Amazon Fires: Protesters blame Bolsonaro's pro-agro business policies for crisis

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Brazilians have taken to the streets again to protest President Jair Bolsonaro's lack of leadership, while the Amazon rainforest burns. Despite having ordered the army to battle the blazes, new fires have been spotted. This is prompting more anger over the slow government response. CGTN's Lucrecia Franco has more from Rio.

As hundreds of new fires have been detected in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, anti-government protests in defense of the world's largest tropical rainforest are taking place across the country and outside Brazilian diplomatic missions around the world.

Protestors, including artists and activists, here in Rio are blaming President Jair Bolsonaro's pro-agro-business policies for the unprecedented crisis. Bolsonaro initially blamed non-governmental organizations for the fires saying they wanted to discredit him. According to Brazil`s space climate-monitoring agency, more than one thousand new fires were spotted between Thursday and Friday.

Under growing national and international pressure, Bolsonaro ordered the army to tackle the fires and military aircraft are now dumping liters of water on the massive blazes. Criticism of the government among Brazilians remains widespread.

CAETANO VELOSO BRAZILIAN MUSICIAN "We are defending the environmental cause against the policies and the rhetoric that is being articulated by the current government."

TERESA CORREA INDIGENOUS ACTIVIST, ARAPIUN TRIBE "It's the destruction of our forest, of our life and our medicine because the Amazon is our mother, the mother of all of us, it's the air we breathe, it's the lungs of the world."

GLENN GREENWALD INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST "I think he is pretending to combat the fires but the ideology that has caused the fires will continue to fuel the destruction, at the expense of all humanity, will necessarily continue because it is something fundamental to the entire Bolsonaro movement."

Official monitoring recorded more than 70 thousand forest fires in Brazil this year, an 84% increase over the same period in 2018. More than half were in the Amazon region and scientists suspect most were deliberately set to clear land for cattle and crops.

Rarely have Brazilian united in protest over climate change in the ways they have these last days, but with Amazon fires out of control and international condemnation threatening trade agreements and boycotts of Brazilian beef, there is now an added economic dimension to the crisis.

Lucrecia Franco, CGTN, Rio de Janeiro.