Beleaguered far right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s attempt to boost popularity through public rallies and fascist threats against government institutions has backfired, as his approval rating falls to a new low. by Gabriel Deslandes A survey by Datafolha, the research institute linked to Folha de São Paulo newspaper, shows that President Jair Bolsonaro’s disapproval rating […]
This year’s Rio de Janeiro carnaval parade, which will take place on February 23rd and 24th, shows sings of being one of its most political ever, as voices of Rio’s black population rise up against the religious, social and economic persecution of the right wing extremist Jair Bolsonaro government By Gabriel Deslandes In 1929, a […]
Rio Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão was not very popular, but his evidence-free preventative imprisonment by the Federal Police may be an ominous foreshadowing of what to expect under a totalitarian, militarized Bolsonaro government. By Gabriel Deslandes In an unprecedented show of power, the Federal Police arrested the standing governor of Rio de Janeiro, Luiz Fernando […]
by Gabriel Deslandes In the middle of the worst political and economic crisis in Brazil’s republican history, certain themes and ideological rallying cries that were dormant have re-emerged. Some of them involve the reconstruction of times nobody remembers when everything was cleaner, better organized and more promising, in other words the opposite of the current […]
Massive corruption in Rio de Janeiro’s disastrous Public/Private transportation partnerships brought an end to decades of MDB party hegemony, but the power vacuum that it opened was filled by neofascists. by Gabriel Deslandes When the June, 2013 protests against bus fare hikes and lack of quality public transportation rocked Brazil, protesters in Rio de Janeiro […]
Rio police killed over 1000 people last year. Now Jair Bolsonaro’s neofascist gubernatorial ally says he wants police snipers to assassinate low level drug traffickers in favelas. By Gabriel Deslandes The new Rio de Janeiro Governor-elect, Wilson Witzel, from the Partido Social Cristão (Social Christian Party/PSC) was elected with a campaign focused on one of […]
By Gabriel Deslandes. The successive institutional crises of Brazil, along with the social chaos provoked by the economic crisis, installed a climate of an apparently unforseen collective mistrust which all conventional politicians seem to be engulfed in. Globo, whose responsibility in this was central, couldn’t be out of this conjuncture. The network, who never inspired […]
By Gabriel Deslandes. When the Worker’s Party PT saw itself being pressured like never before by the media coverage of the “mensalão” scandal, its’ leaders probably did not imagine that years later, an investigation of illegal currency exchange operations and capital flight by the Federal Police would end up influencing a campaign of public demoralization […]
By Gabriel Deslandes. There’s something unforeseen stirring up in the empire of the biggest telecommunications network in Latin America. For the first time in a while, Rede Globo is confronted with adversaries contesting its’ power. For more than 50 years, the Globo group consolidated its absolute influence as the institution which is capable of not […]
By Gabriel Deslandes. Rio de Janeiro Carnaval parade groups, called Samba Schools, are preparing social and political criticism for the 2018 carnaval, with parades that will denounce politicians, social problems and recent political scandals. Of the 13 most important Samba Schools, 4 will focus on protests during their parades in the Rio Samba stadium, the […]