House Resolution 594 directs US DOJ inspector general to perform a full review of the Department’s activities in Brazil On September 25 a group of 14 US Members of Congress filed a resolution in the House Committees on Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, and the Judiciary expressing worries about growing violations of human, labor and environmental […]
Author: Brian Mier
Writer, geographer and former development professional who has lived in Brazil for 26 years. Former directorate member of the Fórum Nacional de Reforma Urbana (National Urban Reform Forum). Has lived in São Luis, Recife, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. Author of “Os Megaeventos Esportivos na Cidade do Rio de Janeiro e o Direito á Cidade” (CEPR: Porto Alegre. 2016). Editor of "Voices of the Brazilian Left" (Sumare: São Paulo. 2018). Editor of "Year of Lead: Washington, Wall Street and the New Imperialism in Brazil" ((Sumare: São Paulo. 2019) Irregular correspondent for the Chicago radio show This is Hell.
In a subtitled interview which is linked below, the political prisoner Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks of strategic errors made by the PT, BRICS, and the documented US involvement in the Lava Jato investigation, which the Intercept has now revealed was a key actor in the 2016 coup against Dilma Rousseff In a historic […]
The development philosophy behind the fires in the Amazon is based on the World Bank funded, Dictatorship era Polonoroeste project, which killed thousands and devastated Rondonia’s rainforest. To Bolsonaro and his military aids, there was nothing wrong with it. by Brian Mier During the 1980s a series of shocking images and films appeared of massive […]
Journalism, according to the American Press Institute, is “the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information”. In the case of Anglo media coverage of the corrupt and politically biased Lava Jato investigation, there was a near unanimous failure in assessing the facts. If this was an accident, it is an epic fail. […]
By Brian Mier I spent last week in the Brazilian Amazon in Porto Velho, Rondonia, on the edge of what is called the arco do incendios. The “arc of fires” is a region stretching along the yet-to-be-paved highways 319 and 230, between the towns of Humaitá and Apui in Southern Amazonas, a state that still had 98% of […]
By Brian Mier I arrived in Porto Velho yesterday and could see plumes of smoke billowing in the distance as the plane descended into city which, in itself, is covered in smoky haze. We grabbed a taxi in from the airport and the driver told us that he doesn’t understand why there are so many […]
As the Amazon burns, 13 progressive Democratic Members of Congress request clarification on the US Department of Justice’s role in Jair Bolsonaro’s rise to power. By Brian Mier 13 Democratic Members of Congress delivered a letter to US Attorney General William Barr this week, demanding answers to questions about the legality and ethics of the […]
In letter signed by 13 members of Congress, US Attorney General is asked to “describe the full extent of DOJ’s engagement with Judge Sergio Moro”. by Brian Mier On Tuesday, August 20, 13 members of US Congress delivered a letter to Attorney General William Barr demanding answers on possible illegal collusion and ethics violations made […]
The day the sky went out
On Monday afternoon a giant smoke cloud emanating from burning rainforest over 1000 kilometers away engulfed São Paulo in darkness. By Brian Mier On Monday, August 19th, I left my home on the North Side of São Paulo at 2 PM and headed towards the Tieté bus station, the brutalist structure erected by Paulo Maluf […]
Everyone who cared about Democracy who was paying attention to what was happening in Brazil knew, from day one, that Lula’s arrest was a sham result of a biased political witch hunt led by right wing extremists in order to remove him from the presidential race. The Intercept revelations now prove, unequivocally, that they were […]