Guimarães presents a project to prevent Temer from devastating the Amazon.

247 - The Minority Leader in the Chamber of Deputies, Deputy José Guimarães (PT-CE), filed this Friday (25) a draft legislative decree (PDC 744/17) to suspend Decree 9.142, of August 22, 2017, authored by the illegitimate president Michel Temer, which extinguishes the National Copper Reserve (Renca). The reserve – located in the states of Pará and Amapá – has existed since February 1984 and was created by Decree 89.404, still during the military regime.

Temer's decision allows an area of ​​approximately 47 square kilometers (km²) of reserve to be exploited by mining activities. This is an area larger than Switzerland (41.285 km²) and Denmark (42.931 km²), and equivalent to an area eight times larger than the Federal District. "The government does not own the Amazon. It belongs to the Brazilian state and the people. How can it do this by decree? Temer has crossed all limits," Guimarães stated.

The congressman stressed that the Amazon Rainforest is one of the national assets described in the Federal Constitution and that the initiative to extinguish the reserve should not occur without a more in-depth technical analysis and without public debate. According to Guimarães, Temer's decision – through a decree published on Wednesday (23) in the Official Gazette of the Union – is extremely serious.

In justifying the suspension of the presidential decree, Guimarães argues that the Constitution stipulates that "it is the exclusive competence of the National Congress to suspend normative acts of the Executive Branch that exceed regulatory power or the limits of legislative delegation."

According to the Minority Leader, the decree that eliminates the environmental reserve to allocate the area for mineral exploration is disproportionate, unreasonable, and exceeds the regulatory power conferred on the Executive Branch, and its effects should be suspended by the National Congress. (With information from the PT in the Chamber)