The Wall Street Journal - 22.08.2019

A8| Thursday, August 22, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

Brazil, mainly across the Ama-

zon, has soared 84% this year

compared with the year-earlier

period, the highest since re-

cords began in 2013, according

to Brazil’s National Institute for

Space Research, known as Inpe.

On Tuesday, Inpe registered

a new fire roughly every min-

ute across the country. Envi-

ronmental experts blame the

rise this year largely on illegal

loggers who have been burn-

ing newly cleared land for cat-

tle ranching and agricultural

use. The clouds of smoke are

so large that a NASA satellite

captured them from space.

“Mr. Bolsonaro carries the

responsibility for this on his

shoulders,” said Ane Alencar,

director of science at IPAM, a

nongovernmental environmen-

tal research institute in the

Amazon.

Since taking office in Janu-

ary, Mr. Bolsonaro has reduced

funding for Brazil’s environ-

mental protection agency,

Ibama, and other environmen-

tal institutions, as well as

made it harder for Ibama to

hand out fines. This has given

illegal loggers more confi-

dence to operate, she said.

Alberto Setzer, a researcher

in forest fires for Inpe, esti-

mated that 99% of the fires

were a result of human activity.

Mr. Bolsonaro said Wednes-

day that foreign-backed non-

profit groups may have started

some of the fires as a way to

attack him personally, without

elaborating.

The president has argued

WORLD NEWS

SÃO PAULO—Vast fires,

many of them set by loggers,

are ravaging the Amazon at a

rate not seen in years, sending

plumes of smoke that darken

skies over Brazilian cities at a

time when there is interna-

tional pushback against Presi-

dent Jair Bolsonaro’s environ-

mental policies.

Smoke from the Amazon, as

well as blazes across Brazil’s

western savanna, has spread

over swaths of the country,

with darkness descending on

São Paulo by midafternoon

Monday, two hours earlier

than normal. Residents posted

photos on social media of

blackened rainwater collecting

in their backyards. Research-

ers said the forest fires, some

more than 2,000 miles away,

were partly to blame.

Thick smog continued to

hang over Amazonian cities

Wednesday, with local hospi-

tals reporting an increase in

respiratory problems.

“It suddenly got dark, I had

no idea what was happening,”

said Jailma Maria da Silva, a

49-year-old manicurist in São

Paulo, about the early night-

fall, which was also prompted

by the sudden arrival of a cold

weather front. “It’s getting se-

rious. We see what is going

on, but it’s so far away. On

Monday, we saw it up close.”

Data from Brazil’s space re-

search agency released

Wednesday add to growing evi-

dence of surging deforestation

in Brazil, an issue that is

emerging as an obstacle to the

region’s recent landmark trade

deal with the European Union.

Mr. Bolsonaro, who has jok-

ingly nicknamed himself “Cap-

tain Chainsaw,” favors loosen-

ing environmental protections

to spur economic activity and

has clashed with European

governments and environmen-

talists over their concerns

about the destruction.

The number of forest fires in

BYSAMANTHAPEARSON

ANDLUCIANAMAGALHAES

Brazil Amazon Is Burning at Record Rate

Surge in fires blankets

cities in smoke and

fuels EU outrage at

Bolsonaro’s policies

Smoke billowed from the rainforest in Para, Brazil, on Tuesday. Forest fires in Brazil, mainly in the Amazon, have soared 84% this year compared with the year-earlier period.

PLANET LABS

WORLDWATCH

MEXICO

Tomato Growers

Reach Pact With U.S.

Mexican tomato growers

reached a deal with the U.S.

Commerce Department that will

suspend an anti-dumping inves-

tigation and remove duties on

U.S. imports of Mexican toma-

toes in exchange for Mexico

raising prices and submitting to

inspections.

Mexican tomato growers said

the agreement was reached

minutes before a Tuesday mid-

night deadline, and now has a

30-day period for comments be-

fore taking effect.

In May, following complaints

last year from U.S. tomato grow-

ers, the U.S. Commerce Depart-

ment terminated a suspension

agreement with Mexican produc-

ers under which anti-dumping

duties on Mexican tomatoes had

been avoided since 1996.

