The increases in gasoline, cooking gas and diesel prices can not be treated merely as a tax issue. They are the result of a management problem in Petrobras, which has been operating exclusively to serve market demands. In October 2016, under endorsement from the Temer government, company president Pedro Parente adopted an international pricing policy […]
Ex-President Lula has more voter intention than the sum of his 13 closest rivals in the new poll. Even if there were a second round, he would beat any other candidate. In an unprecedented situation in Western history, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva continues to lead all presidential election polls by a wide margin from behind […]
The following article is an edited version of the transcripts of an interview Chuck Mertz conducted with Brasil Wire editor Brian Mier on This is Hell radio show, on Chicago’s WNUR, on December 16, 2017. Live from São Paulo, Brian Mier explains why the Northern media gets Brazilian politics so wrong – echoing US State […]
By Fernando Horta. There are astonishing similarities between post-World War 2 US and present day Brazil. Both countries had same-party rule for extended periods. In the US Roosevelt and Truman were in office for five terms, from 1933 to 1952. In Brazil, the Workers Party (PT) dominated the executive branch for 13 years, from 2003 until […]
By Brian Mier. The political situation in Brazil is getting confusing, even for people who study it. To summarise recent events, in April the organized left held the largest general strike in Latin America this Century, demanding for a halt to the austerity reforms and for illegitimate president Michel Temer’s immediate resignation. On May 24, […]
By Amauri Gonzo. It is always hard to explain Brazilian politics to foreigners. There is a lot of history and many characters and there are 25 political parties represented in Congress alone. It is even harder to explain how illegitimate president Michel Temer, with an approval rating that fluctuates between 2 and 7% and with […]
On May 18 as part of a corruption investigation that was not directly related to Operation Car Wash, Joesley Batista, a director of JBS, the world’s largest meat packing corporation, dropped a bombshell, announcing that his company had paid bribes to around 2000 Brazilian politicians including coup President Michel Temer and Anglophone media-backed 2014 presidential […]
By Joana Tavares / Brasil de Fato. May 18, 2017. Joao Pedro Stedile, leader of the Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) and of the People’s Brazil Front, analyzes the Brazilian political scenario, the role of the O Globo media network, the internal divisions among the putschists, and speaks about the need of building a transition […]
Alfredo Saad-Filho 23 May 2017. Originally published at OpenDemocracy. “Out with Temer – direct elections now!”. Amid meltdown in Brazil, the left calls for democracy, while the right must find ways to deny the people a voice. The Brazilian Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) won the country’s presidential elections four times in a row; first with […]
Chuck Mertz: Remember all the reporting and media coverage being given to the protests against the alleged corruption of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff that led to her ouster in what at least could be called a soft coup hiding behind a mask of lawful impeachment? Remember that? So why is the media today ignoring the […]