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THE Brazil Thread pt 2 (merged)

A forum for discussion of regional topics including oil depletion but also government, society, and the future.

Re: Look what happens in a police strike

Unread postby eXpat » Sun 05 Feb 2012, 10:33:27

Novus wrote:Looks pretty orderly to me. No Fires, no dead bodies in the street. The basketball riots in LA were worse than this.

That´s true, in many aspecs LA riots remain a textbook case of what a violent state of civil unrest is.
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Re: Look what happens in a police strike

Unread postby Pretorian » Sun 05 Feb 2012, 13:45:31

Novus wrote:Looks pretty orderly to me. No Fires, no dead bodies in the street. The basketball riots in LA were worse than this.



too many whites in the crowd it seems.
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Re: Look what happens in a police strike

Unread postby eXpat » Fri 10 Feb 2012, 20:40:19

Strike extends to Rio
Police strike brings chaos to Brazil
Officers tell tourists to stay away from famous carnival as walkout turns violent
Brazil's armed forces are on standby to take over in Rio de Janeiro after police went on strike just days before the start of the city's famous carnival.

The stand-off over salaries and working conditions follows 11 days of violent clashes in Salvador, the capital of the north-eastern state of Bahia, between striking officers and federal authorities brought in to restore order.

Protesting police and firefighters cried: "Carnival is over! Carnival is over!" in Salvador and the US warned tourists to stay away. It is feared the unrest could spread across the country now that Rio's force has also walked out.

About 2,000 police and firefighters gathered noisily but peacefully in Rio's city centre yesterday and voted to strike. Many military police in Rio are working long hours in dangerous conditions to rid the city's shanty towns, or favelas, of armed drug gangs long hours in dangerous conditions.

Officially, the carnival starts on 16 February, though many street parties have already begun. The expected arrival of millions of tourists would pose a public security challenge even with a fully operational police force.

In Salvador, a police salary starts at 1,900 Brazilian reals (£700) a month, but in Rio wages can be as little as 1,030 reals, despite a high cost of living. The city council has voted to increase police salaries by up to 39 per cent, but the rise will not take effect until next year and officers want it sooner.
...
Those in Salvador describe a climate of fear, with hundreds of cars robbed, buses set on fire, shops destroyed and people afraid to leave their homes.

The number of murders has also doubled compared with the same period last year. Police have been blamed for many acts of violence, to demonstrate to the authorities that the city will grind to a halt without effective policing.

João Faria, an engineer, was in Salvador when suspected striking police officers stopped the bus he was on. "About four men with their faces covered with T-shirts, waving guns, stopped the bus. They ordered it to be moved to the middle of the street, stopping all the traffic. When I saw the gun, I thought I was going to get shot. People were very frightened," he said. "It took me three hours to get away."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/police-strike-brings-chaos-to-brazil-6720040.html
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May be going to Brazil

Unread postby vampyregirl » Sat 06 Apr 2013, 13:02:38

I have an opportunity to work down there. I talked to my son about it, he has no problem staying with my mom while i'm away. i haven't decided yet but i'm learning some Portugese in case i do.
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Drought Forcing Brazil To Turn To Gas

Unread postby GHung » Fri 23 Jan 2015, 15:13:42

Brazil is dealing with one of its worst droughts in years, causing the city of Sao Paulo to suffer through rolling blackouts.

Blistering heat and scant rainfall have depleted reserves at Brazil’s hydroelectric plants, leaving power generation at precariously low levels. On January 19, Brazil’s national grid operator ONS cut power to several major Brazilian cities, including Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Commuters on the subway in Sao Paulo even had to disembark from a train and walk along the rails after power to parts of the subway system went out.

A failure in transmission equipment was in part to blame, but the multiyear drought is the bigger underlying cause. Water levels at the Cantareira system, a massive reservoir that provides water to more than 20 million people in and around Sao Paulo, are at just 5.8 percent of its capacity. Brazil sources about 71 percent of its electricity from hydroelectric plants, so a drought not only threatens the agricultural sector – which is a critical part of Brazil’s economy – but it also threatens to cut off energy supplies to Brazil’s most important economic centers.

