General Augusto Heleno, chief minister of the Institutional Security Cabinet, said that the objective of the Brazilian government at the G20 meeting this weekend is to “show Europe the Brazilian reality, not what they are inventing”.
Although he did not specify who would invent things about Brazil, he said that some are interested in harming the Brazilian image for commercial reasons.
“It is difficult to make this accusation. But it is logical that the economic situation in Brazil, especially from the point of view of agribusiness, of our influence in East Asia, has an influence in Europe. It is natural,” said the general, upon leaving one informal dinner with President Jair Bolsonaro at the Brazilian embassy in Rome, where he is staying.
The president arrived in Italy this Friday and participates in the G20 summit on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, visit the city of your ancestors. On Tuesday, he also participates, in Pistoia, in a ceremony in honor of the Brazilian soldiers who died in World War II, before returning to Brazil.
According to Heleno, although there is a need to protect Brazilian forests more, Brazil is one of the countries that most preserved its natural cover. “The exaggeration they make about deforestation is regrettable. If the data that are released were true, we would have already deforested the whole of Brazil.”
In June, however, deforestation alerts in the Amazon returned to a record for the fourth consecutive month, according to data from Inpe (National Institute for Space Research). The deforestation that month reached 1,061.88 km², an increase in deforestation of 2.7%, compared to the same month in 2020, and the highest value recorded in the recent history of the Deter program, starting in 2016.
It was also the second month in a row with deforestation values above one thousand square kilometers.
Augusto Heleno also said he does not know if, earlier, in a meeting with the president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, the government of Brazil had asked for the removal of restrictions on the entry of Brazilian tourists in the country — imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
“I honestly didn’t listen. I didn’t pay attention to this part of the dialogue. But it would have been very natural for him to ask for it. There is a huge immigration in Brazil. So, it is always, almost essential for us, to maintain a very good relationship with Italy, to allow that these people come to Italy to see their families.”
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