Amid a pandemic, quilombo communities around the Alcântara spaceport face an illegal and unnecessary land-grab for a space technology deal between the Trump and Bolsonaro administrations By Sean T. Mitchell These are perilous times in Brazil in too many ways to list. Even US media have now noted the possibility of a Fujimori-style auto-coup by […]
Category: AUTHORITARIANISM
Originally published June 2020. Brazil is still haunted by the ghosts of June 2013. Its lesser known stories need to be re-examined in light of what has happened to the country since, and what is now better understood. To this day, June 2013’s popular portrayal obscures espionage, infiltration, manipulation, incitement and the seeds of an […]
On June 10, 2020, the New York Times ran a front page article headlined “Coup Threats Rattle Brazil as Virus Deaths Surge”. To seasoned Brazil watchers this was not in itself shocking. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time. President Jair Bolsonaro and his far-right supporters have threatened such an “auto-coup”; […]
The Brazilian military dictatorship might not have been very good at building dams or highways, but it was excellent at hiding bodies. Is this why Bolsonaro appointed an army general with no medical experience as Minister of Health in the middle of its worst pandemic in a generation? By Brian Mier In 2005 I worked […]
A recently deceased ally of Jair Bolsonaro had exposed his plan to operate a “parallel intelligence agency” in a live television interview. Details of how the network operates, and its targets, have now come to light. By Nathália Urban On March 2, 2020, the former leader of the PSL, Gustavo Bebianno participated in the Brazilian […]
On Sunday May 31, mask wearing protesters broke quarantine to demonstrate for the removal of President Jair Bolsonaro, and against his efforts to decapitate Brazilian democracy by closing Congress and the Supreme Court. The protests occurred in major cities across the country. In São Paulo the demonstration on Avenida Paulista was led by an alliance […]
As Brazil’s richest man, Jorge Paulo Lemann, joins forces with fellow supporters of the 2016 coup in a drive to depose the neofascist president who they helped bring to office, former President Lula takes a pass. The PT should not get on the first bus that passes by against Jair Bolsonaro. With this metaphor, former […]
In an important new investigation, journalist Natalia Viana of Agência Pública has revealed how, during Sergio Moro’s 15 month tenure as Justice and Security Minister under Jair Bolsonaro, he quickly enabled the US Federal bureau of investigation to drastically expand its activities and reach in Brazil. The report reveals meetings involving the representatives from other […]
On Friday 22nd May 2020, Brazil eagerly anticipated the broadcast of a Bolsonaro cabinet meeting which took place exactly one month earlier on April 22. The video, whose release was mandated by Supreme Court Minister Celso de Mello, had already been the subject of various leaks to the media, and was rumoured to contain scandalous, possibly […]
“It is amazing how the coronavirus ended up associating itself with the Bolsonaro government’s ideals of liquidating people through hitting the poorest, Afro-Brazilians, the peripheries, the sick, people with disabilities, and women. The virus is perversely damaging the most poor and vulnerable. It is as if this virus is implementing a terrible plan of eugenics- […]