The Commerce Department

reactivated an anti-dumping in-

vestigation and determined a

25.3% preliminary dumping mar-

gin for Mexican tomatoes, above

the 17.5% set in 1996. If the new

pact is completed the investiga-

tion will be suspended and no fi-

nal determination will be made.

—Anthony Harrup

TAIWAN

China Vows to Punish

U.S. Firms Over Jets

China said it would sanction

any U.S. firm involved in a

planned $8 billion sale of ad-

vanced jet fighters to Taiwan, in

retaliation against what it de-

scribes as Washington’s attempt

to undermine its security.

Beijing’s actions against the

proposed sale of 66 F-16V fight-

ers isn’t expected to have much

impact on the manufacturer,

Lockheed Martin Corp., but it

could complicate efforts to end

the U.S.-China trade dispute.

Beijing considers the self-

ruled island of Taiwan part of its

territory and refuses to rule out

achieving unification by force.

Some Trump administration

officials have grown concerned

in recent months that national

security disputes with China, in-

cluding arms sales to Taiwan—a

separate $2.2 billion proposed

sale of tanks, missiles and other

military hardware was approved

in July—are souring efforts to

secure a trade deal.

Congress was formally noti-

fied of the proposed F-16V sale

on Tuesday after the State De-

partment gave its approval.

—Chun Han Wong

IRAN

Tanker Is Blocked

In Bid to Find Port

The Adrian Darya 1’s plan to

unload its oil cargo and collect

fresh supplies in Greece is hitting

a snag, people familiar with the

tanker’s operations said, as the

U.S. pressures Athens to avoid

dealings with the Iranian vessel.

The ship, previously called the

Grace 1, left Gibraltar Sunday after

the British overseas territory re-

jected a U.S. request to seize it.

The Greek government is reluc-

tant to host the ship in its waters,

a senior European diplomat said.

The tanker’s failure to find a

port could raise tensions in the

Persian Gulf, where Tehran has

kept a U.K.-flagged vessel de-

tained. The U.S. State Department

warned Athens against assisting

the vessel this week, alleging its

shipments benefit Iran’s Islamic

Revolutionary Guard Corps—which

it deems a terrorist organization.

A Greek shipping-services pro-

vider who was considering taking

the job when approached by the

ship’s broker this week said he

dropped the plan after the U.S.

warned Greece against it.

“I won’t work on this one. I

am no longer interested,” he said.

—Benoit Faucon

RALLY: Demonstrators walk past the court complex in city of Omdurman, Sudan, where members of the

now-dissolved National Intelligence and Security Service face charges in the death in custody of a

teacher detained during protests that brought down longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir.

AHMED MUSTAFA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

Opposition leader Juan Guaidó, whom the U.S. considers

Venezuela’s legitimate leader, speaks outside the legislature.

FEDERICO PARRA/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

For Mr. Cabello, an essen-

tial goal is to receive assur-

ances from the U.S. that he

and others can remain in poli-

tics in Venezuela and not face

sanctions if the regime loses

power, according to a Venezu-

elan with high-level connec-

tions to both sides of the

country’s political divide as

well as to the U.S. government.

“What Diosdado wants is to

be able to stay in Venezuela, in

a peaceful way,” said the man,

who met with Mr. Cabello last

month and says he has U.S.

support for acting as a go-be-

tween. “A principal goal of the

effort is to build confidence

and get international guaran-

tees,” he added, saying that

would help departing figures

of the Maduro government

trust that pledges for their

safety would be kept by any

new government.

Regime figures want to

avoid “retaliation, persecution,

violence,” the man said. Mr.

Cabello also wants his move-

ment, known as Chavísmo after

the late President Hugo

Chávez, to be permitted to

compete in elections, he added.

Publicly, Trump administra-

tion officials say the only mat-

ter to negotiate is the date of

Continued from Page One

that excessive environmental

controls introduced under his

left-wing predecessors are crip-

pling the nation’s development,

saying that Brazil has a sover-

eign right to make its own de-

cisions about the Amazon.

The presidential palace de-

clined to comment further on

Inpe’s forest fire data.

Last month, Inpe released

preliminary data based on sat-

ellite images showing that 370

square miles of Amazonian

forest were lost in June, an

88% annual increase from

June 2018. The agency said

April-to-June deforestation

was 24.8% higher than the pe-

riod last year.

