Category Archives: Brazil

Bolsonaro backs Trump’s border wall ahead of White House meeting

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Brazil president endorses hardline US immigration policy, saying ‘Vast majority of … immigrants do not have good intentions’

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has endorsed Donald Trump’s immigration agenda on the eve of their first meeting at the White House, saying he supports a wall on the US-Mexico border and that most immigrants to the United States wish to do harm.

Bolsonaro, a far-right congressman who rode to the presidency with a brash, anti-establishment campaign modeled on Trump’s 2016 run, has pledged a new era of pro-American policy in the southern hemisphere’s second-largest country.

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Brazil: two ex-police officers arrested over murder of Marielle Franco

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Franco, an outspoken critic of police violence against favela residents, was killed in 2018, prompting international outrage

Two former police officers have been arrested over the murder of the Rio de Janeiro councillor Marielle Franco, two days before the first anniversary of her death, which prompted international outrage.

Franco, a groundbreaking politician who was born in one of Rio’s largest favelas and became a voice for disadvantaged people in the city, was killed in a drive-by shooting along with her driver, Anderson Gomes.

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Bolsonaro under fire for smearing reporter who covered scandal involving his son

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‘Bolsonaro is Fake News’ became a top hashtag in Brazil after president shared ‘false information’ to attack a journalist

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has provoked a storm of protest after sharing fake news to attack a journalist who has covered a scandal involving a former aide of his son Flávio, a senator who is also under investigation for money laundering.

Leading newspapers, the Brazilian Investigative Journalism Association and the Brazilian Bar Association, criticised the far-right president for sharing a “misrepresentation” and “false information”.

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Brazilians demand answers for Marielle Franco’s murder at Rio carnival

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Revellers used annual carnival to ‘protest’ and pay tribute to the councilwoman nearly a year after the still-unsolved murder

Nearly a year after the still-unsolved murder of Rio de Janeiro councilwoman and LGBT activist Marielle Franco, Brazilian revellers have used their country’s annual carnival to demand answers.

Related: Lights, sequins, samba: Rio carnival at the Sambadrome – in pictures

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‘We are fighting’: Brazil’s indigenous groups unite to protect their land

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Residents of Raposa Serra do Sol are determined to face down the threat posed by mining

“A united people will never be defeated!” shouted Maria Betânia Mota, as the indigenous assembly in a partially burned-out agricultural college began. Hundreds of voices roared back in approval.

Betânia Mota is the women’s secretary of its organisers, the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), which represents the majority of those living in the 1.7m hectares of savannah and scrub that make up the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve in Brazil’s northernmost state.

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Brazilian mining CEO steps down amid anger over dam collapse

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Fabio Schvartsman and other executives resign after claims firm knew dam was unstable

The boss of the Brazilian iron ore mining firm Vale has resigned, following growing public and political anger over the collapse of a dam in which at least 186 people died.

Fabio Schvartsman and several other senior executives resigned on a “temporary” basis on Saturday after prosecutors recommended their dismissal. The move came after a leak of official documents suggested that Vale knew the dam was at a heightened risk of collapse.

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Ex-Brazil president Lula leaves prison to attend grandson’s funeral

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  • Workers’ party leader serving 12 years for corruption
  • Lula reiterates his innocence, vowing: ‘I’m going to get out’

Former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva left prison on Saturday to attend the funeral of his seven-year-old grandson, reiterating his innocence before political leaders and relatives who had gathered to mourn.

Lula, who is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption and money laundering, was released at 7am local time from a prison in the Paraná state capital, Curitiba. He flew to São Paulo before taking a helicopter to São Bernardo do Campo, where the funeral took place. He was scheduled to return to his cell later in the afternoon.

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Outrage after Brazil ministry asks schools to read aloud Bolsonaro slogan

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New education minister admits ‘mistake’ after asking schools to film students singing the national anthem and as slogan is read

Brazil’s new education minister has been forced into a humiliating retreat after he asked schools in the country to film students singing the national anthem in front of a Brazilian flag and being read the campaign slogan of new far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.

“I recognised the mistake,” Ricardo Vélez Rodríguez said on Tuesday, a day after the education ministry emailed his instructions to schools across the country – and provoked a storm of outrage.

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Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth

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After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on the planet. But its benefits mask enormous dangers to the planet, to human health – and to culture itself

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the global building industry will have poured more than 19,000 bathtubs of concrete. By the time you are halfway through this article, the volume would fill the Albert Hall and spill out into Hyde Park. In a day it would be almost the size of China’s Three Gorges Dam. In a single year, there is enough to patio over every hill, dale, nook and cranny in England.

