Marina Silva Warns Flávio Would Undo Amazon Progress — SkimNews
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- Marina Silva warns that if Flávio Bolsonaro wins the October 25 runoff he will try to finish his father Jair's 'perverse project' of ramping up Amazon deforestation, illegal mining and invasions of Indigenous lands
- Amazon deforestation has fallen nearly 50% under Lula — roughly 2,600 sq km lost this year versus nearly 11,600 sq km during Jair Bolsonaro's last year in office
- Flávio Bolsonaro beat Lula by more than 2 million votes in the first round and leads the runoff 52% to 48% in Datafolha polling released Thursday
- Bolsonaro's Liberal Party captured 19 of 54 contested senate seats and 121 of 513 lower-house seats, giving lawmakers new leverage to dismantle conservation units and Indigenous territory protections
- Silva said a Flávio Bolsonaro government would be 'subservient' to Trump, drawing a parallel to Venezuela after the US captured Nicolás Maduro and 'commandeered' its oil reserves
- Flávio Bolsonaro announced he would seek to 're-democratise' Brazil and change the constitution — possibly allowing longer presidential terms — a move Silva compared to right-wing authoritarianism akin to Venezuela under Maduro
- Jair Bolsonaro is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup after 2022; Silva fears he could be released and made a minister in his son's administration
Why it matters: Flávio Bolsonaro leads Lula 52%-48% in the October 25 runoff, with his Liberal Party holding enough new congressional seats to dismantle the conservation and Indigenous protections that drove Amazon deforestation down ~50% under Lula — gains Silva warns would vanish under a government she calls 'subservient' to Trump.
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