Jair Bolsonaro threw an official who warned against the increase in deforestation in Brazil

President Jair Bolsonaro finally got the head of the director of the Space Research Institute (INPE), which he accused of lying and violating the law. image of Brazil for publishing disturbing data on the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.

Ricardo Galvao, a 71-year-old physicist, announced his own dismissal Friday after two weeks of controversy during which he came to treat the president as "cowardly". "My words about the president have generated embarrbadment and I will therefore be removed from my position," Galvao said after a meeting with the Minister of Science and Technology, Marcos Pontes. .

The controversy began on July 19 when Bolsonaro, a recognized specialist skeptical climate change and in favor of opening protected areas to agricultural and mining activities, he wonders about the INPE data showing a 88% increase in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in June, compared to the same month in 2018.

"Our feeling is that it does not correspond to the truth. [el presidente del INPE] It's at the service of some NGOs, "said Bolsonaro at a breakfast with foreign correspondents." I understand the need to preserve but environmental psychosis has ceased to exist with me"he said.

The following day, Galvao responded by saying that Bolsonaro "had unjustified accusations against personalities of the highest level of Brazilian science"and compared the suspicions issued by the head of state to" a joke of a 14-year-old boy, incompatible with a president of the republic ".

Galvao, who received strong support from the scientific community, resumed accusations on the 21st, claiming that Bolsonaro "showed his cowardice by expressing it in this way" and added: "Maybe I thought that I will submit my resignation, but I will not do it. "

The tension escalated on Thursday, when Bolsonaro said the data from the INPE "does not correspond to the truth" and harm their own reputation and that of Brazil. And he added: "Yes [Galvao] to break the trust, will be summarily dismissed. "

The INPE had meanwhile published new data showing a 40% increase in deforestation in the last 12 months compared to the previous twelve months.

Figures that offer arguments to European sectors and organizations that question the recent free trade agreement concluded in June between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay).

"Data on deforestation reveal what everyone knows: progresses very important. And they create a problem for the government because the national and international pressure is so strong, "he told the news agency AFP Joao-Paulo Capobianco, vice-president of the Institute for Democracy and Sustainable Development and former vice-minister of the environment in 2007-2008 under the leadership of the former presidential candidate, Marina Silva.

"Bolsonaro knows that his government is primarily responsible for the current scenario of destruction of the Amazon. The dismissal of the director of INPE is nothing but an act of revenge against those who show the truthsaid Márcio Astrini, Greenpeace's public policy coordinator.

"There is a big offensive of sectors that take great advantage of the occupation of the Amazon and the President of the Republic has already demonstrated before his election a total ignorance about the topic. He does not consider it relevant, "added Capobianco.

Asked last week about the environmental impact of a tourism project in the Rio de Janeiro area, Bolsonaro responded that this question "only concerns vegans who only eat vegetables".

In Brazil, the issue of the environment is closely linked to that of indigenous territories, which Bolsonaro wishes to stop being sanctuaries to integrate its inhabitants to the "wonders of modern life"as he said last month.

In this area, the head of state suffered a setback on Thursday, when the Supreme Court canceled an order transferring the delimitation of indigenous lands from the National Indian Foundation (Funai) to the Ministry of Agriculture, considered a bulwark of agri-food interests.

The scandal takes place at the time of the investigation the death of Chief Emyra, from the Waiapi tribefor which indigenous peoples accuse illegal armed minors, which Bolsonaro doubts.

The Brazilian president has announced his intention to legalize small-scale mining (known in Brazil as "garimpo") and that indigenous peoples should also be allowed to practice mining on their lands. , instead of being "prisoners" as in a "zoo as if they were prehistoric animals".

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, condemned the death of the chief and the badociate to the pro-mining policies of Bolsonaro.