Brazilian prosecutors alleged Friday that a military airplane was inappropriately used to fly a group of illegal miners operating in the Amazon rainforest to meet with Environment Minister Ricardo Salles in Brasilia.

The allegation is the latest controversy for far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's environment minister, whom activists accuse of working to dismantle environmental protections rather than promote them.

Prosecutors in the northern state of Para said the Air Force plane used to transport the group to Brasilia was originally deployed to fight environmental crimes in the Amazon region.

Instead, it "was used to transport criminals," they said in a statement.

The incident occurred in early August on the Munduruku and Sai Cinza indigenous reservations.

Like many such reservations, they have been overrun by wildcat gold miners, even though mining on indigenous lands is illegal in Brazil.

Activists say illegal mining is a major cause of environmental destruction in the world's biggest rainforest and a threat to indigenous communities.

However, Bolsonaro, a climate-change skeptic, has pushed for indigenous reservations to be opened up to mining and agriculture.

According to prosecutors, Salles had visited the Munduruku and Sai Cinza region the day before, after which the planned operation against environmental crimes was cancelled.

The Air Force plane instead carried a group of seven people back to the capital to meet with the minister, the statement said.

The Air Force said the seven passengers were indigenous leaders. But members of the Munduruku ethnic group denied that in a letter to prosecutors.

"The seven people transported to Brasilia defend the interests of illegal miners and are involved in illegal mining on the Munduruku reservation," it said.

Salles drew widespread condemnation from environmental groups in April when a video recording was made public of a Bolsonaro cabinet meeting at which he said the coronavirus pandemic was an opportunity to roll back regulations "now that the media's only talking about COVID."

He denied he meant weakening environmental protections, saying that he simply opposed red tape in general.

He again came under scrutiny Friday for firing the head of Brazil's national parks service, known as ICMBio.

Amazon indigenous protesters vow indefinite roadblock
Novo Progresso, Brazil (AFP) Aug 20, 2020 - Armed with spears and bows, dozens of indigenous protesters in Brazil vowed Thursday to maintain a roadblock on a key highway until the authorities listen to their demands for help fighting COVID-19 and deforestation.

Members of the Kayapo Mekranoti ethnic group have been blocking highway BR-163 through the Amazon since Monday outside the northern town of Novo Progresso.

But they vowed that they would no longer lift their blockade periodically to let truckers through, as they had done for the past two days.

"We're going to stay right here until the government sends its representatives to talk with us," one protest leader, Mudjere Kayapo, told AFP.

The highway is the main artery to ship corn and soybeans, two of Brazil's main exports, from the country's central-western agricultural heartland.

A federal judge has ordered the protesters to stand down, citing the economic damage they are inflicting.

She rejected an appeal Wednesday, and has ordered the federal police to remove the protesters if they do not comply.

The Kayapo Mekranoti warned that would lead to violence.

"We do not want to fight. But we will not accept the army or police coming here and removing us by force. If that happens, there will be blood spilled on the asphalt," they said in a letter to the government's indigenous affairs office, FUNAI.

Wearing feather headdresses and body paint, the protesters burned a letter from FUNAI rejecting some of their demands and calling for patience on others.

The Kayapo Mekranoti are demanding far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's government release funds they say they are owed for environmental damage the highway caused to their land.

They also want help fighting illegal mining, deforestation and the new coronavirus, which has hit especially hard among indigenous people in the region.

In Brazil, the country with the second-biggest COVID-19 death toll worldwide after the United States, 26,000 indigenous people have been infected and 690 have died in the pandemic, according to the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples' Association (APIB).

"Our rights are being violated," the protesters said.

"Indigenous health is growing more fragile by the day... We are here to defend the Amazon and protect our territory. But the government wants to open indigenous lands to illegal projects, including mining, logging and ranching."

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Brazil VP challenges DiCaprio to a hike in the jungle
Sao Paulo (AFP) Aug 19, 2020
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