Brazil & Southern Cone - March 2025

During a visit to El Bolsón on 11 February, a town in the southern province of Río Negro, Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, alongside Defence Minister Luis Petri, announced that the government will create a federal emergency agency to combat the intense wildfires raging through various Patagonian provinces such as Río Negro, Chubut, and Neuquén. Environmental groups have expressed concern over the increasingly dry and hot weather, aggravated by human-induced global warming, making this summer season (December-February) one of Patagonia’s worst wildfire seasons in recent decades.

According to Argentine fact-checking website Chequeado, the federal government has not published up-to-date official figures on the number of active fires in Patagonia. Chequeado reported on 12 February that it had requested information on wildfires from the security ministry, which oversees the national fire management service (SNMF) but did not receive a reply. The site has gathered wildfire data from other sources, such as Brazil’s national space research institute (Inpe), the satellites of which detected a nationwide total of 3,625 outbreaks of fires in Argentina from 1 January-12 February; more than triple the 1,045 fires that Inpe detected in Argentina during the same period in 2024. In addition to Patagonian provinces in southern Argentina, Inpe also flagged fire hotspots in northern provinces such as Formosa and Corrientes. The Argentine branch of international environmental NGO Greenpeace released data on 18 February showing that 48,688 hectares (ha) of land in Patagonia had been affected by fires in 2025 so far.

The government of President Javier Milei has previously faced criticism from environmental groups over its apparent disregard for environmental protection, not helped by Milei’s record of climate-denialist rhetoric [SSR-24-02]. On 11 February the government’s cabinet chief, Guillermo Francos, spoke on local radio to deny suggestions that the Milei administration does not care about wildfires. Francos went on to allege that indigenous armed groups such as the Resistencia Ancestral Mapuche (RAM) were responsible for starting fires. On the same day, Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona stated on social media the fires were caused by “terrorists disguised as Mapuche [indigenous people]” and that the government will seek reforms to toughen the punishments for people who start fires illegally. This is not the first time that government officials have expressed rhetoric that criminalises Mapuche communities [SSR-25-02], and indigenous activists have rejected such accusations as attempts to scapegoat the Mapuche people.

On 6 February Greenpeace Argentina released a statement to condemn the accusations made by local politicians that sought to blame and stigmatise the Mapuche people without presenting evidence. The NGO has estimated that 95% of forest fires in Argentina are caused by intentional or accidental human action, and Greenpeace suggests that a greater threat arises from farmers using fire to clear land to expand their farms and from the forestry industry, which has replaced native trees with exogenous species such as pine that are known to be more flammable. Chequeado has also suggested that underspending on fire prevention and response measures could raise the risk of fires spreading. Data from the national budget office analysed by the site’s fact-checkers revealed that the SNMF spent only 22% of its allocated budget in 2024. This means that the SNMF’s expenditure in 2024 was down 81% in real terms compared to the amount it spent in 2023, when it was still overseen by the environment ministry – which Milei reduced to a sub-secretariat when he took office in December 2023.

Sub-secretary resigns  

On 13 February Argentina’s sub-secretary for the environment, Ana Lamas, resigned from her post, explaining that this was due to “personal reasons” and “exhaustion”. The timing has raised eyebrows in the media, given her resignation came amid rising national concern over the environmental damage of intense forest fires. The Argentine press has been seeking to ascertain other possible reasons behind Lamas’ decision. National daily La Nación has speculated that it could be a signal of wider discontent within the sub-secretariat, citing sources that have revealed other members of the sub-secretariat are also planning to quit.