Categories
ARMED FORCES AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY

Meet the Military Junta running Brasil

A Junta has taken the power that was left vacant by the cartoon caricatures of Bolsonaro and his sons. Captain Jair may continue living in the Presidential Palace and even play video games in his office in the Capital building. All he has to do is obey his commanding officers, the generals. by Mauro Lopes It was a […]

Categories
DEMOCRACY HOUSING HOUSING MOVEMENTS SOCIAL INCLUSION SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Bolsonaro and the death of social housing

The Bolsonaro government freezes funding for self-managed social housing construction, destroys the Ministry of Cities and tries to declare the housing movements as terrorists by Brian Mier* Approximately 7 million Brazilian families live in substandard housing, in shacks or simple brick houses that are often built in areas at risk of flooding or landslides that […]

Categories
AMAZON AUTHORITARIANISM DEFENCE FOREIGN POLICY LAVA JATO LAWFARE SOVEREIGNTY TECHNOLOGY UNITED STATES

SOUTHCOM: Bolsonaro barks for his master

Admiral Craig Faller announces an unprecedented joint military operation with Brazil to the US Senate Armed Services Committee. What does it mean for national sovereignty? By Marcelo Zero Brazil’s participation in US SOUTHCOM is part of a broader process that began with the coup of 2016. The aggression against our sovereignty is much more serious […]

Categories
DEMOCRACY LAVA JATO MEDIA UNDERSTANDING BRASIL

Ricardo Boechat, Journalist. 1952-2019.

On the morning of 11th January, a 44 year old Bell B06 JetRanger helicopter carrying TV Bandeirantes News Anchor, Ricardo Boechat crashed in São Paulo, near Anhanguera, as it brought the veteran journalist back from a speech in the neighbouring city of Campinas. Boechat’s death became the latest in a succession of national tragedies to hit […]

Categories
DEMOCRACY SOCIAL INCLUSION SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

The fight begins against Brazil’s draconian pension reforms

The Unions and Social movements successfully blocked Michel Temer’s neoliberal pension reforms but new proposals by the Bolsonaro administration are even worse by Brian Mier In a period marked by destruction of most of Brazil’s labor rights and the first ever lowering of the minimum wage, one of the only glimmers of hope was the […]

Categories
LAVA JATO LAWFARE POLITICS UNITED STATES

6 holes in the new lawfare conviction against Lula

Charges so flimsy that they could only be upheld in a State of Exception. by Brian Mier On February 6, interim judge Gabriela Hardt, who recently replaced Sergio Moro in the Operation Car Wash investigation, convicted Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on corruption charges related to alleged illegal reforms on a vacation property in Atibaia, […]

Categories
AGRARIAN REFORM AUTHORITARIANISM ENVIRONMENT EQUALITY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Not one more drop of blood spilled

Indigenous people and their supporters protest in 51 cities around the World against the neo-fascist Bolsonaro administration’s dismantling of reservations, cultural and land rights and his supporters’ genocidal threats. by Brian Mier January 31 was marked by protests for Brazilian Indigenous rights in cities across Brazil as people took to the streets to protest a […]

Categories
AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY LAVA JATO LAWFARE

Sergio Moro bans Lula from brother’s funeral

Right wing extremist Jair Bolsonaro’s Justice Minister violates article 120 of the Brazilian Criminal Code and denies Lula a right that was respected even during the repressive Military Dictatorship. by Brian Mier On January 29, Genival Inácio “Vavá” da Silva died of cancer at the age of 79. Vavá was former President Lula’s older brother and […]

Categories
CULTURE DEMOCRACY MUSIC

On Music And Politics: An Interview With OTTO

By Graham Douglas for Sounds and Colours. It was a hot day in the beautiful town of Amarante, the Portuguese base of Brazil’s MIMO festival. I’m chatting to Otto prior to his show at Parque Ribeirinho in the evening and a day after seeing him talk at a forum about the state of new Brazilian […]

Categories
AUTHORITARIANISM BLOG CRIME DEMOCRACY

Power, Corruption And Lies: 3 Weeks In, Bolsonaro Regime Is Falling Apart

As Brazil’s Neofascist President Jair Bolsonaro and his Justice and Security Minister Sérgio Moro address the World Economic Forum at Davos, on the fight against corruption and need for unrestricted foreign investment in Brazil, the clock is already ticking for his administration and his Presidency. “They can label me anything, homophobic, racist….they just can’t call me […]