Word: sarney
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...more than a year, the government of President Jose Sarney has been under relentless attack from environmental activists worldwide. They charge that its policies are not only resulting in the wanton destruction of Brazil's forest, its wildlife and its native peoples, but are also endangering the world environment. Scientists say the fires set by ranchers and homesteaders in the Amazon region are spewing into the atmosphere 7% of the carbon dioxide responsible for the global warming process known as the greenhouse effect...
Last week the Brazilian government sought to quell the outcry with an ambitious new environmental program. The plan, titled Our Nature, was announced by Sarney during a full-dress ceremony at Brasilia's Planalto Palace. To a chorus of applause from Brazil's top military brass and nine state governors, Sarney outlined a program that would be set into motion by 35 new decrees and proposed laws. Among other things, the plan calls...
...outlining the proposal, which will cost $350 million in its first two years, Sarney angrily denounced what he called the "unjust, defamatory, cruel and indecent" international campaign against Brazil. He defended his government's environmental record and denounced the "alarmist" tone of its ecological critics. He insisted that just 5% of the Amazon has been deforested; the more widely accepted figure...
...Sarney framed the issue as a battle between developed and developing nations. It is the rich countries, he claimed, that create most of the industrial waste, acid rain and carbon dioxide that pollute the atmosphere. "We will not accept tutelage," the President declared. "We will accept responsibility for the defense of our territory." Sarney reiterated his rejection of so-called debt-for-nature swaps, in which foreign debt is forgiven in exchange for conservation efforts, as just one more way for those who covet the Amazon to meddle in Brazil's affairs...
...find a solution to the debt crisis. Last year Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari won election by the narrowest margin in his party's 59-year history over left-of-center candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. In Brazil left-wing parties have mounted a serious challenge to President Jose Sarney. And a nationalist party in Argentina could win the presidential elections...