Social media users have taken Leonardo DiCarprio’s side in his public beef with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, mocking the president’s claim that the Hollywood actor paid money to non-governmental groups that started devastating fires in the Amazon. Some netizens even managed to prove that DiCaprio is “guilty”.
Others wondered how Brazilian could come up with such a claim, which they called absurd.
Tweet:"Bolsonaro before saying that Leonardo DiCaprio had the Amazon burned."
Some netizens assumed that President Bolsonaro simply wants to get attention from the Hollywood…
DiCaprio has recently released a statement in which he denied funding organisations that Bolsonaro has accused of arson, although he admitted that the groups “are certainly worth supporting”. Many found the actor's statements about Brazilians working to save their natural and cultural heritage bizarre.
The increased rate of fires in the Amazon rainforest, which started this August, has caused international concern and criticism of the Bolsonaro government's poor environmental record. The leader called the accusations an information war against his country; however, he later dispatched 44,000 troops and allocated funds to fight the fires. It is estimated that almost a million hectares have been lost to fires in 2019.