More blackouts are expected if the drought doesn’t subside. And that could push Brazil into a recession. Vicente Andreu, president of Brazil’s Water Regulatory Agency, said in October that the residents of Sao Paulo should prepare for a “collapse like we have never seen before” if water levels don’t recover.

To make up for the power shortfall, utilities have to burn more natural gas, which is much more expensive in Brazil. The drought, and subsequent increase in demand for natural gas, is expected to push up retail and commercial electricity bills by as much as 30 percent this year.

Scientists have linked the shortage in rainfall to deforestation in the Amazon, which has led to higher temperatures and lower precipitation across much of Brazil. Ironically, much of the deforestation is driven by the agricultural sector, which is now also suffering under the extensive drought.

Brazil is planning to build more coal and natural gas-fired power generation to replace its increasingly unreliable hydropower. This turns out to be another flash of irony – the world’s greenest industrial economy is set to rely upon more fossil fuels, and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions will contribute to climate change, which is expected to worsen severe droughts hitting Brazil.

More: http://oilprice.com/Energy/Natural-Gas/ ... o-Gas.html

Knock on effects - Feedback loops - Cascading Systemic Collapse?

Nah,, they'll figure out something. Maybe buy everyone a solar panel like Peru did. Not many indiginous cultures left in Brazil to ruin anyway, eh? I'm thinking that If anyone wants to know what evolving overshoot in the light of climate change looks like, this is it.
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Thousands protest in Brazil

Unread postby onlooker » Sun 16 Aug 2015, 17:22:37

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33953606
Thousands protest in Brazil yet I am dismayed by this type of story. Why? Because their main demand is the impeachment of their President. Okay so that happens then what. Well some other person takes power just as corrupt and just as ineffective as one person cannot change a country or a system. Why do people protest against one person or even several when in fact the problem is the system. Also, inevitablY people are riled up by economic issues yet fail to see how ominous and even more harmful environmental issues are becoming. Look at the drought in Sao Paulo and how that is making the access to potable water very difficult for many. Just like the Occupy movement in US focused exclusively on economic issues, the economy is but a sub-set of the Earth if the Earth is no longer habitable or if resources dwindle then NO economy and no life. WAKE UP WORLD.
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Re: Thousands protest in Brazil

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Mon 17 Aug 2015, 00:58:30

onlooker wrote:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33953606
Thousands protest in Brazil yet I am dismayed by this type of story. Why? Because their main demand is the impeachment of their President. Okay so that happens then what. Well some other person takes power just as corrupt and just as ineffective as one person cannot change a country or a system. Why do people protest against one person or even several when in fact the problem is the system. Also, inevitablY people are riled up by economic issues yet fail to see how ominous and even more harmful environmental issues are becoming. Look at the drought in Sao Paulo and how that is making the access to potable water very difficult for many. Just like the Occupy movement in US focused exclusively on economic issues, the economy is but a sub-set of the Earth if the Earth is no longer habitable or if resources dwindle then NO economy and no life. WAKE UP WORLD.

So OK. I've read quite a few articles on sites like Bloomberg which claim that the current socialist President's policies are responsible for MUCH of the current economic pain in Brazil. So who should they blame?

And, once again I'll ask, what would you suggest as a realistic and specitic alternative to "fix things"?

By the way, if you try to get people (even voluntarily) to reproduce less, they call you "Hitler". Heaven help you if you try to get people to reduce their family's consumption for the sake of (gasp) the planet. So I'm all ears. And, hint: shouting "WAKE UP WORLD" doesn't seem to do much good, as far as I can tell.
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Re: Thousands protest in Brazil

Unread postby Sixstrings » Mon 17 Aug 2015, 01:19:46

That's a lot of protesters:

Image

According to the article, it's about the economy and also a corruption scandal with state oil company Petrobas.

Article also says the protesters are "overhwelmingly white and middle class."

Roussef is Workers' Party. So it looks to me like a Venezuela situation -- leftist president gets voted in, then things go all to hell and fall apart, then the middle class protests demanding the conservative party be put back in charge. If demographics are overwhelmingly in favor of Workers' Party victories, and conservatives can't ever win anymore, then you can understand their frustration.

It's a bit of a problem in latin america, just as with Venezuela -- I'm all for a lot of left issues, but OTOH you can't go too far with it where the economy is tanking and it's just all handouts -- plus corrupt, maybe oppressive leftist leadership and the place just gets worse and worse.

