Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has gone scorched earth on Leonardo DiCaprio.
The brash South American leader on Friday blamed the actor for fanning his nation’s devastating Amazon forest fires by donating to local nonprofit groups.
Bolsonaro and others have accused the organizations of purposefully setting fires to attract contributions from around the world.
“DiCaprio is a cool guy, isn’t he?” the leader told a crowd of supporters Friday. “Giving money to set the Amazon on fire.”
DiCaprio drew Bolsnaro’s ire after his environmental organization pledged $5 million to help local groups battle the fires and remediate impacted areas.
Police raided the headquarters of two nonprofit groups in the state of Padra near several of the ongoing infernos Friday.
Volunteer firefighters were arrested for allegedly starting blazes in the surrounding area but denied the accusations and were released.
Environmental groups counter that Bolsonaro is to blame through his rollback of deforestation restrictions to spur development.
The rainforest is losing a soccer field’s worth of forest every minute, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research.
Amazon deforestation between August 2018 and July 2019 is up by 30 percent over the same stretch the prior year, the institute said.
A rep for DiCaprio didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
With Post wires