The Trump Ally Who Is Allowing the Amazon to Burn

In January, 2012, Jair Bolsonaro, who was then a retired military officer and colorful but not politically relevant far-right congressman, was caught fishing illegally in a federally protected marine-wildlife reserve. Bolsonaro—wearing a white, Speedo-like bathing suit—was discovered in a small, inflatable boat inside the Tamoios Ecological Station, an area with a half-mile radius that serves as a refuge for penguins, seals, whales, and dolphins in the state of Rio de Janeiro. An agent with the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (ibama) issued Bolsonaro a ticket for ten thousand reais, or roughly twenty-five hundred dollars. The following year, Bolsonaro introduced a bill in the legislature that would have barred guards with ibama and other environmental agencies from carrying guns, although he was otherwise a longtime defender of gun-ownership rights in Brazil. Later that year, Bolsonaro filed to get legal permission for him—and him alone—to fish in the Tamoios reserve. Ultimately, the fine was dismissed, the bill went nowhere in congress, and the courts decided it would be a bad idea to grant one lawmaker special permission to fish in a sanctuary.