Brazil had a military dictatorship just 30 years ago -- so, according to the article, some say impeachment of a democratically elected president isn't a good precedent and road to start going down.

Article says that if the economy continues to get worse and inflation goes up any more, then Roussef could have her working class base protesting against her too, and not just all the middle class.
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Re: THE Brazil Thread pt 2 (merged)

Unread postby Tanada » Tue 01 Dec 2015, 23:50:59

From one year ago today, Brazil resuming construction of Coal and Natural Gas power stations to feed its electric grid as Hydropower suffers from drought.

Sao Paolo, Brazil — The Brazilian government is seeking to award contracts in an auction tomorrow for natural gas- and coal-fueled power plants, reversing a drive that previously favored renewable-energy projects. It would lead to the first new thermal plants in three years, after the government scaled back such projects and awarded wind contracts starting in 2009 and solar energy earlier this year.

The government is seeking to award contracts in an auction tomorrow for natural gas- and coal-fueled power plants, reversing a drive that previously favored renewable-energy projects. It would lead to the first new thermal plants in three years, after the government scaled back such projects and awarded wind contracts starting in 2009 and solar energy earlier this year.

Thermal plants, which are faster and easier to build and open than wind or hydroelectric facilities, will be used as a stopgap to ensure energy supplies after the worst drought in eight decades dried up reservoirs at hydro-dams that produce 70 percent of Brazil’s power. Without the extra energy supplies, Brazil may be forced to ration power as soon as next year if the drought continues, said BNP Paribas SA and consultant Thymos Energia.

“Coal and gas plants can meet an urgent need,” Bernardo Bezerra, a manager at the Rio de Janeiro-based energy consultant PSR, said in an interview. “The big question mark is: Is it worth contracting an expensive source of energy for so many years, when you have cheaper and cleaner sources available like wind simply because of a short-term need?”


http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/new ... ollow.html
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Re: THE Brazil Thread pt 2 (merged)

Unread postby kanon » Wed 02 Dec 2015, 23:33:12

Brazil seems to have ended its tax on solar panels. Multiple Brazilian States Implement ICMS Tax Exemption For Net-Metered Solar PV Systems and Brazil Could Reach 2 GW Rooftop Solar By 2024 After Tax Is Dismissed.

I thought it was strange that Brazil would have taxes to discourage solar panels, but I guess the government was protecting the hydro-electric interests. I am wondering it all this is just arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as the drought situation proceeds apace.
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Re: THE Brazil Thread pt 2 (merged)

Unread postby Tanada » Thu 03 Dec 2015, 00:03:40

kanon wrote:Brazil seems to have ended its tax on solar panels. Multiple Brazilian States Implement ICMS Tax Exemption For Net-Metered Solar PV Systems and Brazil Could Reach 2 GW Rooftop Solar By 2024 After Tax Is Dismissed.

I thought it was strange that Brazil would have taxes to discourage solar panels, but I guess the government was protecting the hydro-electric interests. I am wondering it all this is just arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as the drought situation proceeds apace.


Given the tropical location Solar PV makes a heck of a lot of sense in Brazil. Nice to see some common sense breaking out.
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Brazil Warns Women: Don't Get Pregnant!

Unread postby dohboi » Fri 04 Dec 2015, 13:18:45

Brazil warns women not to get pregnant as zika virus is linked to rare birth defect

Health authorities examine link between rise in number of babies born with microcephaly and epidemic of mosquito-borne disease in country’s north-east


... So far this year, 1,248 cases have been reported in 14 states across Brazil, compared with just 59 in 2014.

The north-east has been hit hardest, with 646 cases reported in the state of Pernambuco, where the local authorities declared a state of emergency on 1 December.

An autopsy on a baby born with microcephaly in the neighbouring state of Ceará revealed the presence of the zika virus, a disease carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which also transmits dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya.

In an unprecedented move, on 28 November the Brazilian health ministry linked the zika virus to the microcephaly epidemic. Previously, the condition had been attributed to radiation or drug use by the expectant mother.

...Though it is not official policy, Cláudio Maierovitch, the director of the communicable disease surveillance department at the ministry of health, has advised women in high-risk areas to avoid attempting to conceive.

