April is marked by layoffs, political persecution and retaliation at the Ministry of the Environment

Throughout April, governance and environmental inspection structures suffered from the deepening of the dismantling promoted by the Bolsonaro government, which also intensified the militarization in the fight against deforestation.

On April 10, Ricardo Salles, the minister of the Environment dismissed the analyst at the Ministry of the Environment, André Sócrates de Almeida Teixeira. According to internal sources at the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Resources (Ibama), the dismissal was a retaliation since Teixeira expressed his opposition against the exclusion of rules that prevent the export of illegal timber, in late February.

Four days later, Ibama’s director of Environmental Protection, Olivaldi Azevedo, was exonerated after the TV show Fantástico broadcasted a report which accompanied environmental inspection operations against illegal gold mining and for Covid-19 prevention in Indigenous Lands in Pará. Again, the suspicion is of retaliation.

On the 18th, Vice President Mourão transferred the Amazon Council to his office and cut the participation of agents from Ibama and Funai (National Indigenous Foundation). With this, the Council, responsible for combating deforestation in the Legal Amazon. Only military personnel remained in its composition. “We expected such a thing in a government whose narrative from the beginning has been stimulating deforestation and land grabbing,” former Ibama president Suely Araújo told Globo.

At the end of the month, on April 30, Renê Oliveira and Hugo Loss, two of Ibama’s chief officers responsible for operations to combat mining and illegal logging in the Amazon, were exonerated. Both had taken part in the operations portrayed by Fantástico. According to rumors when Salles fired Olivaldi, servants considered Loss and Oliveira the next in line.