Brazil’s famed carnival kicked off in earnest on Saturday as millions of revellers poured into the streets, some of whom took aim at the nation’s deeply polarised politics. Most partiers, though, were dressed in distinctly apolitical garb, ranging from mermaid to cowboy costumes, suggesting that during carnival, Brazilians are focused on revelry first, and politics second
Category Archives: Brazil
‘They wanted a better life’: the young Venezuelans escaping into Brazil alone
After six years of economic crisis in their neighboring country, Brazilian officials say more and more unaccompanied minors are arriving
Jesús Pérez was 16 when he crossed into Brazil in June, fleeing a life of hunger on the streets of his disintegrating homeland.
In Pacaraima, the Brazilian border town that is the main entry point for fleeing Venezuelans, he told social workers he hoped for a fresh start.
Continue reading...Brazil sends armed forces to north-east to quell violence from police strike
- Bolsonaro issued a warning: ‘it’s going to get ugly’
- A local senator was shot after driving into a picket line
Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has dispatched army and national guard troops to the north-eastern state of Ceará in an attempt to quell a brewing security crisis triggered by a police officers’ strike.
Related: Rio Carnival takes a stand against Bolsonaro's divisive rhetoric
Continue reading...Bolsonaro attacks Pope Francis over pontiff’s plea to protect the Amazon
- Pope urged Catholics to ‘feel outrage’ over Amazon destruction
- Bolsonaro: ‘What is Greenpeace? Nothing but rubbish’
Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonarohas lashed out at Pope Francis after the pontiff pleaded for the protection of the Amazon rainforest, and attacked the environmental group Greenpeace as “rubbish”.
“Pope Francis said yesterday the Amazon is his, the world’s, everyone’s,” said Bolsonaro, who has often railed against international criticism of his environmental policies as an attack on Brazilian sovereignty.
Continue reading...Rio’s school for Samba – in pictures
Such is the reputation of the Paraíso de Tuiuti samba school in Rio de Janeiro that dancers travel from as far afield as the UK, Russia and Japan to train in the ways of hip-swivelling and hot-stepping. During Rio’s world-famous carnival, members of the school will dance in front of 70,000 spectators and tens of millions of television viewers
Continue reading...Trump puts Cuban doctors in firing line as heat turned up on island economy
After US allies expel foreign health missions, Havana warns that patients will pay the highest price for campaign against its scheme
A Cuban medical programme that has helped some of the world’s poorest communities has become the latest target of the Trump administration’s escalating attempts to pressure Havana’s faltering economy.
Dubbed “Cuban doctors”, the celebrated – if controversial – humanitarian medical mission was founded more than half a century ago in the aftermath of Fidel Castro’s revolution, in part to enhance the country’s international influence.
Continue reading...Hitman linked to Marielle Franco’s murder killed by police
Some suspect Adriano da Nóbrega was ‘key piece’ in discovering who ordered Franco’s killing
Friends and relatives of the murdered Brazilian politician Marielle Franco are demanding answers after Adriano da Nóbrega – a notorious hitman, whose gang of contract killers is suspected of involvement in her assassination – was gunned down by police in the north-east of the country.
Nóbrega, an ex-special forces police captain, also had close links to the family of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. Nóbrega was killed by police on Sunday in Bahia state where he had been on the run.
Continue reading...His master’s voice? Jair Bolsonaro posts video of himself watching Trump rant
Brazil’s president was accused of kowtowing with his 73-minute Facebook live stream but some see method in his obsequiousness
He has long styled himself as a tropical Trump – a socialist-skewering hard man fighting Brazilian carnage.
But in recent weeks Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has taken his fixation with the US leader to new heights, livestreaming himself on Facebook as he watched his political idol in action.
Continue reading...Brazil: judge dismisses cybercrimes accusations against Glenn Greenwald
Prosecutors had accused the journalist of helping a group hack into the phones of local authorities
A Brazilian judge has rejected charges against the US journalist Glenn Greenwald stemming from his role in producing a series of damaging political exposés involving the celebrity justice minister of Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.
Federal prosecutors last month accused Greenwald – a staunch Bolsonaro critic – of being part of a “criminal” group of hackers which had allegedly pilfered messages from the mobile phones of Brazilian prosecutors and judges.
Continue reading...Sun! Samba! Street crime! Red-faced Rio highlights the negative
Instagram post about being robbed in the city is accidentally shared by tourist agency
When marketing Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s national tourism agency typically focuses on the city’s world-class beaches, samba-filled music scene and caipirinha-fueled parties.
Violent crime is rarely listed among the attractions.
Continue reading...Brazilians stranded in Wuhan issue plea to Bolsonaro for rescue
Citizens post video appealing for evacuation from city at centre of coronavirus outbreak
Brazilian citizens trapped in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, have issued an urgent plea to their president, Jair Bolsonaro, for them to be evacuated.
In a six-minute YouTube video the Brazilians noted how other countries – including the US, the UK, France, Japan and Italy – had already taken steps to rescue their citizens from the city.