“Don’t get pregnant at the moment,” he said. “That’s the wisest course of action.”
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Re: Brazil Warns Women: Don't Get Pregnant!

Unread postby kanon » Sat 05 Dec 2015, 16:03:35

Is this a single case? Other reports indicate no definite relationship. The Zika virus is spreading across Latin America. Here's what we know. It would seem like there should be more than one case to establish the relationship.
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Re: S America's Largest City On Verge of Collapse Pt. 4

Unread postby vox_mundi » Fri 27 May 2016, 14:22:01

Brazil: Interim Gov't to Lift Limits on Foreign Land Ownership

In Brazil, the interim government has announced plans to abandon the current limits on foreign land ownership, clearing the way for land grabs by multinational corporations.

This comes as Brazil’s powerful Landless Workers Movement, known as MST, has promised to launch a new wave of land occupations. Brazil already has vastly unequal land ownership, with 1 percent of the population owning nearly half of all the land.

Secretary of Investment Moreira Franco called the restriction on sales of agricultural land to foreign individuals and companies "nonsense" and said interim President Michel Temer will reconsider the issue.

Pulp and sugar industries are among those defending the end of restrictions. (...let the deforestation begin)


Still Selling Neoliberal Unicorns: The US Applauds the Coup in Brazil, Calls It Democracy

 Washington now has compliant compradores in power in Argentina and Brazil—and perhaps soon in Venezuela.

Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s recently deposed president, calls it a coup. Many, perhaps most, of the countries in the Organization of American States call it is a coup. Even the men who helped carry out the coup admit, in a secretly recorded conversation, that what they were doing was effectively a coup, staged to provide them immunity from a corruption investigation.

But the United States doesn’t think that the blatantly naked power grab that just took place in Brazil—which ended the Workers’ Party’s 13-year control of the presidency, installed an all-white, all-male cabinet, diluted the definition of slavery, lest it tarnish the image of Brazil’s plantation sector (which relies on coerced, unfree labor), and began a draconian austerity program—is a coup.

It’s democracy at work, according to various Obama officials.

Last week, Washington’s ambassador to the OAS, Michael Fitzpatrick, rejected accusations that the Obama administration held Venezuela, whose government has long been at odds with the United States, to a different standard than it does the newly installed Brazilian regime, which is fast putting into place economic policies favored by Washington and Wall Street. In Brazil, Fitzpatrick said,
“there is a clear respect for democratic institutions and a clear separation of powers. In Brazil it is clearly the law that prevails, coming up with peaceable solution to disputes. There is nothing comparable between Brazil and Venezuela. It is in the latter where democracy is threatened…. We don’t believe that this is an example of a ‘soft coup’ or, for that matter, a coup of any sort. What happened in Brazil complied perfectly with legal constitutional procedure and totally respected democratic norms.”


Brazil’s is the third Latin American coup on Obama’s watch.

All three were “constitutional coups,” using the fig leaf of legality to oust presidents who ran policies slightly ajar to the interests of local and international elites. Honduras in 2009 and Paraguay in 2012 were low-hanging fruit, small countries with outsized oligarchies, where mild reformers were easily dispatched. But Washington’s reaction to those two coups set the pattern for its response now to Brazil: Watch, wait, and quietly encourage the coup plotters, giving them time to consolidate a new order until recognition seems a reasonable course. In Honduras, in particular, Hillary Clinton as Obama’s secretary of state was instrumental in legitimizing the coup’s subsequent death-squad regime.

There is little doubt that the US foreign-policy establishment wanted the PT out. In “The Left on the Run in Latin America,” The New York Times is ecstatic, editorializing like it is 1992:
... The United States can help its neighbors become more competitive and stable by promoting investment in technology, innovation and high-quality education. It can point to the security turnaround of Colombia, which has one of the growing economies in the region, as evidence of the potential of sustained security partnerships.

Colombia’s “security turnaround” is built on a mountain of corpses, on paramilitary terror and massive land dispossession. Until recently, the military was killing civilians, dressing them as FARC guerrillas, and claiming these “false positives” as victories in its fight against the FARC. Colombia boasts one of the largest internal refugee populations in the world—about 4 million people, a large number of them Afro- and indigenous Colombians. That’s what the Times is prescribing for the rest of the region now that the “left” is “on the run.”

