City raises Bolsonaro flag amid suffocating smoke from Amazon fires
In the city that staged the 'day of fire', the current president received 79 percent of the first-round vote
Written by
Amazônia Real
Translated by
Liam Anderson
Translation posted 11 November 2022 20:04 GMT
Fire in the urban area of Novo Progresso, Pará state | Photo: Cícero Pedrosa Neto/Amazônia Real
This report, written by Cícero Pedrosa Neto, was published on Amazônia Real's website on September 20, 2022. It is republished by Global Voices under a partnership agreement, with updates and edits to the original text.
With backpacks in her hands, Maria Margareth Silva, 67, a Jair Bolsonaro (PL, Liberal Party) voter, was waiting for her bus at the Novo Progresso bus station. It was the morning of September 3, although it did not seem like it.
Suffocated by a dense fog of smoke and soot, caused by pollution from fires in the surrounding forests, the town in the northern state of Pará sees some days that seem like nights. The thick layer of particulate materials and toxic gases makes the air unbreathable. While talking to the reporter, Silva could hardly speak, coughing repeatedly.
“I'm going to spend a few days in the house of some relatives in Uruará (a neighbouring town) to get away from the smoke,” she said. Unlike other local residents, she says that she cannot stand to live with the effects of the fires.
Novo Progresso is one of the towns with the highest rates of forest fires, deforestation, and support for president Bolsonaro, seen as promoting devastation in the Amazon.
More:
https://globalvoices.org/2022/11/11/city-raises-bolsonaro-flag-amid-suffocating-smoke-from-amazon-fires/