A group of Brazilian academics based in Sweden debunk media and governmental claims that the 2019 Amazonian fires are a “normal” seasonal event. Brazil is currently facing worldwide attention due the fires in the Amazon rainforest. After an extremely polarized 2018’s electoral race which culminates in election of Jair Bolsonaro, Brazilian society is deeply divided […]
by Mariana T Noviello. For the past three years, Brazilian post-graduate students at UK universities have organised an event inviting the ‘powerful’ of Brazil, politicians, academics, public administrators, members of the judiciary and others, to discuss the country in what is called Forum Brazil UK. Addicted to Brazilian politics, as I am, this event has become […]
President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro will meet in Washington, D.C. later this week in a highly-anticipated gathering. The two men are not only the presidents of the two largest countries in the Americas, but also the two most important leaders of the conservative right-wing nationalist wave. Trump has never shown real interest […]
Brazil elected its new President on 28 October 2018 – the improbable, unspeakable fascist former army captain Jair Bolsonaro won against the affable unimpeachable democratic candidate of a left alliance led by the Workers’ Party (PT). Can a sophisticated young democracy, in the largest country in Latin America, commit suicide in front of our eyes? […]
During the lead up to the 2016 Coup, a series of alarmist articles in the Brazilian and international media warned of Brazil’s spiraling public debt. In January, 2016, for example, the Economist wrote, “public debt is worryingly large for a middle-income country and rising fast. Because of high interest rates, the cost of servicing it is […]
When Rio City Councilwoman Marielle Franco was assassinated on March 14, much of the international coverage omitted the fact that she was a socialist and the most prominent critic of Rio de Janeiro’s federal military occupation. In this article from the Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ) Manchêtometro project, which quantifies bias in media coverage, […]
Speech at SOAS, University of London, April 12, 2018 Transcribed and edited for readability by Brasil Wire Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was the most influential trade union leader in Brazil in the 1970s and the most important leader of what was known as the new unions, that emerged under the military dictatorship, centered on […]
By Immanuel Wallerstein. Lula Arrested: How Successful a Coup? On April 7, 2018 in Brazil Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva was arrested and taken to prison in Curitiba to begin a twelve-year sentence. He was Brazil’s president from January 2003 to January 2011. He was so popular that when he left office in 2011, he […]
Every so often, the bourgeois political system runs into crisis. The machinery of the state jams; the veils of consent are torn asunder and the tools of power appear disturbingly naked. Brazil is living through one of those moments: it is dreamland for social scientists; a nightmare for everyone else. Dilma Rousseff was elected President […]
It’s been some time since I last waded into the political unrest in Brazil, in part because, in the first few months of the year, other matters had gained increasing focus/importance in Brazil. Certainly, the Zika outbreak brought considerable attention and resources; likewise, the Brazilian economy continued to worsen. Meanwhile, the impeachment process that opposition […]