The United States isn’t going to “help its neighbors become more competitive and stable by promoting investment in technology, innovation and high-quality education.” Over the past 13 years, Brazil, more than any other country, has stood in the way of Washington-backed efforts to impose a punishing intellectual and corporate property-rights regime on Latin America. That, in effect, is one of the objectives of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade treaty, which was offered as a successor to the failed FTAA and meant to work around Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela.

But now that friendly faces are installed in Brasília and Buenos Aires, the path is clearer. Monsanto and other agri-behemoths will be able to impose their seed monopoly on the regime (as the United States now does in Central America, to devastating effect); energy resources will once again be privatized (as Hillary, as secretary of state, pushed to do in Mexico).

Look to El Salvador today, where the Obama administration is using the terms of a free-trade agreement to force the government to shut down a local seed-distribution project, since it violates corporate interests. Look to Ecuador, where Chevron has turned a good stretch of the Amazon into a toxic tar pit. Or Paraguay, which after its 2012 coup was taken over by an agro-gangster government.

Or look to the US-Mexican border, where refugees from US “security partnership” risk death in the desert for the privilege of living their lives in the shadows.
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Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late.
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Re: S America's Largest City On Verge of Collapse Pt. 4

Unread postby vox_mundi » Tue 31 May 2016, 17:44:04

Brazil Billionaire Ready To 'Sing Like A Canary' About Petrobras Scandal

Image
It's amazing what spending an "over-nighter" with these folks and a couple of broom handles will do to a guy's recollection.

To say Brazil’s executive and legislative branches are running around like chickens with their heads cut off would be an understatement. Odebrecht, one of Brazil’s most successful executives, said he is ready to sing like a canary in an effort to lower his 19 year prison sentence, Folha de São Paulo columnist Monica Bergamo wrote on Tuesday. If there is one man who strikes fear in the hearts of Brazil’s political elites, it’s 47 year old Odebrecht. His plea bargain was reached last Wednesday. It could lead to more arrests and politicians forced to step down.

Incarcerated for orchestrating the crime of the century, a Brazilian billionaire named Marcelo Odebrecht seeks revenge and promises to bring down as many as 50 politicians in the processes.

Odebrecht is a follow-the-money name in Brazil. It was Petrobras’ biggest private sector contractor, responsible for building oil refineries, among other things. The company is also no stranger to the U.S., it is one of the biggest contractors at Miami International Airport and built the Ritz Carlton in Key Biscayne.

Bergamo said Odebrecht won’t be picking political favorites. He is supposedly going to provide federal prosecutors greater details about campaigns he helped finance illegally, including the Workers’ Party (PT), its allies in the Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) and the Social Democratic Party (PSDB).

Each time an A-list Brazilian executive like Odebrecht is caught in the police dragnet, their plea bargains lead to more arrests.

Image
http://www.contributoria.com/issue/2015 ... b28000d5b/


Brazil’s Temer Loses a Second Minister to Audio Leak Scandal

The ministry that Acting President Michel Temer created to demonstrate his commitment to fighting corruption was caught up in the sweeping investigation that has rattled Brazil’s political establishment for two years.

Fabiano Silveira, the Minister of Transparency and Control, resigned on Monday after local press published a recording of a conversation in which he criticized the graft probe known as Carwash (Lava Jato) and offered advice to Senate President Renan Calheiros, a politician under investigation. He was the second minister in two weeks to resign because of leaked audio, threatening the stability of Temer’s administration less than a month after he took over Latin America’s largest economy.

“The loss of two ministers within 18 days of taking office underscores the fragility of the Temer administration, which stems from its reliance on exchanging cabinet appointments for the support of congressional allies,” Jimena Blanco, head of Latin America at Verisk Maplecroft, wrote in a note to clients. She noted that another six ministers in Temer’s cabinet are being investigated by Carwash, which means more recordings may emerge.

In the report, Globo TV also said some audio indicated that Silveira on several occasions spoke with prosecutors in charge of the Petrobras case to find out what information they might have on Calheiros, which he reported back to the Senate leader. In the conversation, recorded at Calheiros' home three months before Silveira became a Cabinet minister, Silveira advised the Senate leader on how best to defend himself from the probe into Petrobras.

