Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's furious reaction to foreign criticism ...
RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s furious reaction to foreign criticism of his handling of Amazon fires reflects the sacred place the vast region occupies in the minds of Brazil’s military, for whom the rainforest is almost a raison d’être.
“There is foreign interest in the mineral wealth and biodiversity of the Amazon,” retired General Paulo Chagas, a friend of Bolsonaro’s, told Reuters. “When speak of protecting the Indians and the environment, that is just a cover to justify outside interference.”But the Amazon is not just a potent symbol of national sovereignty for the armed forces, officials, former soldiers and experts said.
The jump in Amazon forest fires this year has created an international crisis for Bolsonaro, threatening his efforts to ignite Brazil’s sickly economy and trade more with the world. Bolsonaro is an outspoken admirer of the 1964-85 military dictatorship, which took power in a U.S.-backed coup to stop an alleged communist plot to take over Brazil. One of its main missions was opening Brazil’s vast interior to development.
In an op-ed this week, Mourão decried “an international campaign against Brazil... to neutralize Brazilian sovereignty over our part of the Amazon region.”The son of a wildcat miner who worked the Amazon’s illicit pits, Bolsonaro was imbued with a pioneer spirit from a young age. After passing through the Black Needles Military Academy, Brazil’s version of West Point, he enjoyed a short-lived military career, lacking in distinction.
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