“It’s also in your hands to prevent the return of corruption and robbery to take hold of the country…It’s you who can prevent the release of a prisoner convicted of corruption” —Geraldo Alckmin speaking during his 2018 presidential campaign. Four years on, the former governor of São Paulo is...
Flashbacks, possibly nightmares, haunt the ghost of an old empire. In December 2023, 57 years after the sun and Union Jack descended over British Guiana, Britain’s HMS Trent, a Royal Navy patrol vessel, was spotted sailing into a Guyanese harbor. “Nothing that we did in the past or we will...
The large-scale operation in Rio de Janeiro carried out on October 28, which has already left at least 121 people dead and once again laid bare the logic of war applied to poverty, should not be understood solely as a local public-security issue. It is part of a global control...
Political Intrigue Grows As Brazilian Election Approaches Déjà vu is playing out in Brazil. After protracted media and judicial campaigns against former president Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva, translating into his imprisonment for one-and-a-half years, the effect has been minimal, if any, as far as the 2022 presidential polls are...
Private interests and foreign influence helped to pave the path toward Brazil’s military dictatorship (1964-1985). The armed forces is not an institution separate from society...It’s a reflection of that violent and authoritarian society. However, they are more dangerous because they have the prerogative to legally use firearms. —Priscila Brandão An...
Trade warfare and interference in the free functioning of the judiciary are the current expressions of United States interventionism in Latin America, particularly in Brazil. With the largest economy in the region and the eighth-largest in the world, Brazil holds a central strategic importance for the United States in its...
Newly elected President Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva remains in hotel accommodation in Brasília, still unable to reside in the Alvorada Palace due to material damage and security concerns. On the 21st of January, Brazilian president, Luíz Inácio Lula da Silva, sacked general Júlio César de Arruda as head of...
Preface Evidence related to local Rio de Janeiro intelligence operations in these matters have not been ascertained. Incidents are fairly new and ongoing. Two separate arrests of the main subject of this investigative series occurred over a two-week period in February 2025: One was for reckless driving; the other involved...
“This pact exists throughout Brazil. It’s not privileged to Rio de Janeiro. Truth be said, it’s a very organic, structured relationship between Rio de Janeiro politicians, militia groups and the police. How does it function? Militias control growing amounts of territory. Approximately one million to 1.9 million people (in Rio...
In Part I of our series, we reflected on some of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s personal and political background, as well as his success during two terms as president of Brazil. We also highlighted one of his long-time political rivals, former São Paulo governor Geraldo Alckmin. Alckmin's sudden...