Bolsonaro v. Bolsonaro in key Amazon state

In the middle of October, environmental agencies and the Federal Police blew up a total of 121 barges on the Madeira River in the northern Brazilian state of Rondônia. The vessels had been used for wildcat gold mining, which has close links to organized crime and environmental destruction across Brazil’s Amazon region.

These mining barges operate by sucking up water from the river to extract sediment, which is then mixed with mercury that bonds to any fragments of gold within. Once separated, the highly poisonous mercury is then burned away from the gold, and the toxic by-products are dumped into the river. Wildcat mining such as this is illegal, hence the Federal Police operation to destroy barges.

Immediately after the operation’s launch, Rondônia state gubernatorial candidate Marcos Rogério took to social media to criticize the blowing up of barges, saying that he was shocked by the footage and that illegal gold miners “should not be discriminated against” — a rationale frequently used by Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who is in favor of permitting mining throughout the country, even on protected indigenous lands.

However, Mr. Rogério’s opponent in Sunday’s runoff election, incumbent Governor Marcos Rocha, is arguably the biggest advocate for regulating illegal gold mining in Rondônia. While the rest of the country is engaged in...