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Brazil

Brazil

Leaked Documents Show Brazil’s Bolsonaro Has Grave Plans for Amazon Rainforest

DemocraciaAbierta had access to PowerPoints from a meeting between members of the Bolsonaro government. The slides show that the current government intends to use the president's hate speech to diminish the power of minorities living in the region and to implement predatory projects that could have a devastating environmental impact for the Amazon. byManuella Libardi Wildfires have raging through the Amazon rainforest for weeks. Satellite data show an 84% increase of fire outbreaks on the same period in 2018. (Photo: Pixabay) Leaked documents show that Jair Bolsonaro's government intends to use the Brazilian president's hate speech to isolate minorities living in the Amazon region. The PowerPoint slides, which democraciaAbierta has seen, also reveal plans to implement predator...
Brazil

Bolsonaro's 'Disastrous' Policies on Amazon Led to Fires, Say Observers

"We must stand together behind the Indigenous communities and leaders across the Amazon region—from Brazil to Ecuador and beyond. For them the Amazon is more than the lungs of the world, it is their home." byEoin Higgins A fire burns trees next to grazing land in the Amazon basin in Ze Doca, Brazil. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) The Amazon is burning and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is to blame.  That's the general consensus from observers and green groups who say the right-wing firebrand's anti-environmental policies shoulder the lion's share of the responsibility for thousands of fires across the rainforest, known as the world's lungs The fires, as writer Wendi Muse pointed out on Twitter, aren't spontaneous, but are  believed to be set by farmers an...
Brazil

Brazil's Car Wash Investigation in the Mud: A Dirty War against the Left

By: Edu Montesanti Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been in prison since April 2018, over corruption charges that media leaks exposed as politically motivated. | P Brazil's Car Wash Investigation in the Mud by Edu Montesanti "I simply can't believe what is happening in Brazil," says Noam Chomsky exclusively to Edu Montesanti. As the Brazilian right-wing is imposing on the South American country a grave regression, The Intercept has revealed that their tool to take back power through the local justice system, especially arresting Lula da Silva, is as disgusting as Bolsonaro's nation in these times. "I simply can't believe what is happening in Brazil," says Noam Chomsky exclusively to author Edu Montesanti. RELATED: Politics, Lack of Evidence Behind Lula Trial: In...
Brazil

Brazilian Prosecutors to Bar Bolsonaro’s Son from US Envoy Role

Brazil's far-right President has been accused of nepotism after he sought the appointment of his son as the ambassador to the United States. By Telesur Global Research Brazilian federal prosecutors are seeking to prevent far-right President Jair Bolsanaro’s son from becoming the new ambassador to the United States.  The prosecutors filed a court injunction on Monday to bar Eduardo Bolsonaro from this ambassador role, citing the latter’s lack of experience as one of the main factors for their intervention. The public prosecutor’s office asked a Brasilia court to rule on the need for non-diplomats to have relevant international experience and served the nation abroad for at least three years. Opposition lawmakers have als...
Brazil

Brazil Trump Designates Brazil a ‘Major Non-Nato Ally’

Sixteen countries have major non-NATO ally status including South Korea, Australia, Argentina, and Kuwait. United States President Donald Trump officially nominated Brazil a "major non-NATO ally” Wednesday, making good on a pledge Trump made to Brazil’s far-right president in March.  Brazilians Protest Bolsonaro’s Threats Against Glenn Greenwald The designation was announced by the White House and provides the South American country special access to U.S. weapons and equipment, as well as military training only available for countries that are part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This was a promise the U.S. president made his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsonaro, as the countries reinforce military ties not seen since the mi...
Brazil

Brazil: Bolsonaro Questions anti-Slave Labor Law, Says It

According to the Brazilian President, the rules to avoid precarious work go against the competitiveness of companies. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro Tuesday criticized the 2014 Constitutional Amendment which orders the expropriation of properties of those landowners whose activities occur through "work analogous to slave labor." Bolsonaro: Hunger, Poverty in Brazil: 'A Big Lie' "What is slave work?" Bolsonaro asked and hinted that this idea had been placed into the Brazilian Constitution "because, until recently, the state we were building was a totalitarian or socialist state. Through the laws, we were getting closer to socialism and communism.” The far-right president talked about this issue during an event earlie...
Brazil

Nearly 40kg of cocaine found in Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro's G20 plane entourage

NOVANEWS Military official arrested on route to G20 summit in Japan after drug found in luggage. He is the controversial Brazilian president who has promised zero tolerance on the country’s pervasive drugs trade – but it seems Jair Bolsonaro will need to start with his own entourage. A member of his official military detail has been arrested en route to this week’s G20 summit in Japan – after being found with some 39kg of cocaine. The Brazilian Air Force officer was detained during a stopover in Seville, Spain. “The serviceman was found to have cocaine in his hand baggage that weighed a total of 39kg,” a spokesperson for the Guardia Civil said. “He was arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking and is currently in custody at our Seville headquarters waiting to appear before a jud...
Brazil

Brazil Guts Environmental Agencies, Clears Way for Unchecked Deforestation

NOVANEWS By Sue Branford and Thais Borges Mongabay President Jair Bolsonaro appears intent on decriminalizing Amazon deforestation, ending most fines, straitjacketing law enforcement, and gutting environmental agencies with mass firings. *** The Brazilian government’s environmental agency, IBAMA, has so far this year imposed the lowest number of fines for illegal deforestation in at least 11 years, while the country’s other leading environmental agency and its federal parks’ protector, ICMBio (the Chico Mendes Institute), did not carry out any operations at all to monitor deforestation in May. These developments, reported by the organizations themselves, reflect the extent to which the country’s environmental policies and law enforcement agencies are being dismantled by the govern...
Brazil

'Leave Venezuela Alone': Brazil's Lula Tells Trump in Interview

NOVANEWS Brazilian former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva participates in an academic event in Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 16, 2019. | Photo: EFE Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva requested respect for the Venezuelan people and their right to decide their own future. In an interview aired Tuesday from the Federal Prison in Curitiba, Brazil, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva commented on the behaviour of right-wing governments and recommended to the United States President Donald Trump that he takes care of his own country and leave Venezuela in peace. Brazil Needs More Education, Not More Guns', Lula Warns “The treatment they are giving to Venezuela is not right. Venezuela must have sovereignty, it must have self-determination. Venezuela is a...
Brazil

Brazil Loosens Gun Control, Civilians Can Own Military Rifles

NOVANEWS Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro signed a gun decree that allows civilians to buy and use military rifles. | Photo: Reuters Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree this month losing civilian access to military-style weapons.   Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree this month which will allow citizens to possess rifles with four times the amount of firepower 'Brazil Needs More Education, Not More Guns', Lula Warns Before the decree, the possession of all weapons with firing projectile above 407 joules (the amount of energy released at the moment of firing) was restricted to state security forces. Bolsonaro's decree allows the public to purchase the T4 rifle, a 5.56 caliber weapon with a force of 1320 joules. ​​​​​The T...