Forest fires destroy area twice the size of Austria in Brazil - video Dailymotion

Government leaders suspect political motives behind fire crisis. teleSUR

Transcript

00:00In Brazil, aggravated by the drought, forest fires have been ravaging the country in the past weeks,

00:05with authorities revealing that most of them were man-made.

00:08Our correspondent in the South American nation, Brian Meir, brings us the details.

00:13Capitalizing on conditions caused by the worst droughts in decades,

00:16forest fires have been raging across Brazil for weeks.

00:19According to the federal government, 99% of these fires have been started by humans.

00:25On September 19th, the government announced that since the start of the crisis last month,

00:30187,580 square kilometers have been destroyed by fire,

00:35an area over twice the size of Austria.

00:40The concrete fact is that it looks very unusual to me.

00:45Some fires happen every year.

00:48It's the worst drought in recent memory and the worst heat wave in recent memory around the world.

00:54But to me, something reeks of the opportunism of some sectors trying to spread chaos in this country.

01:02Every year during dry season in countries across South America,

01:05local actors in global commodity chains for products like soy and beef

01:10start fires on environmentally protected land,

01:13then illegally occupy it when the smoke clears,

01:16to start farming and ranching for agribusiness corporations in the global north.

01:21This year, however, top officials in environmental and policing agencies

01:25believe that something even more nefarious is underway.

01:31There are forest fires going on in Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay and other places around the world.

01:38The difference is that there is a criminal group here in Brazil

01:41enacting a kind of climate terrorism

01:44in which they use conditions generated by climate change to further aggravate the problem.

01:49This is a crime against public interest, against public financing,

01:54and it definitely requires stiff sentences.

01:57Spreading chaos is a common tactic of the internationally aligned far right,

02:01and some leaders are already under investigation for possible roles financing the fires.

02:06One hypothesis for motive is to discredit the Lula government

02:10during the lead-up to the October 6th local elections.

02:16Pastor Silas Malafaia is a religious leader connected to the Brazilian far right

02:21who regularly financially backs their demonstrations,

02:25including the anti-Supreme Court rally on September 7th in Sao Paulo.

02:30He posted invitations to it on his social media channel saying,

02:35Brazil is going to burn immediately.

02:37The number of fires increased across Brazil.

02:41On September 18th, environmental minister Marina Silva said that

02:45firefighting brigades had extinguished 290 fires,

02:49contained 179,

02:51and were battling the remaining 108 man-made forest fires burning across Brazil.

02:57Brian Meir, Tell us Sir, Recife.