Brazil's Bolsonaro says mystery oil slicks on beaches likely have criminal origin

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that mysterious oil slicks polluting the country's northeastern beaches were likely to have been left there criminally.

Had the oil originated from a shipwreck, as Bolsonaro posited on Monday, it would still be seeping onto the beaches, he said.

The oil has washed up in recent weeks on more than a hundred beaches in nine northeastern states from Maranhao down to Bahia. Its origin has yet to be explained.

(Reporting by Pedro Fonseca; Editing by Bernadette Baum)