The government removed

the chief of Inpe, physicist Ri-

cardo Galvão, from his post

this month.

Germany and Norway this

month suspended more than

$70 million in financial aid to

Brazil’s Amazon fund, a gov-

ernment preservation organi-

zation for the rainforest that

Mr. Bolsonaro has largely dis-

mantled by closing down the

steering committee that se-

lects new projects to support.

“I would like to give a mes-

sage to the beloved Angela

Merkel,” Mr. Bolsonaro told

reporters last week. “Take

your money and reforest Ger-

many, OK?”

Germany’s embassy in Bra-

zil responded with a video fea-

turing the European country’s

lush forests, noting they now

covered a third of Germany,

more than in the past.

Numberofsatellite-reported

firesinBrazilasofAug.

eachyear

Source: Brazil’s National Institute for Space

Research

Note: Each of the hotspots indicates there is a

fire somewhere in the satellite image’s pixel,

which is equivalent to an area on the ground of

between one and 20 square kilometers.

80,

0

20,

40,

60,

’142013 ’15 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’

Mr. Maduro’s departure. Peo-

ple familiar with the U.S.

strategy say American officials

also want to use the talks to

divide figures within Maduro’s

regime, in an effort to weaken

the president.

Speaking to reporters Tues-

day, President Trump con-

firmed U.S. officials are “talk-

ing to the representatives at

different levels of Venezuela.”

He wouldn’t identify them but

said “we are talking at a very

high level.”

That statement prompted

Mr. Maduro, in a televised

speech Tuesday night, to an-

nounce that discussions had,

indeed, been taking place.

“We’ve had secret meetings in

secret places with secret peo-

ple,” he said, adding that Ven-

ezuela would “continue having

contact” with the U.S.

Neither the White House

nor representatives of Mr. Ma-

duro’s regime would elaborate.

People who know those ne-

gotiating and their strategies

said the discussions are a sign

of realpolitik at play, given the

mutual scorn officials of the

Venezuelan government and

Trump administration have for

each other. Mr. Cabello, a 56-

year-old former army captain,

heads a pro-Maduro, rubber-

stamp body created to sap the

opposition-led National As-

sembly of power.

Manuel Cristopher Figuera,

who was Mr. Maduro’s intelli-

gence chief before defecting

after a failed coup earlier this

year, described Mr. Cabello as

a combative leader “with a

cock-fighter’s mentality” and

strong influence over military

units. While Mr. Cabello and

Mr. Maduro dislike each other,

Mr. Cristopher Figuera said,

Mr. Cabello has never con-

spired against the president as

other regime officials have.

“It gives him a lot of credi-

bility in his position,” Mr.

Cristopher Figuera said.

The talks are taking place

as other representatives of Mr.

Maduro, led by Communica-

tions Minister Jorge Rodríguez

and his sister, Vice President

Delcy Rodríguez, have offered

opposition negotiators the

possibility of a presidential

election in the coming months.

That offer, made weeks ago

during separate talks in Barba-

dos, is considered an impor-

tant breakthrough since Vene-

zuelan government officials

have publicly said they

wouldn’t be pressured into

holding a new vote. The oppo-

sition has demanded elections

because Mr. Maduro was re-

elected in 2018 in a vote widely

seen as fraudulent, prompting

the U.S. and more than 50

other governments to declare

his presidency as illegitimate.

Those governments instead

consider Mr. Guaidó, the presi-

dent of the National Assembly,

to be Venezuela’s interim pres-

ident.

Privately, officials in the

Trump administration say

they recognize that their ef-

forts over the last eight

months to force Mr. Maduro

out and replace him with Mr.

Guaidó have stalled, leading

them to explore Venezuela’s

various power centers and the

people who lead them.

In Venezuela, meanwhile,

Mr. Maduro has told leaders of

his ruling Socialist Party to

discuss restoring power to the

opposition-controlled con-

gress, according to a party

leader close to the president.

“President Maduro is open

to all, he’s open to any op-

tion,” the official said.

Millions of people have

fled the country,

straining the resources

of neighboring nations.

Venezuela,

U.S. Hold

Discussions