A government source had told Reuters on Monday that Silveira would stay in his job "for now," without elaborating. (WTF?)

Earlier on Monday, Ministry of Transparency staff marched to the presidential palace in Brasilia to demand Silveira's ouster and restoration of the comptroller general's office, which Temer renamed to show his commitment to fighting corruption.

All employees with management duties at the ministry resigned their posts to press their demands, according to union leader Rudinei Marques.

Protesting employees had earlier prevented Silveira from entering the ministry building.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazi ... SKCN0YL1SB

and from the U.S. State Dept ... crickets

Meanwhile, it sounds like the Tooth Fairy has been EXTRA busy in Brazil ...

Brazil’s Acting President - Michel Temer’s 7-Year-Old Son Owns $570,000 Estate

Image

Little Michel, the 7-year-old son of Brazil’s Acting President Michel Temer, has already proven he is far more mature than his years might suggest. A few weeks ago, he was responsible for choosing the new government’s logo – when he saw it, he said “pretty.” Now, we know that the wunderkind has a few investments of his own.

Brazilian newspaper Estado de S.Paulo revealed that Little Michel owns two offices in a luxury building which also houses – wait for it – daddy Big Michel’s political office. The estate is estimated to be worth $570,000. Each property is 196 square-meters and is located in a rich neighborhood of São Paulo. Not bad for a 7-year-old, huh?

Michel Temer’s press secretaries stress that by no means is this a strategy to hide his assets (in Brazil, politicians who run for office are obligated by the law to disclose their patrimony). It was only a way to anticipate Little Michel’s inheritance – something he had done in the past with his other children (he's got 6 of them). But the President’s team conveniently failed to mention which other estate it was referring to, or when those transfer operations took place.

According to the newspaper, Temer’s estate more than double between 2006, when he last ran for Congress, and 2014, his second term serving as Dilma Rousseff’s running mate for president. Ten years ago, he declared a $650,000 patrimony to Brazil’s electoral justice. In 2014, his estate had more than doubled – adding up to $2.14 million. That is, without including precocious Little Michel’s properties.


In Brazil there is a pre-Chávez atmosphere'

Image

In office only three weeks Brazil's acting president Michel Temer saw his second minister resign. New elections might be inevitable, but could also help populists to reach the presidency, says expert Oliver Stuenkel.

DW: Mr. Stuenkel, two newly appointed ministers have resigned after leaked recordings seem to reveal their desire to prevent prosecutors from investigating political allies. Was it just Temer's bad choice of personnel, or is it something symptomatic for this government?

I think this is symptomatic for Brazilian politics in general. The unusual aspect of the current situation is that a corruption investigation is profoundly destabilizing the government and politics overall. It is something completely new in Brazil that investigations are independent, that powerful people are being brought to justice. The Federal Police in the "Lava Jato" ("car wash") scandal have such broad public support that it is impossible for the government to control investigations. And these revelations are causing great instability because nobody knows what comes next.

DW: Considering that there is seemingly no politician with a clean record, what could new elections do to contribute to more stability?

Indeed, you have a kind of a pulverization in Brazilian politics and a rejection of the entire political class - an ideal scenario for populists. In Brazil, there is a pre-Berlusconi or pre-Chávez atmosphere. The same happened in Italy during the "Mani pulite" investigations in the early 90s that led to the election of Silvio Berlusconi, and also in Venezuela in the process that helped Hugo Chávez to become president. In new elections there could be ten or more candidates, ranging from moderates, like ex-president Lula Da Silva and his adversary in the 2002 elections José Serra, to right-wing xenophobic Jair Bolsonaro. With so many candidates, radicals have a good chance to proceed to the second round with only 10 per cent of the votes. That is the major concern right now.


The Brazilian Coup and Washington’s “Rollback” in Latin America

It is clear that the executive branch of the U.S. government favors the coup underway in Brazil, even though they have been careful to avoid any explicit endorsement of it. Exhibit A was the meeting between Tom Shannon, the 3rd ranking U.S. State Department official and the one who is almost certainly in charge of handling this situation, with Senator Aloysio Nunes, one of the leaders of the impeachment in the Brazilian Senate, on April 20. By holding this meeting just three days after the Brazilian lower house voted to impeach President Dilma Rousseff, Shannon was sending a signal to governments and diplomats throughout the region and the world that Washington is more than ok with the impeachment. Nunes returned the favor this week by leading an effort (he is chair of the Brazilian Senate Foreign Relations Committee) to suspend Venezuela from Mercosur, the South American trade bloc.

