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CRIME DEMOCRACY ECONOMY LAVA JATO LAWFARE

When Janot went to Davos

In January 2017 Brazil’s Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot made an unprecedented trip to Davos for the World Economic Forum, during which he addressed assembled billionaires about the strides his country was making in combatting corruption. The nature and purpose of his trip raised eyebrows. Federal deputy Paulo Pimenta (PT-RS) remarked: “I did not find any legal provisions […]

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DEMOCRACY FOREIGN POLICY LAVA JATO LAWFARE OPINION UNITED STATES

The US & Brasil’s Coup of 2016

What we know, what we don’t, and what we can deduce about the role of geopolitics & hegemony in the Soft Coup which removed President Dilma Rousseff and her Government. By Brian Mier During a recent visit to Porto Alegre, Cuban professor and writer Raúl Antonio Capote Fernández talked about a 20 year recruitment process […]

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CITIES DEMOCRACY HOUSING SOCIAL INCLUSION SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Urban Policy & Public Participation in Brasil

Brasil has had some of the world’s most progressive city governments over the past 3 decades. For all the news on corruption spread by the international media leading up to last years’ coup, one wouldn’t imagine that some things that are standard practice in American cities like Chicago, such as no-bid contracts and lack of […]

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DEMOCRACY EQUALITY OPINION POLITICS SOCIAL INCLUSION

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

I touted this idea four years ago  when we watched Obama’s second inauguration and noticed that Latin America was completely absent from any major initiative. Now, more than ever, the idea starts to gather gravity. Brazil and the US are becoming more alike, at an accelerated pace. After suffering at length with the slow and […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM CITIES CRIME DEMOCRACY HOUSING LGBT SÃO PAULO SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

The Golpista Everyman & the “Clean” City

In October São Paulo voters went to the polls and threw out one of the World’s most progressive big city governments in favor of João Doria, from the conservative PSDB party. Doria, the former star of the Brazilian franchise of Donald Trump’s reality show, The Apprentice, campaigned on the vague promises of “cleaning up the […]

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DEMOCRACY FOREIGN POLICY LAVA JATO LAWFARE OPINION UNITED STATES

Brazil’s Putschists, made in the USA

As a series of widely publicized corruption accusations against former President Luis “Lula” Inacio da Silva fail to pan out, the local and international press continue to give much larger coverage to the charges than the subsequent proof of innocence. Most of these charges have been raised and dropped by a Parana-based federal judge, Sergio […]

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64-85 DICTATORSHIP DEMOCRACY POLITICS

A family tree of Brazilian political parties

Source: A árvore genealógica dos partidos políticos do Brasil by Felipe Duarte. Who hasn’t been curious to draw a family tree? Especially if you’re from a family of immigrants (German, Italian, etc.) You know that hint of curiosity, which leads you to think, ‘where do I come from and where am I going?’ Well these […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY EDUCATION FASCISM SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

In Post-Coup Brazil, Struggle is a Crime

By Tiago Rodrigues Santos Since 1984, the MST (Movimento Sem Terra or Landless Rural Workers’ Movement) has voluntarily built 1500 public schools in its agrarian reform settlement villages in the Brasilian countryside. One highlight of this long process was the construction of its Florestan Fernandes National school, which contains a working organic farm and, through […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY LAVA JATO LAWFARE UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

“Captain Brazil” & the arbitrary manipulation of Public Life

A theatre play that mocks the violence of the Military Police was interrupted by the Military Police itself, indicative of a dark moment — Brazil’s flirtation with fascism. The play, titled “Blitz: The empire that never sleeps”, will face charges of “disrespect for national symbols”. One of the play’s crew noted that other types of censorship existed, […]

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DEMOCRACY ECONOMY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

The Failed Experiment Of European Austerity Comes To Brazil

Brazil has been submitted to the arbitrary rhetoric that imposes austerity as the only way to revive the economy. In order to improve public accounts and restore the competitiveness of the economy by reducing wages and public spending, austerity is based on controversial and even fallacious arguments. The aim to redraw the state’s role to […]