After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on Earth. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US.

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‘Venezuelan blood is being spilled’: tension flares near border with Brazil

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While the world watches supporters of Guaidó and Maduro at the Colombian frontier, a remote region sees days of drama and fear

On Saturday, presidents, music stars and activists backing the Venezuelan opposition’s attempt to break a government blockade and bring food and medical supplies into the country, and most of the journalists covering the showdown, clustered around the border with Colombia.

Related: Juan Guaidó: 'keep all options open' to remove Venezuela's Maduro from power

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Venezuela: at least four dead and hundreds injured in border standoff

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Presidential challenger Juan Guaidó says he will urge foreign leaders to keep ‘all options open’ at a meeting on Monday

At least four people have been killed and hundreds injured in a wave of violence that convulsed Venezuela’s border regions on Saturday, as opposition activists tried to defy a government ban and bring food and medical supplies into the country.

After the failed attempt to breach government blockades, opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared the fight would continue, and said “we must keep all our options open for the liberation of our homeland”.

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Maduro orders closure of Venezuelan border with Brazil

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Move comes days before opposition leaders planned to bring in foreign aid

Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, has ordered the vast border with Brazil to be closed, just days before opposition leaders plan to bring in foreign humanitarian aid he has refused to accept.

Maduro said he’s also weighing up shutting the border with Colombia. He made the announcement on state TV on Thursday, surrounded by military commanders.

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Study of Brazil favela stricken by Zika shows dengue may protect against virus

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Analysis of community where 73% of residents contracted Zika in 2015 offers new clues about epidemic

Scientists studying the 2015 Zika outbreak in Brazil have discovered that people previously exposed to dengue may have been protected from the virus.

Three-quarters of the inhabitants of a favela in the country’s north-east caught the mosquito-borne Zika virus during the epidemic. The outbreak left more than 3,000 babies across Brazil with microcephaly, a birth defect caused by mothers catching the virus during pregnancy.

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Protests erupt in Brazil after death of black teenager who was restrained

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Campaigners say Black Lives Matter movement is emerging after action in five major cities

Brazilian activists have taken to the streets in five major cities after the death of a young black man who was restrained by a supermarket security guard.

Campaigners said the protests are feeding a nascent Black Lives Matter movement in Brazil, where nearly three-quarters of all homicide victims are black.

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Vogue Brazil director resigns over birthday photos evoking slavery

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Images show Donata Meirelles, who is white, sitting on a throne-like seat flanked by four black women dressed in white

The fashion director of the Brazilian edition of Vogue has resigned after photos from her 50th birthday party drew criticism for evoking colonial depictions of slavery.

Images from the party showed Donata Meirelles, who is white, sitting on a throne-like seat flanked by four black women dressed in white at the celebration in Bahia, Brazil’s blackest state.

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Brazil environment minister’s dismissal of slain Amazon defender stirs outrage

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Ricardo Salles’ comments fuel criticism of administration’s stance, which environmentalists say is excessively pro-business

Brazilian environmental groups have blasted Jair Bolsonaro’s environment minister after he dismissed the murdered Amazon rain forest defender Chico Mendes as “irrelevant”.

Related: Climate change a 'secondary' issue, says Brazil's environment minister

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Rio declares three days of mourning after fire kills 10 teenage footballers

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Flamengo president says it is ‘the worst tragedy to happen to the club in its 123 years’

Rio de Janeiro has declared three days of mourning as investigators seek to determine the cause of the fire that killed 10 teenage footballers at the training centre of the city’s Flamengo football club on Friday morning.

Cláudio Castro, the vice governor of Rio de Janeiro state, said authorities were looking at the possibility of a short circuit in an air conditioning unit.

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Evacuation alert at Vale-owned mine in Brazil two weeks after disaster

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Five hundred people told to leave area around Sul Superior tailings dam at mine near Belo Horizonte

Brazilian authorities have ordered the mining company Vale to evacuate hundreds of people from the vicinity of a dam in Minas Gerais, two weeks after a dam breach at another Vale mine in the state killed an estimated 300 people.

Vale said it was evacuating 500 people from three communities around the Sul Superior tailings dam at the Gongo Soco mine, near Belo Horizonte, on the orders of the national mining agency. It said it was a preventive measure after an engineering consulting firm, Walm, refused to give the dam a declaration of stability.

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