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Brazilian police raid environment ministry over 'illegal' timber sales
Source: The Guardian
Brazilian police raid environment ministry over ‘illegal’ timber sales
Activists celebrate early-morning operation that also targeted the home of minister Ricardo Salles
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Wed 19 May 2021 15.31 BST
Federal police have raided the ministry supposedly tasked with protecting the Brazilian environment and the environment minister’s home as part of an investigation into the illegal export of Amazon timber.
The early-morning operation – the most prominent targets of which were the environment minister, Ricardo Salles, and his environmental chief, Eduardo Bim – was celebrated by activists, who accuse Jair Bolsonaro’s rightwing government of systematically dismantling environmental protections.
Amazon deforestation has soared to a 12-year high under Bolsonaro. An area seven times larger than Greater London was destroyed last year alone.
“It’s time to put this gang of devastators in jail,” Marcelo Freixo, a prominent leftist leader, tweeted as details of the raid emerged on Wednesday morning.
Greenpeace Brazil demanded Salles’s dismissal, tweeting: “We Brazilians are proud of our environmental heritage and do not deserve to be internationally humiliated by these disastrous anti-environmental policies.”
-snip-
Activists celebrate early-morning operation that also targeted the home of minister Ricardo Salles
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Wed 19 May 2021 15.31 BST
Federal police have raided the ministry supposedly tasked with protecting the Brazilian environment and the environment minister’s home as part of an investigation into the illegal export of Amazon timber.
The early-morning operation – the most prominent targets of which were the environment minister, Ricardo Salles, and his environmental chief, Eduardo Bim – was celebrated by activists, who accuse Jair Bolsonaro’s rightwing government of systematically dismantling environmental protections.
Amazon deforestation has soared to a 12-year high under Bolsonaro. An area seven times larger than Greater London was destroyed last year alone.
“It’s time to put this gang of devastators in jail,” Marcelo Freixo, a prominent leftist leader, tweeted as details of the raid emerged on Wednesday morning.
Greenpeace Brazil demanded Salles’s dismissal, tweeting: “We Brazilians are proud of our environmental heritage and do not deserve to be internationally humiliated by these disastrous anti-environmental policies.”
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/19/brazilian-police-raid-environment-ministry-timber-sales