Continue reading...The far-right Bolsonaro movement wants us dead. But we will not give up | Glenn Greenwald and David Miranda
Demagogues rely on fear to consolidate power. But courage is contagious – that’s why we must join hands and fight back
Substantial media coverage over the last year, within Brazil and internationally, has been devoted to threats and attacks we each received, separately and together, due to our work – David’s as a congressman and Glenn’s as a journalist. These incidents have been depicted, rightfully so, as reflective of the increasingly violent and anti-democratic climate prevailing in Brazil as a result of the far-right, authoritarian, dictatorship-supporting movement of President Jair Bolsonaro, which consolidated substantial power in the election held at the end of 2018.
There was much discussion when David entered congress in early 2019 after the only other openly LGBTQ+ congress member, Jean Wyllys, fled his seat and the country in fear of his life. As a longtime LGBTQ+ celebrity and sole LGBTQ+ member of congress, Wyllys had endured constant death threats and even bullying from fellow members of congress. His multiple fights with Bolsonaro and his sons made him a particular object of contempt by that movement. That they now occupied full-scale power made his remaining in Brazil untenable.
Continue reading...Scores dead as heavy rains bring landslides and evacuations in Brazil
Storms have submerged entire neighborhoods and sent homes tumbling down hillsides, causing more than 30,000 to flee
More than 30,000 people have been displaced by heavy rains in south-east Brazil that have killed 54 people and left 18 missing.
The storms have caused floods and landslides, submerging entire neighborhoods and sending homes tumbling down hillsides in the states of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. Rains subsided by Monday, but were expected to resume later this week in some areas.
Continue reading...Cacao not gold: ‘chocolate trees’ offer future to Amazon tribes
In Brazil’s largest indigenous reserve thousands of saplings have been planted as an alternative to profits from illegal gold mining
The villagers walk down the grassy landing strip, past the wooden hut housing the health post and into the thick forest, pointing out the seedlings they planted along the way. For these Ye’kwana indigenous men, the skinny saplings, less than a metre high, aren’t just baby cacao trees but green shoots of hope in a land scarred by the violence, pollution and destruction wrought by illegal gold prospecting. That hope is chocolate.
Continue reading...Jair Bolsonaro’s racist comment sparks outrage from indigenous groups
Brazil’s president made anti-indigenous joke on Facebook broadcast, the latest in a succession of discriminatory comments
Indigenous activists have vowed to sue Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, for racism after his latest bigoted outburst.
In one of his weekly Facebook broadcasts on Thursday, Bolsonaro declared: “Indians are undoubtedly changing … They are increasingly becoming human beings just like us.”
Continue reading...Brazil prosecutors charge 16 people with murder in dam collapse that killed 270
- Former CEO of mining giant Vale among those charged
- Vale ‘acted directly to create false impression of safety in dams’
Brazilian prosecutors have charged 16 people – including the former CEO of mining giant Vale – with murder and environmental crimes over the collapse of a tailings dam which killed 270 people on 25 January 2019.
The charges were announced by state prosecutors in Minas Gerais days before the first anniversary of the disaster, which sent a torrent of liquid mining waste across the picturesque countryside, flattening Vale’s plant, offices and canteen, and killing guests at a nearby countryside guesthouse.
Continue reading...Brazilian prosecutors charge journalist Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes
Greenwald accused of helping hackers who obtained cellphone messages between leading figures in anti-corruption investigation
Brazilian federal prosecutors have indicted the American journalist Glenn Greenwald for cybercrimes, alleging he “helped, encouraged and guided” a group of hackers who obtained cellphone messages between leading figures in Brazil’s mammoth Car Wash anti-corruption investigation.
The leaks, subsequently published in several stories on the investigative site the Intercept Brazil, which Greenwald co-founded, appeared to show collusion between then judge Sérgio Moro and prosecutors and exacerbated questions of political bias of the investigations. Moro was subsequently named justice minister by the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.
Continue reading...Brazil culture secretary fired after echoing words of Nazi Goebbels
Roberto Alvim set off a storm of outrage with comments about culture that were eerily reminiscent of Hitler’s propaganda chief
Brazil’s culture secretary, Roberto Alvim has been fired after he appeared to paraphrase the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in an online video to promote a national arts prize.
“Brazilian art in the next decade will be heroic and national,” said Alvim, to the music from Wagner’s Lohengrin, said to be Hitler’s favourite opera, with a portrait of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, and a Brazilian flag in the background.
Continue reading...More than 300 human rights activists were killed in 2019, report reveals
Colombia was the bloodiest nation with 103 murders and the Philippines was second, followed by Brazil, Honduras and Mexico
More than 300 human rights defenders working to protect the environment, free speech, LGBTQ rights and indigenous lands in 31 countries were killed in 2019, a new report reveals.
Two thirds of the total killings took place in Latin America where impunity from prosecution is the norm.
Continue reading...Brazil helped the US and Iran towards peace. Dialogue is the only answer | Lula and Celso Amorim
As president and foreign minister, we always advocated peace. In war, all victories are pyrrhic ones
The assassination of Qassem Suleimani by drone bombs, at the express request of the president of the United States, has thrown the Middle East – and the world – into the most serious global security crisis since the end of the cold war. By unilaterally ordering the execution of a senior Iranian military on Iraqi soil, Donald Trump violated international law and took a reckless and dangerous step in escalating conflict, with potential impact all over the planet.
Related: Justin Trudeau calls for investigation into Iran plane crash as Canada mourns
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