There is plenty of room for the international community to offer logistical support and equipment in the battle against transnational criminal networks. But these strategies only work if the Brazilian government wills it.
In Brazil—still in the throes of the pandemic, as evidenced by the country’s ignominious passage through the threshold of 500,000 dead from COVID-19—public dissatisfaction with the government of President Jair Bolsonaro collided this week with a looming socio-environmental catastrophe: a historic drought that has parched large swathes of Brazil’s Centro-Oeste (i.e., the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul) and populous southeast (in particular, São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Paraná, three of the most populous states in the country) in advance of the annual Amazon wildfire season.
Tensions have risen between the United States and Brazil ahead of President Joe Biden’s virtual Leader’s Summit on climate, scheduled to conclude today.
In his first few weeks at the helm of Brazil, Bolsonaro has confirmed his intentions to drastically reduce preservation of the Amazon to boost economic activities, especially industrial agriculture.
