A businessman from Goiânia was arrested by the Federal Police suspected of having ordered two IBAMA (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) helicopters to be set on fire in Manaus at dawn on the 24th.
The businessman, identified as Aparecido Naves Júnior, would have been involved in illegal mining in the northern region of the country. He was arrested at the house where he lives in the capital of Goiás as part of the Acauã operation, launched this Wednesday (2) by the Federal Police.
The burned aircraft were at an aerodrome in Manaus and were used by the institute to combat illegal mining in Roraima. The businessman is investigated for fire, qualified damage and criminal association.
One of the aircraft was completely destroyed. The other had partial damage, according to the PF. The corporation had already arrested five other people suspected of participating in the fire last week.
The detainees are two men who allegedly set fire to the aircraft, the driver of the vehicle that took them to the airfield and two people identified as in charge of planning the fire.
The arrest in Goiânia was possible after three of those involved in the burning of the helicopters confessed to their participation in the crime and recognized the businessman as the alleged intellectual author of the fire. Naves Júnior will be transferred to Manaus.
The report was unable to contact the businessman’s defense.
The name given to the operation, Acauã, refers to a hawk that inhabits the Amazon and has the ability to hunt – snakes are its main prey. According to the PF, in Amazonian folklore, it is said that the cries of Acauã foreshadow the arrival of outsiders.
Combat
In November last year, a police operation destroyed 69 vessels used for illegal mining on the Madeira River. IBAMA agents participated in the action.
It is not the first time that the organ has been attacked. In 2020, an agent of the institute was attacked with a bottle to the face after an operation against deforestation in the Amazon, in the state of Pará. During the operation, inspectors burned three trucks and two tractors used for illegal logging and seized a truck.
As they left the area, people at the scene burned a bridge and surrounded the seized vehicle. After an argument between an inspector and one of those present, a man threw a bottle at the agent.
In 2017, in retaliation for an operation against mining, armed men invaded and burned the offices of Ibama, Incra and ICMBio in Humaitá, in southern Amazonas. Threatened, the servers fled their homes to take shelter in the army barracks.
Under the Bolsonaro government, IBAMA has suffered cuts in funding and limitations in its enforcement capacity. The application of the so-called embargo terms plummeted 60% in the first six months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
In May of last year, the STF (Federal Supreme Court) removed Eduardo Bim, then president of the body, from his position as part of the Akuanduba operation. The action investigates the issue of an order by IBAMA, in 2020, which would have allowed the export of forest products without the need to issue authorizations.
Source: Folha
