Criticism of NGOs and offenses to Marina: who is the senator who started fighting with minister

Author of offenses against Environment Minister Marina Silva, Senator Plínio Valério (PSDB-AM) accumulates clashes with environmentalists in his performance in Congress. President of the NGO CPI, the parliamentarian has taken over the role of leading opponent of organizations in the Amazon.

During this Tuesday session of the Senate Infrastructure Commission, Marina left the board after Valério said that she separated the woman from the minister because the first deserved respect and the second, no. The minister said she would only continue in the commission if there was an apology. He refused to do so.

In March, Plínio had already said he wanted to hang Marina at a public event at Fecomércio do Amazonas.

At the head of the NGO CPI, Valério accused, last year, organizations of acting as a “parallel power” in the Amazon, receiving resources without adequate accounts.

In an audience, he said that Brazil was “dominated by those who have money,” referring to NGOs that, according to him, “do the dirty work” to isolate local populations. Valério also often criticizes international conferences on climate change.

In 2022, he criticized COP 27, stating that these events are “stage for political authorities who only want audience.” A year later, he criticized COP 30, which will take place this year in Belém, claiming that the results would be “superficial, ineffective and repetitive.”

In plenary, the senator has already aimed at ministers other times. In April this year, for example, he criticized the minister’s speech from 2010 who considered BR-319 unimportant.

“As she (Marina) destroys the Amazonians, while she mocked the Amazonians and enjoy them in the face, I will have to repudiate here, always. The last was that the BR-319 road does not turn on Lé with credit, reporting there in the 1970s, to those songs. Therefore, the Minister Marina will always receive from me, always, I will always disagree, and the repudiation.”

Last month, he criticized the performance of environmental agencies, such as the Chico Mendes Institute (ICMBio).

“ICMBio, there in Amazonas, has just detected an area, studying, inventing public hearings only among them and reserving an area equivalent to 15,000 soccer fields to take care of the collar Sauim, which is a little animal, which deserves, yes-respect all the animals-but it is not creating another area where it is planting, in the municipality of Apuí.”

The clash with Marina

During this Tuesday session, Valerio began the clash by saying that he did not respect the minister. They discussed the paving of BR-319, a road that connects Porto Velho to Manaus.

“When looking at you, I’m seeing a minister, I’m not seeing a woman. The woman deserves respect. The minister, no. So I want to separate,” said Valério, on Tuesday.

Marina then withdrew from the commission by stating that there was no respect from the parliamentarian, as she had been invited as minister.

“I was invited as a minister, so I have to respect. I retire because I was not invited to be a woman.”

Upon leaving the commission, Marina quoted the episode in which Senator Plínio said in March that he wanted to hang her. The minister also cited the clashes about the new environmental licensing law, approved by the Senate last week, and could not have had any attitude other than to leave the commission.

“Listening to a senator to say that he does not respect me as a minister, I could not have another attitude. He is a person who said that the other time I came here as guest was very difficult for him to stay 6 hours and ten without hanging me, and today came again to assault me… besides people who attribute to me that they are their own. Elected. Who has a mandate of senator and deputy votes for the convictions he has, not because someone forced. ”

Upon leaving the commission, Marina entered a meeting with the mayor, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), to deal with the environmental license project that will now be debated by the House.

She said she was the victim of gender political violence and evaluates legal measures against Senator Plínio.

“Surely this happens to us (women) all the time. I felt assaulted doing my work. (…) We always have to evaluate what is our right and not give up our right. The manifestation of the senator, who said it is very difficult not to hang me, I was already evaluating the situation with my lawyers.

Senator Rogério Carvalho (PT-SE) was one of the few senators defending the minister in the microphone during the chat:

“The political debate can be warm with divergence. Now, manifestation of disrespect is unacceptable. When someone begins a debate saying that it respects women, but does not respect the minister, it does not fit in an institutional debate.”

After the meeting with Motta, Marina stated that she asked the mayor that the environmental licensing project be calmly analyzed and that sectors are heard throughout the processing. The parliamentarian signaled that he will know the matter and make dialogues before making a decision.

“Yesterday I contacted President Hugo Motta to ask for a hearing so that this report approved in the Senate, which has not been debated, so that the time required of debate and knowledge of the different sectors of society. So that there is the necessary time for democracy and transparency of what is being voted on environmental licensing, which has been able to establish itself and unfortunately is now being amputated in relation to strategic issues, such as decreased bodies, collegiate, like Ibama. ”