RIO DE JANEIRO — After months of planning, everything was ready. The investigators had their targets, their schedule and their plan: fly to 49 of the illicit gold mines that were poisoning the Amazon rainforest, destroy the equipment and shut the operations down. 

The most important thing, the environmental investigators stressed before that August mission in Pará state, was discretion. The illegal miners, who had carved a path of environmental destruction across Brazil’s Indigenous lands, could not be tipped off.

But members of the Brazilian military, now in control of the fight against environmental crime, fueled their helicopters too early, at an airport too close to the mines. News of the operation quickly leaked. A story hit the press. The miners vanished into the forest.

Then commanders blocked the takeoff of several helicopters, further undercutting what environmental authorities had hoped would be a historic rout.

By  Terrence McCoy and  Heloísa Traiano 

ÍNTEGRA DISPONÍVEL EM:    THE WASHINGTON POST

O site DefesaNet publicou: Coup d´Presse – O esforço militar do Brasil está falhando em salvar a Amazônia – Ver mais em:  www.defesanet.com.br

Nota DefesaNet – Texto original em inglês

Coup D´Presse – Brazil’s military push is failing to save the Amazon Link  

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