The Amazon in Times of War

The Amazon in Times of War presents both direct and indirect evidence showcasing the deliberate state policies behind the violence and devastation inflicted upon the Brazilian Amazon and its inhabitants. The collection features firsthand accounts detailing not just physical assaults, but also economic and institutional harm. The essays traverse diverse themes while adhering to a chronological sequence, zeroing in on a pivotal period commencing in 2018. In November of that year, following a second electoral round, Jair Bolsonaro assumed the presidency of an already fragmented nation. The world observed in astonishment as a relatively obscure conservative federal deputy, a former army captain with fervent neoliberal inclinations, rose to helm the largest country in South America. This menace has since manifested itself into a calculated political agenda aimed at the obliteration of the world’s largest biome and its peoples, which encompasses nine South American nations. His forthright rhetoric strikingly echoed that of his North American counterpart, leading the media to dub him the “Trump of the Tropics.”