Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro accused actor Leonardo DiCaprio in a Facebook live video on Thursday of funding non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that later used his money to set the Amazon Rainforest on fire.
He repeated the accusation on Friday after reporters asked him to elaborate on the claim.
Bolsonaro regularly conducts weekly Facebook live chats with the nation. On Thursday’s edition – at one point interrupted by First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro, who gave him a bouquet of flowers for their wedding anniversary – Bolsonaro claimed that Western NGOs operating in the Amazon are starting fires, filming them, then using them in propaganda against the conservative president.
“An NGO pays 70,000 reais ($16,588.08) for a fabricated photo of fires. And what is easier? You play ‘fire’ in the bush, take a photo, film it, send it to an NGO, the NGO exposes it, gets in touch with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Leonardo DiCaprio donates $500,000 to this NGO,” Bolsonaro said in his Facebook Live. “Leonardo DiCaprio, you are collaborating with the burning of the Amazon.”
On Friday morning, Bolsonaro doubled down on the accusation.
“Now Leonardo DiCaprio is a nice guy, right? Giving money to set fire to the Amazon,” he told reporters, later accusing them of mocking him for claiming that environmentalist groups were burning parts of the rainforest to accuse him of hurting the environment and ask for donations. – READ MORE