Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Brasil's Environmentalist Martyr Irrelevant

Jair Bolsonaro’s environment minister after he dismissed the murdered Amazon rain forest defender Chico Mendes as “irrelevant”.

Salles oversees the Instituto Chico Mendes, which is named after the environmental advocate and oversees Brazil’s protected conservation areas.

Chico Mendes was a  rubber tapper, union leader and environmentalist who was murdered in 1988.

Salles told interviewers on the TV show Roda Viva that he hears contradictory accounts about Mendes’ life, saying environmentalists praise his work while local farmers claim he “used the rubber tappers to advance his own interests”...It is irrelevant. What difference does it make who Chico Mendes is at the moment?” Salles said.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/12/brazil-environment-ministers-dismissal-of-slain-amazon-defender-stirs-outrage

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