“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...
The elections in Brazil are underway with the first round of votes coming in; leftist candidate Lula De Silva taking 48% of the votes with far-right candidate Bolsonaro behind with 43% of votes. All eyes are on Brazil as the pink tide spreads further across Latin America. We speak with Zoe Alexandra of People’s Dispatch who is on the ground now in Brazil to share with us the mood on the ground and what the results of this first round of voting means for the leftist future in Brazil...
In private talks with their Brazilian counterparts, U.S. diplomats have expressed interest in resuming unrestricted access and use of air base installations in Natal, capital of the northeastern state of Rio Grande do Norte, as well as on the island of Fernando de Noronha. Their central argument involves the so-called...
Evidence collected by The Intercept revealed that Operation Car Wash, an anti-corruption investigation led by Brazilian Federal Prosecutors and the Federal Police from 2014 to 2021, received support from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The operation had a significant impact on Brazilian politics, including the undermining of the...
BRAZIL—As if: questions shrouding the loyalty of Brazil’s armed forces toward the country’s federal government did not persist; the potential of being affected by a colonial-inspired conflict involving Venezuela and Guyana over the oil-rich region of Essequibo; and Operation Shield, a police offensive following the death of a military...
”It’s state terror / I’m gonna speak up / Maybe my time’s up / The world doesn’t accept trophies I’ve won in battle … / That’s why there’s hate in my words / Explain to a child why his hero is behind bars.”— lyrics from “Anti O.R.U.A.M. Law,” by...
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...
“Blindness that affects the other side also affects us.” — Mano Brown The saying goes: Um negócio pra boi dormir.” Literally, the Brazilian aphorism means: (To give) something for the bull to sleep. In practical layman’s terms it pre-figures social interactions where somebody, a group of people or an entity, says...
(2023)Black-geared men, what’s your mission?Enter the favela and leave bodies on the groundBlack-geared men, what do you do?We do things that shock Satan…..Black-geared men, to bring this to an endWe’re BOPE and we’re trained to killAnd I’ll killI’ll destroyDestructionThat’s our mission—Regimented cadence performed by Rio de Janeiro’s Special Operations...
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...