Brazil on Fire Episode 6: Amazon up in Smoke

The Amazon is a place that both Brazil’s former military regime and President Jair Bolsonaro have eyed with dreams of development, looking to take advantage of bountiful resources.
It’s a place where Bolsonaro’s deconstruction of state institutions is wreaking havoc. Where illegal and armed actors are pushing into formerly protected areas and plundering the land to make a quick profit. Where Indigenous people are constantly under threat, whether staring down the barrel of a gun, fires, or COVID, and their territories and their way of life are under attack — the invaders slowly eating away at the forests that have given them life for generations.

And where Bolsonaro has been empowering those behind the devastation.

There is no other place in Brazil that better symbolizes the destruction that Bolsonaro has wrought on the country.

The Amazon is under attack. The fires are just the most visible sign.

This is Brazil on Fire, a podcast about Brazil’s descent toward fascism under President Jair Bolsonaro. Over these six episodes we look at Bolsonaro’s far-right government that has set the country ablaze, and how the United States helped him do it. We’ll visit the birthplace of Brazilian Nazism, evangelical churches, and Indigenous villages in the Amazon.

Hosted by Latin America-based journalist Michael Fox.

This podcast is produced in partnership between The Real News Network and NACLA.

Edited by Heather Gies.

Sound design by Gustavo Türck.

Theme music by Monte Perdido.

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