"Well....Bye!"
Posted on 11/14/2005 1:43:19 PM PST by proud_yank
Brazilian environmentalist dies in protest
Monday, November 14, 2005 Posted at 2:06 PM EST
Associated Press
Rio de Janeiro — A crusading defender of Brazil's Pantanal wetlands died of his burns after setting himself on fire to protest a proposed sugarcane alcohol plant in the environmentally fragile region, hospital officials said Monday.
Francisco Anselmo de Barros, 65, wrapped himself in an alcohol-soaked blanket and set it on fire during a protest Saturday in Campo Grande, 1,200 kilometres northwest of Rio de Janeiro, according to officials at the Santa Casa hospital.
Fellow protesters smothered the fire with blankets and sprayed it with a fire extinguisher. Mr. Barros was taken to Santa Casa with burns over 90 per cent of his body. He died Sunday, the hospital said.
The Mato Grosso do Sul state assembly is debating a project to build alcohol plants on the upper Paraguay River, which runs through the Pantanal, the world's largest wetlands.
Ecologists say the environmental balance of the Pantanal and the western Amazon is threatened by the expansion of cane plantations that produce sugar and alcohol, which is widely used for automobile fuel in Brazil.
Mr. Barros was president of the Foundation for Nature Conservation in Mato Grosso do Sul, a group he founded in 1980.
In a letter left to his family and friends, Mr. Barrios wrote that he “did what he did as the only way to wake the people up” to the environmental threat, the Globo news agency reported.
Make no mistake, he died protesting capitalism.
I heard Mr. Barros' last word were "You know what burns my a$$?"
What an idiot.
"Well....Bye!"
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.