The fires in the Amazon are Bolsonaro's political crimes and are now urgent

DECLARÇAO DO GRUPO DE TRABALHO CLACSO ECOLOGY POLÍTICA (Portuguese)

The recent images that circulate around the world about the fires in the Amazon and also in the Pantanal, in the Cerrado and in the Chaco, as well as the clouds of smoke in the city of São Paulo, not only in climatic cases, but the result of the advance of neo-extrativism and the voracious deforestation intensified by the criminal policies of the government Bolsonaro. This government is subverting the legal-institutional system to promote a criminal policy against the most fundamental Human Rights and Nature Rights. The gigantic frontier of fire that is devastating Amazonia constitutes two most aberrant chapters of its political crimes and deserves the most urgent and active repudiation of the entire political community.

Since last year's election campaign, Bolsonaro has supported militias, landowners, timber owners, illegal garimpeiros and all those who may be interested in not taking away two natural resources; With its support, it encourages the practice of environmental crimes, violence against Camponeso, indigenous and environmental leaders, as well as impunity in favor of these crimes.

These first measures since he assumed power will be aimed at directly attacking and suppressing environmental regulation and the rights of indigenous peoples. Associated with an explicitly racist discourse, from their lives on Facebook, it encourages criminals with a promise to legalize the mining and leasing of soybean plantations within two indigenous territories. Not Bolsonaro governs, our ministers systematically persecute officials and enforcement agents at the same time as we cut off resources for law enforcement command and control operations, for example, cutting off Ibamabem's resources and autonomy such as federal police support for environmental operations.

The images of two fires in the Brazilian Amazon that sometimes shock (or must shock) the whole world, regardless of the result of these policies. The National Institute for Space Research (INPE, which Bolsonaro was attacked with accusations based on fakenews, censorship and political interventions), more than 72,8 thousand fire outbreaks were registered this year; This means an increase of 83% compared to last year, followed by a 278% increase in desmatamento no more than July, while a 30% decrease in fines from Ibama. What lights up these fires are criminal activities that are more likely to occur with a voracity of extractive activities, such as agrobusiness, mining on a large scale or two small garimpos, forestry plundering, and land speculation. Behind each fire, we also advance the destruction of two rivers and biodiversity, the contamination of waters, two of them alone; The murders, torture and persecution of indigenous populations and traditional communities (Ribeirinhos, Camponeses, Quilombolas, farms and pasture fechos), and mass mortality of animals. Behind each fire, there is also a threat to exterminate these peoples/cultures, as well as other species.

The fires that we denounce and repudiate here are not just happening in Brazil; There are also outbreaks originating in Bolivia and Paraguai, with the same motives and perpetrators, since the political responsibility of these crimes also falls to the governments of these countries, and in general, to all the governments that, regardless of their ideological orientations, are favored by ongoing extrativist voracity.

Certainly the systematic plan of destruction of the Amazon does not come with Bolsonaro and is not restricted to his government, but since his access to power, a perverse turn of acceleration, intensification and impunity is verified. This insane advance of neo-extrativism, with jungle deforestation and uncontrolled burning in a drought context, shows the key to current capitalism and its tendency towards ecology. The extent of destruction caused by these policies reaches not only the Amazon Basin, but also important eco-regions of South America, such as the Pantanal, or Cerrado and Chaco. The intensification of a pattern of accumulation based on systematic predation of the natural resources of these territories places us in a situation of extreme gravity, not only in the Amazon and its historical populations, not only in South America, but also in the group of human populations that live in us. not our Planet Terra.

The fact that the Amazon is a major chapter, but not a minor one, is not a more serious one, of the process of devastation that the “modern economy” is taking place in front of our eyes. In the name of “development” and “civilization” we are assisting one of the two most extremes of human barbarism. We feel and say — for ourselves, not by “environment” — that we cannot remain impassive in the face of this macabre spectacle of death on a grand scale. From critical academia committed to society and nature, let us make an urgent call for collective repudiation against this government and its criminal policies in the Amazon. Let's make a call of solidarity to multiply and coordinate actions to defend the Amazon and its people, forest guards and waters, in order to stop and condemn the crimes against Nature and against Humanity that are being perpetrated by the current Bolsonaro government.

