Lula admits Brazil was not ‘100% prepared’ to face the current wave of forest fires

In Brazil, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvaadmitted that the country was not sufficiently prepared to combat the wave of forest fires that are ravaging part of its territory, exacerbated by the severe drought in the Southern Cone. The country has accumulated 140 days without rain and the government claims that many fires are of criminal origin.

“Today in Brazil, The country was not 100% prepared to face the fires,” “Few states have civil defense, firefighters and fire brigades,” said Lula Da Silva on Tuesday at a meeting with representatives of the three branches of government, scientists and academics who study the climate. “Few states have civil defense, firefighters and fire brigades,” lamented the Brazilian president.

For more than a month now, lFires are spreading in several regions of Brazil. 18 million hectares have already vanished, an area similar to that of Uruguay, and smoke affects half of the national territory. A situation that the Brazilian government attributes to drought and some criminal acts, according to Marina Silva, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Brazil.

“This drought is occurring in many places around the world. There are also fires in Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay and other parts of the world.. The difference here in Brazil is that there is this criminal alliance of climate terrorism, where people are using climate change to further aggravate the problem,” the minister laments.

In Brasilia, for example, a fire destroyed some 2,400 hectares of forest in a nature reserve. Local authorities say the fire was probably started by farmers or homeless people who lost control of their campfires.