These are sombre times for Brasil. An election looms, its leading candidate is in jail on politically motivated charges, and has been withdrawn. His distant challenger now sits in first place. He is a fascist and a white supremacist, in a country with well over half of its population of African or Indigenous descent. To his supporters, Jair Bolsonaro’s rape […]
“No room for feelings” say Wall Street insiders as they back another Neofascist to deliver Neoliberalism, at the point of a gun, in the most resource-rich nation on earth. New York Times, July 1993. In an article called “Conversations/Jair Bolsonaro; A Soldier Turned Politician Wants To Give Brazil Back to Army Rule“, Journalist James Brooke […]
In late 2013 the formation of a new Brazilian Political Party was announced, called literally Partido Novo (New Party). Initially and opportunistically presented as if emerging from the protests that had swept Brasil that June, its libertarian, minimal state messaging was in stark contrast to the demands of those on the streets. These youngsters were depicted as […]
Two competing narratives on Brazil: one says Dilma Rousseff was deposed in a procedural Coup d’état and Lula’s imprisonment is to stop him becoming President again. The other says that all of the above is totally legit. One of these narratives has Wall Street and Big Oil right behind it. Can you guess which? Coup-Denial […]
The action lasted over 14 hours, leaving one dead, dozens of injured and thousands of angry citizens. As Rio de Janeiro’s military occupation reaches the 6 month mark, all analysis points to it’s colossal failure. Shootings have increased by 40%, there have been 2600 murders, and 736 people were killed by the police. The drug […]
Brasília. On July 31, as a group of 6 hunger strikers held a press conference in front of the Brazilian Supreme Court, a group of security guards came up and started pushing activists and journalists. A video that is circulating in the social media shows Gegê, 68, national leader of the CMP, being knocked over […]
On Saturday night, in front of a crowd of 80,000 and to chants of “Free Lula”, Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil sang the legendary protest song Cálice for the first time together since 1973, on a night when Military Dictatorship censors turned off Buarque’s microphone. It was a highlight of an evening with poetry and […]
by Brian Mier On July 25th, Facebook announced that it was shutting down 196 pages connected to the Koch Brothers/Atlas Foundation supported Movimento Brasil Livre (Free Brazil Movement/MBL) a fake news organization disguised as a social movement that is also funded by the DEM party (which is rooted in the official dictatorship party, ARENA). Since the 2016 Coup, […]
“An illegitimate government in its final months of power hurries to liquidate as much of the nation’s assets and sovereignty as possible – the pre-salt petroleum reserves, gas pipelines, energy distribution companies and petrochemical plants – and opens the Amazon region to foreign troops. While hunger resurfaces and children’s vaccination levels plummet, part of the judiciary fights […]
On July 17th, a Rio de Janeiro judge sentenced 23 activists who participated in the June 2013 protests to prison sentences ranging from 5-7 years. Among the convicted is lawyer Eloisa Samy, who helped with their defense when they were initially arrested. In the following article, Dr. Ivana Bentes, Professor of Communications at Universidade Federal […]