Brazil's legendary indigenous chief Raoni on Friday accused President Jair Bolsonaro of wanting to destroy the Amazon rainforest and called for international help to put out fires raging in the region.
The elderly Kayapo chief, internationally recognizable through his traditional lip plate and feather headdress, called for Bolsonaro's removal from power, as a global outcry over the blazes ignites protests around the world.
"He wants to finish with the forest, with us. It's really terrible what he does," Raoni Metuktire told AFP by telephone from Germany, accusing Bolsonaro of emboldening farmers, loggers and miners.
"We have to get him out soon."
"We cannot let it burn like that," Raoni said. "What is happening is extremely dangerous." Raoni said he would soon return to Brazil and mobilize to end the "attacks on the environment."