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 […]
Category: AUTHORITARIANISM
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 […]
Deaths in massacres have increased while arms apprehensions have dropped, according to data from the Candido Mendes University Center for Security and Citizenship Studies’ (CESeC) Military Intervention Observatory. Five months after the start of the Rio de Janeiro military occupation, a new study shows the resounding failure of the operation, which was decreed by President […]
April 30, 2018. Hundreds of buses have already arrived in Curitiba and hundreds more are traveling in caravans on route to this Southern Brazilian city of 3 million, where ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been held as a political prisoner for three weeks, for what promises to be the largest May Day protest […]