Colombian president criticizes Lula during Amazon Summit

Colombian President Gustavo Petro harshly criticized President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) during his speech at the Amazon Summit. The subject of conflict between the Amazonian countries, Colombia once again opposed oil exploration in the region. According to him, a position contrary to his is a “denial” behavior of those who call themselves progressive.

“Politics cannot detach itself from the economic interests that derive from fossil capital. So science despairs […], seeing in politics a kind of silent wall that cannot act. That is why the COPs fail”.

The Colombian argues that “progressive forces should be in tune with science”. “[Os governos de direita] they have this very easy source of escape through denialism, denying science. For progressives, it is very difficult, so this generates other types of denialism, which is: let’s postpone decisions,” said Petro.

Oil exploration in the Amazon region has been a subject of conflict between the eight countries that share the biome (Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, Venezuela and Suriname). Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname do not rule out this possibility. On Brazilian soil, Lula has even supported the exploitation of the resource at the mouth of the Amazon River.

On the other hand, Peru and Colombia have been strong opponents of this type of exploitation. “We are on the verge of extinction of life and it is in this decade that we must make decisions. It is we, the politicians, who must make these decisions. Us during this so fast presidential period that we have. What are we doing beyond speeches like these?”, reinforced the Colombian president.

For Petro, environmental policies need to go beyond the desire to extinguish deforestation in the biome, as the Brazilian representative has defended.

Request for financial resources to developed countries

Still in his speech, the Colombian criticized the charging of financial resources made to developed countries. The practice has been widely adopted by Lula, through the Amazon Fund, and was even mentioned by the PT during his speech at the Summit this Tuesday (8). But Petro was opposed to that strategy.

“Asking them to give us money is not enough. That’s a rhetorical way for the North to say it’s doing something. If we value [a Amazônia], it is worth much more. It is not with a gift from the North that we are going to do this”, said the Colombian.

The Amazon Summit has been taking place in Belém since the last 4th. The meeting brings together the eight Amazonian countries and some guests, chosen by the Brazilian government. In addition to the eight countries that make up the biome, France, Germany, Norway, Indonesia, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo (Kinshasa) and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines were also invited.

As previously reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the invitations made to developed countries are intended to attract investment to finance sustainability and protection plans in the region.