Four environmental activists were arrested by Brazilian police after ransacking the offices of the NGO Projeto Saúde e Alegria / Health and Happiness (PSA). They were accused of deliberately setting fire to rainforests in the Amazon basin. Volunteers helped put out fires in northern Pará state. Human rights activists argue that the forceful action of the country's authorities is politically motivated.
In early 2019, thousands of fires literally ravaged the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. The far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has already stated that environmental NGOs themselves kindled the fire, but did not provide any evidence of this accusation.
In September, a fire in the popular tourist area of Alter do Ciao destroyed a forest in an area equal to 1,600 football pitches. It took volunteers and firefighters four days to get the situation under control.
Ten heavily armed police officers broke into PSA headquarters on November 26 and confiscated computers and documents. The organization was founded in 1987. She implements social and medical programs in remote communities on the Amazon and has won numerous awards, the BBC website writes.
Police said the operation was part of an investigation that showed NGOs, including the PSA, orchestrated the fires to obtain donations. The four arrested had "confidential information and images of the fires" that were "suspicious."
“They photographed, published and called on the government to help control the same fires that they themselves caused,” police said.
However, local media reported that telephone conversations featured in the police investigation did not prove the suspects were guilty of any crime.
According to the founder of PSA, Eugenio Scannavino, the organization is "shocked" by the arrests, the accusation is absurd and serves only to justify the version of deliberate arson, voiced by the President of Brazil.
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According to the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, protected forests in Alter do Chao have been destroyed by entrepreneurs due to real estate transactions, and that federal prosecutors suspect one of them was organized by land invaders.
The human rights group Amnesty International said there was no "transparency or official information" about the arrests. This is "cause for concern." Greenpeace condemned the arrests as "an attempt to tarnish social movements and non-governmental organizations that are trying to preserve the Amazon forests." Meanwhile, a Para state judge has denied bail to the four arrested activists.
Earlier it became known that not all inhabitants of the Amazon rainforest agree with the world community, which insists on the protection of these unique ecological systems.