Retracting his steps as the Amazon burnt to the grief of the world, the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro will not be attending the regional summit.

Bolsonaro will now be absent on the pretext of an urgent surgery he needs to undergo for an incisional hernia procedure. He has been adviced rest for 10 days by his doctors.

The Brazilian president has been widely criticized by the international community for his feverish pace of handling the fires as well as his advocacy of deforestation.

This far-right president had made promises when he took the seat of power which should have sounded the alarming bells then. He had intended to ‘clear vast tracts of the rainforest for development.’ His promises were then not understood as a method to ‘systematically weaken institutions designed to protect the rainforest while offering moral support to farmers wishing to turn the land into cattle ranches.’

Further, Jair Bolsonaro had shown his insensitivity to the preservation of the ‘lungs of the world’ as he watched a standup comedy on the eve of the G7 leaders discussing the Amazon issue.

Its only when criticism against his callousness went through the roof, that Bolsonaro called for the regional summit. But to add more insult to the injury, he has been reported saying that it was ‘Latin American countries that shared the Amazon who should deal with the crisis.’

The regional summit meeting was supposed to take place on September 6, in Leticia Colombia. It is also being reported through government sources that the Brazilian government is now pushing for the meeting to be postponed or whether a substitute for the president should attend. Although Bolsonaro has placed a 60-day ban on burning and deployed 44,000 troops to fight the ongoing blazes, critics fear it is too little too late. Fresh fires have been reported. Earlier instances have confirmed that most of these fires have been manmade, a warning that Bolsonaro chose to ignore.