Brazilian police on Tuesday arrested four volunteer firefighters accused of intentionally setting fires in the Amazon rainforest, but civic leaders said the arrests amounted to government harassment of environmental groups.
Brazilian police launched a corruption probe this week into the head of President Jair Bolsonaro’s right-wing Social Liberal Party (PSL) Luciano Bivar, a police source revealed, adding to tensions within the fractious governing coalition.
Brazilian police made public an investigation into corruption involving three senators and three lawmakers that stemmed from a related probe into major meatpacker JBS SA. The police carried out 24 search-and-seizure warrants in the early morning hours, they said in a written statement, as part of an investigation into money laundering and corruption, among other crimes.