Amazon: Over the last two days, more than 1600 new fires have been activated

PORTO VELHO (AFP) .- Hundreds of new fires continue to be recorded in the
Amazon Brazilian, as official data shows today, despite the global rumor that led to the president
Jair Bolsonaro mobilize troops to fight them.

Fires in the world's largest rainforest sparked a worldwide protest and captured some of the attention from the G7 summit that began in Biarritz (France).

During an overflight Friday in a large area of ​​dense forests of the state of Rondonia (north), you could see several fires over several kilometers.

In Porto Velho, the state capital, several people said today that the mixture of clouds and fog that hangs over the city is actually the smoke of the flames.

"I am very concerned about the environment and health," said Delmara Silva, a 43-year-old nanny. "I have a daughter with respiratory problems and she is suffering more fires," he said.

Official figures show that 78,383 forest fires have been recorded in Brazil so far this year, the worst record of this period since 2013, what experts attribute to the progress of deforestation (the fire is used to clean up areas already deforested, open roads or prepare agricultural land).

As reported Saturday the National Institute of Space Research (INPE, official), a total of 1,663 fires were reported between Thursday and Friday in Brazil, of which more than half in the Amazon, the largest of the country's six biomes and his home. more than 20 million of its 210 million inhabitants.

Earlier this week, Bolsonaro suggested that NGOs
they could be responsible for calling after the government cut its funds, which triggered a wave of criticism on social networks and in the streets, with thousands of people demonstrating in Brazil and in various regions of the world yesterday and new marches convened this weekend.

"Evaluate the help"

The data arrive one day after Bolsonaro has authorized by decree the deployment of troops in the Amazon, even in indigenous areas, to help fight the fires.

And, in a speech to the national channel, he warned that his government would apply "zero tolerance" to environmental crimes.

In the midst of criticism sparked by Bolsonaro's leadership, US President Donald Trump has offered his ally to help him fight the fire, just like several South American countries and Europe, including Argentina, Colombia, Chile and the United Kingdom. .

"Any help is welcome, we will evaluate," Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo, who appeared in front of the media with Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, said on Saturday.

With the decree, we are certain that "with the participation of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces", we will be very effective "in the fight against fires", as we have been trying to do since the beginning of the war. year, "said Salles.

"Mobilization of all powers"

Today, at the beginning of the G7 summit at the spa town of Biarritz, the President of France,
Emmanuel Macroncalled "mobilization of all powers" to quell the flames that devour the Amazon, considered vital for the future of the planet.

Macron is openly confronted for days with
Bolsonaro for its fire management and threatened alongside
Ireland torpedo the trade agreement between the
European Union and the
Mercosur. Finland said it would propose a ban on importing Brazilian beef into the bloc.

The President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said at the summit that it was hard to imagine that the European bloc ratifies a free trade pact with Mercosur as long as Brazil does not stop the fires ravaging the Amazon, considered the "lung of the planet".

"Of course, we support the agreement between the EU and Mercosur … but it is difficult to imagine a process of ratification as long as the Brazilian government will allow the destruction" of the EU. Amazon, said Tusk.

In his speech yesterday, Bolsonaro warned that fires
"They can not be used as a pretext for possible international sanctions" and stated that "other countries" that offered badistance "were made available to Brazil's position in within the G7 ", without specifying which one.

As explained by AFP Thomaz Favaro, an badyst at Control Risks, the crisis triggered by fire management by Bolsonaro "hurts Brazil's reputation" and "may result in significant economic costs" for the first Latin American economy. American, which accumulates Two years of weak growth.