British police arrested six Extinction Rebellion climate change protesters after they daubed the Brazilian embassy in London with red paint to demonstrate against damage to the Amazon rainforest.
The activists also voiced their opposition to violence against Brazil’s indigenous tribes living in the Amazon and the country's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro.
They threw paint over the embassy’s exterior and wrote slogans such as "No More Indigenous Blood" and "For The Wild". The protesters, who describe themselves as "The Rebels," super-glued themselves to the embassy’s windows to maintain the “blockade,” Extinction Rebellion said.
Today in London #ExtinctionRebellion occupied the balcony of the Embassy of Brazil to protest the on-going attacks on the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, which have taken on a new intensity recently!
— Extinction Rebellion London 🌍 (@XRLondon) August 13, 2019
Justica e ecologia 👶🏾⚖️🌳https://t.co/7R3loSzHNI#nenhumagotamais pic.twitter.com/9WN4stvtx3
In a statement it added its actions were challenge to Brazil’s “state-sanctioned human rights abuses” and “ecocide”.
Activists said the red paint was meant to symbolise the “blood of the hundreds of oppressed peoples killed under Brazil’s toxic, corrupted regime” but especially its indigenous population.
They warned further disruption would take place until indigenous demands for lands, rights, health and justice are met.
Brazil contains roughly 60 per cent of the Amazon rainforest, which his under threat from extensive deforestation.
Mr Bolsonaro, who took office in January, has long been sceptical about environmental concerns. He argues that the Amazon is a resource that belongs to Brazil and should be economically developed. He also criticises the existence of protected lands.
Extinction Rebellion said the protest in London was timed to coincide with a march by indigenous women in Brasilia on Tuesday, and that similar actions were taking place at Brazilian embassies in Chile, Portugal, France, Switzerland and Spain.
