Indigenous people in Amazonia say the government of Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro is encouraging the destruction of the rainforest. This is indigenous leader Handech Wakanã Mura. 

Handech Wakanã Mura: “And with each passing day, we see the destruction advance: deforestation, invasion, logging. We are sad because the forest is dying at every moment. We feel the climate changing. And the world needs the forest. We need the forest, and our children need the forest.”

Bolsonaro has long made racist comments about indigenous people. In 1998, a Brazilian newspaper quoted him as saying, “It’s a shame that the Brazilian cavalry hasn’t been as efficient as the Americans, who exterminated the Indians.”