Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is not welcome at the American Museum of Natural History.
That’s the message sent by the institution, which Monday evening chose not to host a May 14th black-tie event honoring Bolsonaro.
The event, a gala hosted by the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, was to honor Bolsonaro as Brazilian Person of the Year.
But days of sustained outcry focused on Bolsonaro’s pledge to open the Amazon rainforest for industrial and commercial exploitation—and the Brazilian leader’s extreme right wing political positions—convinced the museum that it was not the correct venue for the event.
“With mutual respect for the work and goals of our individual organizations, we jointly agreed that the Museum is not the optimal location for the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce gala dinner,” the museum and the chamber announced. “This traditional event will go forward at another location on the original date and time.”
The museum previously told HuffPost in a statement that the museum did not know Bolsonaro would be the honoree before signing off on the event and that the museum was “deeply concerned.”
“The event does not in any way reflect the Museum’s position that there is an urgent need to conserve the Amazon Rainforest, which has such profound implications for biological diversity, indigenous communities, climate change, and the future health of our planet,” the museum said in that statement.
Activists and opponents of Bolsonaro welcomed the news.
The organization Amazon Watch said it was pleased with the decision, but called for a continuation of resistance to the Bolsonro regime.
“We must come together to denounce Bolsonaro’s bigotry, racism and plans for the destruction of the Amazon and violations of indigenous rights,” Amazon Watch said on Twitter.