequences. As he turns his back on natives, thousands of people suffer, grieve, and lose their culture. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the flaws in Bolsonaro’s leadership and the problem with a short-sighted and often cruel governance approach that elevates short-term economic gains above all other values.

1 Ritula Shah, “What is Covid Doing to the Amazon?,” August 7, 2020, in The Real Story, produced by BBC, podcast, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3cszcn7. 2 “Amazon,” World Wildlife Fund, 2021, accessed March 15, 2021, https://www.worldwildlife.org/places/ amazon.

3 Shah. 4 “Amazon Rainforest Belongs to Brazil, Says Jair Bolsonaro,” September 24, 2019, BBC News, https:// www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-49815731. 5 Shah. 6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid. 9 Marcelo de Sousa, “Brazil Indigenous Groups Accuse Bolsonaro of Racist Comment,” ABC News, January 24, 2020, accessed April 7, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/ International/wireStory/brazil-indigenous-groupsaccuse-bolsonaro-racist-comment-68515577.