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ECONOMY ENERGY HISTORY NEOLIBERALISM POLITICS SOVEREIGNTY

Bolsonaro’s Eletrobrás Privatization Buries Vargas Era

The 2016 coup, which started with the delivery of Petrobras, culminates with the privatization of the state electric company, Eletrobrás. By Leonardo Attuch* In December 1994, on the eve of his presidential inauguration, then-Senator Fernando Henrique Cardoso took the podium to say goodbye to parliament. The speech went down in history because it announced what […]

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ENERGY ENVIRONMENT POLITICS

Foreign meddling: Bolsonaro moves to help Trump reelection

Brazilian lawmaker opens inquiry into controversial import tax break extension By Nathália Urban Last week, Brazilian Congressman Ivan Valente (PSOL-SP) revealed a telegram between US Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel and Todd Chapman, US ambassador to Brazil regarding the extension of a controversial ethanol policy to boost President Donald Trump’s electoral chances. In […]

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ENERGY OPINION UNITED STATES

Ethanol: Fuel for Corruption

Ethanol burst into the news cycle again last week with reports that the US ambassador to Brazil had lobbied for the cancellation of an ethanol tariff, arguing that the move would help Trump’s reelection. As historians writing a transnational history of ethanol in Brazil and the United States, we recognize the episode as part of […]

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ENERGY ENVIRONMENT NORTH EAST

Save our Shores: The Oil Disaster in Brazil’s North East

By Nate Allen. “This is the biggest (marine) environmental disaster in the history of Brazil, if we consider the length of the coastline that has been affected”, said biologist Flavio Lima. Brazil’s Northeast 2,000 km shoreline has been splattered with oil, from large swathes to millions of tiny blobs that are the size of a […]

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DEMOCRACY ENERGY PETROBRAS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS SOVEREIGNTY

Hunger strikers denounce attacks on Brasil’s sovereignty

By Diego Sartorato. Original article at Brasil de Fato. Republished with permission. Targeted by the Michel Temer administration, Brazil’s sovereignty is the key topic of the debate about the political and economic paths the country should take. And sovereignty is also highlighted in the “Hunger strike for justice in the Supreme Court” manifesto released by activists […]