The news coverage of the demonstrations last Sunday and Friday in much of the media, especially Globo and Globo News, seriously confused journalism with propaganda. Let’s look at some examples: In demonstrations on Sunday (in favour of impeachment), there was live broadcast by these TV channels all day, almost without interruption. The demonstrations on Friday (against […]
The situation in Brasil at the time of publication is extremely complicated & fluid but to better understand it, it needs to be broken down into its related component parts. This article will be updated with significant developments. 1. Elections At the core of this unrest is that the losing side never properly accepted defeat at […]
At the March 13 Anti-Government protest, PSDB Opposition Politicians, São Paulo State Governor Geraldo Alckmin & defeated 2014 Presidential Candidate Aécio Neves, can surely only have expected a heroes welcome on Avenida Paulista. Their actually hostile reception from some demonstrators is a sign that the popular anti-corruption movement their side helped create & sought to […]
This article “Brasil & CIA” originally appeared in CounterSpy, April – May 1979, pp. 4-23 and has since passed into the public domain. We believe it to be a rare & valuable document of the period, with particular historical relevance today. More information on involvement in the Coup from since-declassified U.S. Government documents can be found at […]
The argument for a moderating power “above political disputes” that could step in in the name of the people to enact regime change began during imperial times and is still used as a justification for returning power to the royal family today. During the 1940s, this so-called “moderating role” was passed on to the Brasilian […]
Those of you that have been following me for a while know that I often write about the need for serenity in politics. I have said countless times that It is not acceptable to treat political opponents as enemies. I have pointed out that violence undermines the political debate. This posture has always come naturally […]
The depiction of Operation Lava Jato as an apolitical moral crusade, a new essentialist myth and a natural phase in the country’s development, is a divisive one in Brazil but nevertheless a narrative that Anglo media commentators have been almost unanimous in echoing. It is however becoming an increasingly difficult position to defend. The assertion that […]
“Brazil: Social Change from Import-Substitution to Neoliberalism and the ‘Events of June’” By Alfredo Saad Filho originally published at nuvole.it Introduction [1] Large demonstrations erupted unexpectedly in Brazil in June 2013. The wave of protests lasted until mid-July, and it involved well over one million people in several hundred cities. At an immediate level, the […]
After the lowest turn out yet for a pro-impeachment protest last Sunday, hundreds of thousands of social movement and labour union members took to the streets wednesday 16/12 in at least 23 states to protest what they call a Coup attempt against President Dilma Rousseff. In São Paulo, where Brasil Wire witnessed at least 5 blocks […]
By Mauricio Savarese. Original article published here. I stopped writing about Brazilian politics for two months because of two different reasons. The first was the excess of work, which is likely to become a permanent feature of mine. The second was the complete unpredictability of how much the political and economic crisis could be aggravated. After […]