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CANDIDATES DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2022 IMPERIALISM POLITICS

Elections 2022: And They’re Off…

The candidates have not been officially declared for this year’s Brazilian presidential elections but we all know who they are, and they can be divided into two categories… By Brian Mier I moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1991 during the inflation crisis when Fernando Collor was president. There was plenty of poverty in my […]

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64-85 DICTATORSHIP DEMOCRACY ELECTION 2018

“But It’s Better Than PT Robbery”: Bolsonaro Torture Sketch Viralises, 3 Years On

An October 2018 sketch in Folha newspaper by screenwriter Antonio Prata is viralising three years after it was published. Putting aside what else is known about the manipulated election it preceded, ‘Obsessive-compulsive disorder. But it’s better than PT robbery’ was a tragicomic summary of a violent, manufactured anti-Workers Party hysteria which underpinned Bolsonaro’s vote – a milieu […]

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DEMOCRACY EDITORIAL INTERNATIONAL MEDIA LAVA JATO LAWFARE MEDIA

“A Sign Of Progress”: How A Tiny Corporate Media Clique Inverted Reality During Brazil’s 2016 Coup

On the fifth anniversary of Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, the role foreign media played in propagandising for it still warrants further investigation. Little of international media coverage of Brazil’s 2016 coup and its centrepiece, the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff, has dated well. But one opinion piece in US newspaper the New York Times stands out […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM CITIES DEMOCRACY SOCIAL INCLUSION

Free Private Cities: Brazil’s New Libertarian Dystopia

An international Libertarian organisation is behind proposals to privatise Brazilian cities, creating vast luxury condominiums for the most wealthy, and removing democratic rights from their citizens. Brazil’s federal government has been quietly exploring a grand libertarian experiment. Proposals have been put forward for the creation of privatised charter cities, special economic zones inspired by Honduras, Hong […]

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DEMOCRACY IMPERIALISM POLITICS UNITED STATES

US Election: What’s at stake for Brazil

If the US has been the number one enemy of democracy and freedom in Latin America for the past century, why would a new President make any difference? By Brian Mier In a recent interview for the Brazilian business newspaper O Valor, Tom Shannon, who was a key US State Department actor on Latin American […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM Coronavirus DEMOCRACY ECONOMY ELECTION 2018

Self-Isolating Brazil is bringing down its hated President

“We are watching Bolsonaro’s presidential mandate evaporate in real time.” – Brasil Wire 18/3/2020 The infamous Panelaço, the form of protest where people bang pots and pans from their windows, with their screams and demands echoing from building to building, has returned to Brazil. Watchers of history know that this doesn’t usually end well for […]

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AMAZON ECONOMY ENVIRONMENT INTERNATIONAL MEDIA MEDIA SOVEREIGNTY

How to navigate Anglo media’s Amazon doublespeak

By Brian Mier I spent last week in the Brazilian Amazon in Porto Velho, Rondonia, on the edge of what is called the arco do incendios. The “arc of fires” is a region stretching along the yet-to-be-paved highways 319 and 230, between the towns of Humaitá and Apui in Southern Amazonas, a state that still had 98% of […]

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AMAZON AUTHORITARIANISM DEMOCRACY ENVIRONMENT FOREIGN POLICY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA PATREON ONLY SOVEREIGNTY UNITED KINGDOM UNITED STATES

The Amazon’s Neocolonial Problem

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DEMOCRACY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA MEDIA POLITICS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS UNITED STATES

How The US Left Failed Brasil

Why did the US left media bash a successful democratic socialist party during a right wing coup? by Brian Mier, Sean T. Mitchell, and Bryan Pitts On November 29, 2018, the socialist magazine and news site Jacobin co-sponsored a public interview with Fernando Haddad, the 2018 presidential candidate of Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT). The former São Paulo mayor and […]

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AUTHORITARIANISM ELECTION 2018 FASCISM RIO DE JANEIRO

How conservative corruption opened a fascist door in Rio

Massive corruption in Rio de Janeiro’s disastrous Public/Private transportation partnerships brought an end to decades of MDB party hegemony, but the power vacuum that it opened was filled by neofascists. by Gabriel Deslandes When the June, 2013 protests against bus fare hikes and lack of quality public transportation rocked Brazil, protesters in Rio de Janeiro […]