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AMAZON AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY ENVIRONMENT FOREIGN POLICY

Bolsonaro met by protests in New York on eve of UN Assembly

Brazil’s far-right President was welcomed in New York on the eve of the opening of the UN General Assembly with demonstrations against his role in the burning of the Amazon rainforest. Monday 23 September 2019: President Jair Bolsonaro has already arrived in New York City (USA) to open work at the UN General Assembly General […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM RIO DE JANEIRO SOCIAL INCLUSION

Police killing of 8 year old girl blamed on Rio Governor Witzel

Brazil is still in shock at the killing of an eight-year-old girl, Agatha Vitória Sales Félix, struck in the back by a bullet during a police operation in Complexo do Alemão favela, northern zone of Rio de Janeiro, on Friday 20th September 2019. The girl was shot while in a van with her grandfather. After […]

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64-85 DICTATORSHIP AUTHORITARIANISM CULTURE DEMOCRACY HISTORY MOVIES

Love it or leave it: Brazil’s reactionary parallel reality

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 […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY ECONOMY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA LAVA JATO LAWFARE MEDIA

Michel Temer: “It was a Coup”

During a television interview on September 16th, 2019, former Brazilian President Michel Temer twice referred to the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff as a Golpe (Coup). Dilma Rousseff’s former VP, of the conservative MDB party, told interviewers: “People said ‘Temer is a Golpista (Putschist)’ and that I supported the Coup. It was different, I never supported […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY LAVA JATO LAWFARE POLITICS

Why is Lula still in Jail?

As momentum turns against right wing extremist Jair Bolsonaro and his ultra-neoliberal economic project, many former supporters have joined the opposition but refuse to demand the release of fraudulently convicted former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. As Paulo Moreira Leite writes, this cannot be explained by traditional class hatred alone.  By Paulo Moreira Leite* […]

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AMAZON AUTHORITARIANISM ENVIRONMENT

Demands for UN Secretary General to censure Bolsonaro over Amazon Fires and Human Rights

A broad coalition of civil society organizations demand that the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres censure Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at the General Assembly over the Amazon rainforest’s destruction and grave human rights concerns New York City – U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres should formally censure the extremist right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a broad coalition […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM HOUSING MOVEMENTS RACIAL EQUALITY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Interview with Preta Ferreira, Political Prisoner

“The fact that I am a black woman and influence other people to demand their constitutional rights is outrageous to them. Who is going to accept that? They certainly are not. They chose the role I am supposed to play: doing dishes, cooking food. And that’s not my role.” Brazil’s 1988 Constitution has some of […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM ECONOMY FASCISM HISTORY UNITED STATES

Myths about Pinochet’s Chile persist in Brazil today

It is customary among neoliberal economists to praise Pinochet’s Chile and consider it an economic model to aspire to, however they have it all wrong. Português By José Luís Fiori. It is customary among neoliberal economists to praise Chile and consider it an economic model to aspire to. Moreover, in Bolsonaro’s Brazil, it is increasingly […]

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AMAZON AUTHORITARIANISM ENVIRONMENT

Rondonization: World Bank, Dictatorship and the Amazon

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 […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA LAVA JATO LAWFARE

Aiding and Abetting: Anglo Media and Lava Jato

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. […]