Assinam: academics and researchers from more than 50 universities in Latin America and Europe

LATIN AMERICA:

Brazil: Felipe Milanez, Camila Moreno, Stephanie Salgado, Luiz Marques, Ricardo Folhes, Caetano De' Carli, Daniel Jeziorny, Elaine Santos, Cláudia Guedes, Marcos Leite De Matos Todt, Salvador Schavelzon, Laila Thomaz Sandroni, Gilca, Garcia de Oliveira, Roberto Araújo de Oliveira Santos Júnior, Laila Sandroni, Eduardo Neves, Vanessa Empinotti, Ricardo Theophilo Folhes, Edna Castro, Thiago Cardozo, Gilca Garcia de Oliveira, Íñigo Arrazola Aranzabal, Adriana Bravin. 
Argentina: Horacio Machado Aráoz, Maristella Svampa, Paula Damico, Ana Carballo, María Gabriela Merlinsky, Nazaret Castro, Ariel M. Slipak, Marian Sola Alvarez, Jonatán Andrés Núñez, Laura Álvarez, Gabriela Wyczykier, Lucrecia Wagner, Facundo Rojas, Pablo Bertinat, Leticia Sadi, Sofia Astelarra, Cecilia Anigstein, Pablo Jorge Bertinat, Juan Antonio Acacio, Melisa Argento, Julieta Godfrid, Martín Kazimierski, Gustavo Romeo, Martina Gamba, Bruno Fornillo. Chile: Beatriz Bustos, Francisca Fernández, María Fragkou, Evelyn Arriagada, Santiago Urrutia Reveco. 
Colombia: Denisse Roca Servat, Catalina Toro Pérez, Tatiana Roa Avendaño, Patricia Noguera, Laura Gutiérrez, Yusmidia Solano Suárez, John Fitzgerald Martinez, Mario Alejandro Pérez Rincón, Paola Marcela Trivino Cruz, Juan Camilo Cajigas, Johan Ardila Espinel, Ximena Osorio Osorio, Mauro Carvajal Guerrero, Camilo Salcedo Montero, María Luisa Eschenhagen, Ana Isabel Márquez Pérez, Yusmidia Solano. 
Costa Rica: Grettel Navas.
Cuba: Maydi Bayona, Gilberto Javier Cabrera Trimiño, Yolanda Wood. 
Ecuador: Melissa Moreano, Elizabeth Bravo. 
Honduras: Sofia Marcia, Carlos Alberto Alvarado Hernández, Orlando David Murillo Lizardo. 
Mexico: Enrique Leff, Víctor Toledo Manzur, Mina Lorena Navarro, Omar Felipe Giraldo, Aída Luz López, Flor Mercedes Rodríguez Zornoza, Mariana Elkisch, Raquel Gutiérrez Aguilar, Ezer May May, Sergio Prieto Díaz, Lucia Linsalata, Úrsula Hernández, Sandra Rátiva Gaona. 
Nicaragua: Mario Sánchez. 
Peru: Gisselle Vila Benites, Raquel Neyra, Luis Felipe Torres Espinoza. 
Puerto Rico: Gustavo García. 
Venezuela: Edgardo Lander, Emiliano Terán Mantovani. 

EUROPE:

Belgium: Robin Larsimont. 
Spain: Joan Martínez Alier. 
France: Mina Kleiche. 
Italy: Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro.

August 2019
CLACSO Working Groups
political ecology

This statement expresses the position of the members of the Political Ecology Working Groups and not necessarily that of the centers and institutions that make up the CLACSO international network, its Steering Committee or its Executive Secretariat.