Bolsonaro demands Macron apology as condition of accepting international aid for Amazon wildfire fight
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro questions motivation of aid offer as fire crews race against time to gain upper hand on raging Amazon fires; Amy Kellogg reports.
Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, blasted Pope Francis for his plea to protect the Amazon from climate change.
The ultra-conservative leader, who is Catholic himself, criticized the left-leaning Latin American pope as the former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, an opponent of Bolsonaro, met and received a blessing from Francis.
“Pope Francis said yesterday the Amazon is his, the world’s, everyone’s. Well, the pope may be Argentinian, but God is Brazilian," Bolsonaro said Thursday, appealing to his nation's sovereignty.
POPE REFUSES TO ORDAIN MARRIED MEN IN THE AMAZON, INSTEAD ADDRESSES GLOBAL WARMING
Similarly, over the weekend, Bolsonaro made a surprise appearance at a "historic" gathering of evangelical Christians, where he declared that he is a believer in Jesus and that Brazil belongs to God.
Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's president nicknamed the "Trump of the Tropics," asked for prayer at The Send Brazil where thousands of evangelical Christians gathered. The conservative leader declared that he is a believer in Jesus and that Brazil belongs to God. (The Send Brazil)
On Wednesday, Francis refused to approve the ordination of married men to address the Catholic Church's priest shortage in the world's largest rainforest, but instead, he wrote a document called "Beloved Amazon" calling on the world to end the "injustice and crime" of global warming committed against the Amazonian people and its environment after record fires devasted the region last year.
The "Trump of the Tropics," who recently proposed opening up parts of Amazon land to mining and farming as part of what he calls "sustainable development," also took a shot at the left-wing group Greenpeace, calling them "rubbish."
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Bolsonaro has previously accused the pope of having a "leftist agenda" and trying to embarrass Brazil on the global stage.