As the first meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro is announced, Journalist Jamil Chade urges Biden to sieze a “historic opportunity to support democracy”, and not follow in the footsteps of predecessor Lyndon Johnson. In a letter to Joe Biden, Brazilian journalist Jamil Chade warned the president of the “historic […]
Since the return of Brazil’s military to government in 2016, it’s objectives, and desire for permanence of its political project far beyond current frontman Bolsonaro, have become increasingly clear. The latest edition of a manifesto “Project of the Nation” which has circulated in military circles for several years, lays out how it foresees the next […]
Until recently US lawmakers and officials had warned of “democratic decline” in Brazil. Now emerges a new official insistence that the coming election will be “free and fair”. There are few examples in Latin American history that suggest anyone should take such a statement at face value. Over the the past twelve months, National Security […]
Monica Bergamo reports in Folha de S.Paulo newspaper that UN Special Rapporteur for the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Diego Garcia, received a document on the 17th May in which 85 Brazilian professors and jurists warn of “an unprecedented campaign of mistrust and threats” against the country’s superior courts. With the imminent presidential election under explicit […]
By Atilio Borón I must admit, Vargas Llosa is, as Jorge Luis Borges would say, “incorrigible.” The passage of time is implacable and in his case, unlike others, it has accelerated his physical but above all mental degradation. The Peruvian storyteller has already succumbed to what Alejo Carpentier, in his extraordinary novel (The Kingdom of […]
By Guilherme Boulos Bolsonaro, after a “sabbatical period” in which he stopped talking about electronic voting machines, returned to threaten the integrity of the electoral process. In the last few weeks, he attacked the Electoral Court (TSE) again, spoke again about the “secret room”, and demanded military personnel in the investigation process… As October approaches […]
The first impeachment process against a city councilor in the 329-year history of Curitiba – the Brazilian city that most cherishes its “European heritage” – is underway, and it has nothing to do with any crime. On January 24, Mugenyi Kabagambe, a 24 year-old Congolese immigrant, was beaten to death behind the beach kiosk where […]
In August 2021 we reported how Brazil’s US-backed military regime (yes, regime) cast a shadow over hopes for the next presidential election. There was clearly a doubt whether it would go ahead peacefully, and if it did, if the Military government, fronted by Bolsonaro and backed by the United States, would accept the result and willingly […]
On May 1, 1978, the first issue of the Brazilian underground newspaper O Trabalho hit the streets. The paper was the result of the fusion of 4 clandestine Trotskyist organizations with the student movement Libelu, all outlawed by the authoritarian military junta at the time. In this article, Paulo Moreira Leite, founding editor of O […]
With the 2022 election under a shadow of threats from far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and his military backers, a delegation of EU observers have had their invitation to follow the October election revoked, following a backlash from the Bolsonaro government itself. Brazilian news site NEXO reports that the Bolsonaro government has pressured the Electoral Court […]