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...
”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...
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...
Ten U.S. presidents, 20 CIA directors, and 56 years of covert action screwed over Brazil’s poor and paved the way for the election of Jair Bolsonaro Covid-19, murder, evangelical Christianity, crime, environmental destruction, drugs, shantytowns, inequality, corruption, doesn’t matter what you pick, Brazil is a world leader in them all—and...
“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...
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...
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...
Inauguration of a Fusion Center of Multinational Intelligence gathering located next to the pristine Iguaçu Falls—a long-held dream of the U.S. Embassy—is a case in point “The U.S. has been a huge partner to Brazil in this project and others as well and we’re taking advantage of the model that...
BRAZIL—Over the past few days and weeks, rumors of war, as if global conflict were an inevitable contagion bound to reach Indoamerica (South or Latin America), swirled at an uncanny, feverish pitch. The case for armed conflict has subsided only slightly. An unspoiled, beautiful region known as Essequibo has taken...
On January 8th, right-wing Brazilians stormed the federal building and Supreme Court in the capital of Brasília. Inspired by baseless accusations by former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro that the October elections were stolen, the rioters broke windows, smashed art, destroyed paintings, stole computers and more.