The war has already strengthened one side.

By Eric Nepomuceno, for the Journalists for Democracy

While the horror of the war between Russia and Ukraine continues to shake the planet, far away one side has emerged considerably strengthened: that of Brazil's most shameless agribusiness, with Jair Messias and the gang from the so-called rural bloc in the Chamber of Deputies vibrating with emotion. And, by extension, the illegal miners, the environmental devastators, the invaders of indigenous lands, and so on.

This Wednesday, March 9th, the government leader in the Chamber of Deputies, the highly suspicious Ricardo Barros from Paraná, requested urgent consideration for a vote on the Bill signed by Jair Messias that authorizes mining on indigenous lands, as well as permitting the construction of hydroelectric dams and the planting of genetically modified crops in these reserves that have been supposedly protected until now.

It depends on Arthur Lira, that abominable figure who presides over the Chamber, whether or not to approve the request for urgency. And since he is in favor of approving anything that is bad for the country, the risk is extremely high.     

If the request is approved, everything will slide with Olympic speed: debate and analysis in parliamentary committees will be unnecessary, and the issue will go straight to the plenary session.

The excuse given for the urgency is the war, and the possible suspension of Russian fertilizer exports to Brazilian agriculture.

In reality, what exists is pure manipulation: to take advantage of a real fact – the war and the suspension of fertilizer exports – Jair Messias and his cronies advocate extracting potassium from indigenous reserves. They forget a small detail remembered by those who understand the subject and are increasingly terrified and indignant at the messianic brazenness of the president: there is no potassium on indigenous lands. And even if there were, between starting mining and reaching potassium production, a long and robust process of years would be necessary. In other words, it would be urgent to find new suppliers in the international market, such as Canada.  

Ultimately, what Jair Messias and his cronies really want is, in addition to encouraging what has already been done, to institutionalize environmental crime by occupying and setting up illegal and perverse mining operations on indigenous lands. The rural caucus waves the false flag of "job creation and development" in the regions to be invaded. All they generate is devastation.

This is another step towards completely destroying the country. We must all acknowledge that at least once, just once, Jair Messias did not lie. It was when he announced that, before thinking about the country he intended to build, it would be necessary to destroy absolutely everything that exists.

And he has been fulfilling this task, to the misfortune of us all, with a talent and dedication of astonishing proportions.