In October 1969 General Emílio Garrastazu Médici assumed the Brazilian Presidency. Whilst measured at that time by a specious economic “miracle” which failed to touch the majority of the population, his tenure would be the most brutal phase of 1964-85 Military rule, marked by a surge in political repression, torture, summary execution and censorship. At […]
Brazil’s Neofascist President Jair Bolsonaro may have lost his principal political ally in South America. Sebastian Piñera joined Senator Isabel Allende in condemning Bolsonaro for his remarks in response to former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who is now the UN Commissioner for Human Rights. Jair Bolsonaro used his Facebook account to attack Bachelet after she […]
When you acheive human rights you should never let them be taken back from you in any way under any pretext,” said the 76 year old musician, “this has been happening around the World and it is happening in Brazil. It’s a neurosis.” During an interview on the Brazilian TV talk show Lady Night on […]
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A 2018 report commissioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Brazil’s Labour Prosecution Office showed that at least 8,000 Brazilian children and teenagers currently work in the chocolate production chain alone. Brazil’s Neofascist Brazilian President, who this week told the powerful ruralista agriculture lobby that “this government belongs to you”, isn’t just fine with […]
The plot against Getúlio Vargas is often considered to be a purely internal Brazilian affair. This was contradicted by his own suicide note, in which he refers specifically to an alliance of international capital and local elites, of roughly the same composition that would go on to support the Coups of 1964 and 2016. The suicide […]
Kathy Swart is a U.S. Professor, Librarian and expert on the information landscape of Latin America. Following the Guardian‘s publication of this article regarding planned commemorations of Brazil’s US-backed 1964 Military Coup, she was compelled to lodge an official complaint with the newspaper. It has yet to respond. “For years I have enjoyed the Guardian’s […]
On March 31, extreme-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has called for the Military to commemorate the Coup of 1964, a Coup which he insists was nothing of the sort. Such commemorations were outlawed under Dilma Rousseff in 2011, and for the Brazil of 2019 to celebrate the anniversary in any form is horrific. It is also unsurprising, […]
On the 50th anniversary of Institutional Act 5, the 1968 “coup within the coup” which ushered in an even more brutal and repressive phase of the Military dictatorship, historian Fernando Horta explains how its malign influence never went away, and is now again casting a shadow over Brazilian society. by Fernando Horta. It has been said […]
On December 9th 2018, historian, analyst and long term critic of US Imperialism and Foreign Policy, William Blum, died at the age of 85. Author of Rogue State, Killing Hope, and others, rather than a regular obituary, we compile some of his writings and observations, both historical and contemporary, on Brasil, its neighbors, and their […]