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H17484

Headlines : Environment

Summary:

With the resignation of Marina Silva as Brazil’s Environment Minister it is fair to say that it is all over for the Amazon rainforests.

Ex-Minister Silva

Her appointment in 2002 was widely acclaimed as a beacon of hope. She has left the government because she is out of sympathy with the government’s development at all costs policy so beloved of agribusiness, logging and mining interests as well as Lula’s best friend up there in the North.

Just Good Friends

Marina Silva was a close ally of Brazil’s most renowned rain forest activist, Chico Mendes, who was shot to death in 1988.

[Posted By Watson]

By Peter Muello
Republished from Associated Press

Goodbye Amazon rainforests

Renowned rain forest defender Marina Silva resigned as Brazil’s environment minister on Tuesday, saying she lacked the necessary political support to protect the Amazon.

Silva did not elaborate and did not blame President Luiz Inacio da Silva in excerpts of her resignation letter that were published by the government’s official Agencia Brasil news service.

Marina Silva — who is not related to the president — said she was stepping down because of “the difficulties I have been facing to pursue the federal environmental agenda,” Agencia Brasil said.

She said she would leave office and go back to her post in Brazil’s Senate to rebuild political support and push for Brazilian environmental causes.

The president’s appointment of Marina Silva after he was elected in 2002 brought a universally renowned environmental star into his Cabinet.

[end excerpt]

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