The governor of Rondônia, Marcos Rocha (União Brasil), decided not to endorse the letter with a commitment to sustainable development in the Amazon, not to participate in the delivery of the document to the president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), and to push for 2023 a meeting with the petista to discuss the matter.
The posture of Rocha, the most Bolsonarist of the governors in the region, shows a dissidence in the Legal Amazon Consortium, formed by the nine Amazonian states: Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Maranhão, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins.
Since Lula’s election on October 30, Bolsonarist governors, who were elected and re-elected in the wake of the anti-environmental movement led by Bolsonaro, have begun to show signs of alignment with the president-elect.
Lula promised to bring deforestation to a halt in the Amazon, to resume environmental inspections and to put an end to illegal mining in indigenous lands.
The movement is even made by governors of the region called Amacro (south of Amazonas, Acre and Rondônia), which concentrates one of the main arcs of devastation in the Amazon.
The governors of Amazonas, Wilson Lima (União Brasil), and of Acre, Gladson Cameli (PP), showed signs of willingness to dialogue with Lula.
The exception, in the case of Amacro, is the government of Rondônia, which became a bastion of Bolsonarism in the Amazon, amid the explosion of fires after the defeat of the president, such as the Sheet showed on the last 18th, and coup acts on the highways that set fire to trucks, vandalized vehicles and ended with arrests of protesters upset with the result of the polls.
Governor Marcos Rocha went to COP27, the UN climate conference, and decided not to sign the letter released at an event by the governors of the Amazon, as confirmed by the advisory of the Chief Executive during his participation in the meeting, which ended last Sunday (20) in Egypt.
The letter was delivered to Lula. Rocha also did not participate in the delivery of the document to the president-elect, according to members of the consortium of governors.
In Rondônia, Bolsonaro had more than 70% of the valid votes in the second round. The index was similar in Acre.
The governors of these states surfed the wave of Bolsonarism to be re-elected. But Cameli, the governor of Acre, endorsed the consortium’s letter, participated in the delivery of the document to Lula at COP27 and has been making statements favorable to environmental inspection actions.
The report questioned the advice of the governor of Rondônia about the reasons for not endorsing the document. The government has said it will not provide those reasons at this time.
“The governor will deal with the agenda in a meeting next year with the president-elect. He will schedule the meeting and deal with the agenda”, said the management, in a note.
The governments of the states of the Legal Amazon were present at COP27, in the Egyptian city of Sharm el-Sheikh, in search of international resources linked to the reduction of deforestation and carbon emissions.
The only state without a representative delegation was Roraima, according to the consortium of governors. The re-elected governor, Antonio Denarium (PP), is also a Bolsonarist and is aligned with the policy of weakening environmental inspection.
In the letter released at the event, the governments say they are committed to “policies aimed at conservation and the sustainable development of the region”.
While Rocha was at COP27, the fires in Rondônia in November took on unprecedented proportions, according to data from INPE (National Institute for Space Research).
These fires are directly linked to deforestation. They are one of the ways used to clear land for cattle raising, often carried out by land grabbers in the region.
From the 1st to the 16th of November, Inpe satellites detected 1,602 hot spots in the state, especially in the regions of Porto Velho and Nova Mamoré. In the same period in 2021, there were only 84 outbreaks. The increase was thus 1,807%.
November is a month when fires tend to fall in the Amazon, due to the intensification of the rainy season. Peaks usually occur in September and October. In Rondônia and Acre, however, there were more fires in November than in October, taking into account the first half of the month.
In a note, the Sedam (Environmental Development Secretariat) of Rondônia said that it works to prevent and combat fires.
In 2022, there were 29 operations, according to the secretariat, with 18 fines for burning, 289 for deforestation and 259 embargoed areas.
“Various equipment such as drones and vehicles were purchased specifically for this purpose,” he said. According to Sedam, there was also a joint operation with the Ministry of Justice to combat deforestation.
On the federal highways that cut through Rondônia, coup demonstrators in favor of Bolsonaro set fire to trucks and vandalized vehicles. At least eight people were arrested by the PRF (Federal Highway Police) last weekend. On the second (21), there were still eight points of interdiction.
The PM of Rondônia says it supports the PRF in initiatives to combat blockades. On state highways, there was the demobilization of what would be a last blockade at the end of this Monday afternoon. According to the PM, there was no use of force or arrest on these highways.
The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.
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