Itamaraty barred the President of the Amazon Legal Consortium, Amapá Governor Waldez Góes (PDT) from giving a speech at a meeting organized by France, Chile, and Colombia to discuss deforestation in the Amazon. The meeting took place on the fringes of the Climate Summit hosted by the United Nations (UN) organizations in New York. No Brazilian representative talked about the Amazon at the meeting.
The governor was formally invited by President Emmanuel Macron, from France, Sebastián Piñera, from Chile, and Iván Duque, from Colombia, last Monday (16), to attend the meeting that was held on the morning of this Monday (23).
But diplomatic sources reported that Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo protested that a state government representative would be invited to represent the Amazon at the meeting while the federal government would not be present. Colombia passed on the invitation as well.
Itamaraty denies that there was interference to prevent the governor from speaking.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon