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ARGENTINA | 23-08-2019 18:23

Demonstrators rally outside Brazilian Embassy as Amazon smoke reaches Argentina

Macri offers support to Bolsonaro as environmental catastrophe continues.

Fall-out from the ongoing fires in the Amazon rainforest has reached Argentina. 

On Friday, environmental and indigenous activists protested in front of the Brazilian Embassy demanding action and rejecting against the climate policies of the country’s far-right leader, President Jair Bolsonaro. 

The Brazilian president, who has encouraged deforestation in the Amazon in the past, has made light of the environmental disaster. Earlier this week, he accused NGOs of setting the fires on purpose to embarrass his government. 

Smoke from the inferno drifted into northern Argentina on Friday, and is expected to reach Buenos Aires over the weekend, according to a report from La Nación.  

President Mauricio Macri offered assistance to his ally in Brazil, offering “the help of Argentina to combat this catastrophe. 

“I am alarmed and moved by the fires in the Brazilian Amazon,” Macri wrote on his Twitter. “The devastating fires in the principal oxygen reserve of our region pains us, worries us and makes it urgent to offer our help.” 

The social movement “Colectivo Passarinho,” which describes itself as a group of Brazilian leftists in the capital, organised Friday evening's protest in front of the Brazilian Embassy. 

“The fires in the Amazon have gone on for more than 16 days and have already taken historic proportions,” the group said in a press release. “Nevertheless, Bolsonaro continues to dodge his government’s responsibility.” 

On Thursday, the NGO Fridays for Future organised additional protests outside Brazilian embassies throughout the world.

“Our home is literally aflame and the lungs of our planet are turning into ashes,” the group said in a press release.“

– TIMES / NA


 

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