{"id":232094,"date":"2019-09-23T22:12:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T02:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=232094"},"modified":"2019-09-23T22:12:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T02:12:00","slug":"brazils-president-is-heading-to-un-in-a-pugnacious-mood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/09\/23\/brazils-president-is-heading-to-un-in-a-pugnacious-mood\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil’s president is heading to UN in a pugnacious mood"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A U.N. critic since his days as a backbench lawmaker, Bolsonaro blames non-profit organizations, leftists and foreign powers \u2014 except the United States \u2014 for the criticism of his handling of Brazil’s environmental crisis and has suggested many of them are hostile to Brazil’s development. (File Photo<\/a>: Jair Messias Bolsonaro\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SAO PAULO \u2014 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been in power for less than nine months, but he’s already had diplomatic spats with France, Germany, China, Norway, Arab nations, Venezuela, Cuba and Argentina.<\/p>\n

Now the pugnacious leader is set to go onto the world’s biggest diplomatic stage and buck growing calls for a tougher crackdown on deforestation in the Amazon region that he considers an economic resource for his nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to talk about patriotism, sovereignty, what Brazil means to the world,\u201d Bolsonaro said over the weekend, previewing Tuesday’s appearance at the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, which has been preceded by a climate summit and a two-day youth conference aimed at spurring action to combat global warming.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will not single anyone out, point fingers at any head of state,\u201d he said, a month after his feud with French President Emmanuel Macron over the Amazon devolved into disparaging allusions to Macron’s wife. \u201cThe idea is to make a speech that is about who we are, our potential, about what changed in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n

He vowed not to repeat promises of previous Brazilian leaders to expand indigenous reserves in the rainforest to protect them from development, a move he said would \u201cmake Brazil unviable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Norway’s government over the summer expressed concern at Bolsonaro’s environmental policies, prompting The Brazilian leader to say, \u201cThey have no authority to discuss the environmental issue with us,\u201d Bolsonaro said in July.<\/p>\n

When a sharp upswing in fires \u2014 most apparently set on deforested land \u2014 hit the Amazon during the first year of Bolsonaro’s term, Macron called for international efforts to save the region, calling it \u201cour house\u201d and accused Bolsonaro of lying about his environmental commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot allow you to destroy everything,\u201d Macron said. Bolsonaro, meanwhile, endorsed a Facebook post that insulted the appearance of Macron’s wife and rejected a European offer of aid to help fight the fires, though he did send in troops to help fight the fires.<\/p>\n

Brazil traditionally opens the General Assembly meeting, adding to the attention Bolsonaro will draw. U.S. President Donald Trump, representing the host country, will address the 193-member body immediately after Bolsonaro.<\/p>\n

So far there are no one-on-one meetings with other leaders on Bolsonaro’s scheduled 30-hour stay. Its brevity, aides said, is because he is recovering from recent abdominal surgery.<\/p>\n

A U.N. critic since his days as a backbench lawmaker, Bolsonaro blames non-profit organizations, leftists and foreign powers \u2014 except the United States \u2014 for the criticism of his handling of Brazil’s environmental crisis and has suggested many of them are hostile to Brazil’s development.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs president he has shown he cares more about his supporters than the international community,\u201d said Rubens Ricupero, a former Brazilian environment minister who also headed the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development. \u201cThe problem for Brazil is that stakes are higher after the Amazon fires, wrong words could hurt more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ricupero said that could affect Brazil’s efforts to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which promotes economic progress and world trade for its 36 member nations. The dispute over the Amazon already appears to have helped stall a major free trade agreement between South American nations and the European Union.<\/p>\n

Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university in Sao Paulo, said Bolsonaro seems to revel in irritating foreign powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cBolsonaro seems to personally enjoy that status. In a way, he is reproducing on the global stage what he was as a famous backbencher in Congress,\u201d who was noted for flamboyant far-right statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is now known as a radical who doesn’t respect diplomatic norms,\u201d Stuenkel said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAO PAULO \u2014 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been in power for less than nine months, but he’s already had …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":232096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-mauricio-savarese","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232094"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232097,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232094\/revisions\/232097"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}