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.
December 22, 2017. After US-backed neoliberal Sebastian Piñera wins the Chilean presidential elections following corruption charges against center-left former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet involving Brazilian construction company Odebrecht as part of the Lava Jato investigation, El Clarin reveals that the US State department has publicly admitted it is collaborating with the operation. The admission, something that Brasil Wire have suspected since the disclosure […]
When Brasilians talk about the organized left, they usually refer to the social movements, labor unions and the organic intellectuals who support them. There is another category of civil society, however, that has a positive influence on progressive advances in Brasilian society, the non-governmental organizations, or NGOs. Over the past few decades a number of […]
by Brian Mier. The Partido Comunista do Brasil (PC do B/Communist Party of Brasil) was founded in 1962 when a group of militants split from the older Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB/Brazilian Communist Party). It was criminalised during the Military Dictatorship and as communists were arrested, tortured and executed, 80 party members moved to the remote […]
By Brian Mier. When the Brazilian Military Dictatorship ended in 1985, citizens began a nation wide campaign to petition for people’s amendments to the new constitution, which was ratified in 1988. One of the most important victories, from a popular participation standpoint, were people’s amendments 182 and 183, which guarantee the right for anyone who […]
Lava Jato investigation Prosecutor/Judge Sergio Moro is embroiled in a million dollar cash for sentence reduction scheme. For the past 2 years some of the most prestigious newspapers and think tanks in the US and Britain have uncritically hailed Lava Jato investigation judge and prosecutor Sergio Moro as an impartial hero in the fight against corruption. […]
The Guardian kicked off a week of coverage about São Paulo today, as part of its Rockefeller Foundation sponsored “Cities” Series. Although part of this content appears to be generated with support from local news non-profit Agência Publica and respectable local journalists like Leonardo Sakamoto, the series opens with erroneous information. Today’s headline says, reads […]
During the lead-up and in the aftermath of last year’s overthrow of democratically elected Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, several writings appeared in progressive English language publications analyzing the state of the Brazilian left. Most of them were written by members of the white middle class, based on little or no contact with the Brazilian organized […]
Djamila Ribeiro, 37, is currently one of the most popular writers and public figures in the Afro-Brazilian woman’s rights movement. She was born into a working class family in the gritty port city of Santos to communist parents. Her father was active in the local longshoreman’s union and used to take her to the Soviet […]
Carlos Latuff is one of the World’s most famous political cartoonists. Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1968, he published his first political cartoon in a Longshoremen’s Union newspaper in 1989 and continues drawing cartoons for unions to this day. As the internet gained force during the 1990s, he began drawing cartoons in solidarity with […]
It is increasingly apparent that the Brazilian economy was deliberately destabilized to lay the groundwork for the 2016 soft coup that removed former President Dilma Rousseff from office. This does not represent anything new for Latin America; creating the conditions for a successful coup typically takes several years and economic destabilization is normally part of […]