There is a lot at stake here for the major U.S. foreign policy institutions, which include the 17 intelligence agencies, State Department, Pentagon, White House National Security Council, and foreign policy committees of the Senate and House. An enormous geopolitical shift took place over the past 15 years, in which the Latin American left went from governing zero countries to a majority of the region. For various historical reasons, the left in Latin America tends to favor national independence and international solidarity, and is therefore less willing to go along with U.S. foreign policy. I remember the first time I saw Lula Da Silva. It was in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2002. He was speaking to a crowd at the World Social Forum, and standing under a huge banner that said “Say No to Imperialist War in Iraq.”

Lula is a good diplomat, and he maintained a good personal relationship with George W. Bush during their overlapping presidencies. But he changed the foreign policy of Brazil, and contributed to the regional development of an independent foreign policy. In 2005 at Mar del Plata, Argentina, the left governments buried the U.S.-sponsored “Free Trade Area of the Americas,” thus putting an end to the American dream of a hemispheric commercial agreement based on rules designed in Washington. Brazil under the Workers’ Party also strongly backed Venezuela against U.S. attempts to isolate, destabilize, and even topple its government. Lula’s first foreign trip after his re-election in 2006 was to Venezuela, where he supported President Hugo Chávez in his own re-election campaign. The Workers’ Party(PT) government also supported regional efforts to overturn the U.S.-backed military coup in Honduras, and successfully opposed the expansion of U.S. access to military bases in Colombia in 2009. And many in the U.S. foreign policy establishment (including then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) did not appreciate the Brazilian government’s role in helping to arrange a nuclear fuel swap arrangement to settle the dispute with Iran in 2010, despite the fact that it was actually done at Washington’s suggestion.

Washington’s Cold War never ended in Latin America, and now they see their opportunity for “rollback.” Brazil is a big prize, as is evidenced by the new foreign minister in the interim government. He is José Serra, who ran unsuccessfully for president against first Lula (2002) and Dilma (2010), and is expected to use his current position — if this government survives — as a springboard for a third shot at the presidency.

In his 2010 presidential campaign, Serra went to unusual lengths to demonstrate his loyalty to Washington. He accused the Bolivian government of Evo Morales of being an accomplice to drug traffickers and attacked Lula’s government for its attempts to resolve the nuclear standoff with Iran. He also criticized them for joining the rest of the region in refusing to recognize the post-coup Honduran government, and campaigned against Venezuela as well.

This is the kind of guy that Washington wants, very badly, in charge of Brazil’s foreign policy. Although corporations are obviously a big player in U.S. foreign policy, and they literally do much of the writing of commercial agreements like NAFTA and the TPP, the number one guiding principle in Washington’s foreign policy apparatus is not short-term profit but power. The biggest decision-makers, all the way up to the White House, care first and foremost about getting other countries to line up with U.S. foreign policy. They did not support the consolidation of the Honduran military coup because Honduran President Mel Zelaya raised the minimum wage, but because he headed a vulnerable left government that was part of the same broad alliance that included Brazil under the PT. These governments all supported each other, and they changed the norms of the region so that even non-left governments like Colombia under Juan Manuel Santos mostly went along with the others.

That is what Washington wants to change right now, and there is much excitement in This Town about the prospects for “a new regional order,” which is really the old regional order of the 20th century. It won’t succeed — even by their own measures of success — any more than George W. Bush succeeded in his vision of reshaping the Middle East by invading Iraq. But they could facilitate a lot of damage trying.


Does Brazil Need Corruption to Work?
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

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Re: S America's Largest City On Verge of Collapse Pt. 4

Unread postby vox_mundi » Wed 01 Jun 2016, 10:37:02

Brazil's government has sprung a leak, and a flood of secrets is gushing out

There’s a saying in Brazil: “Even the past is unpredictable.”

It seems particularly apt in the wake of leaked audio recordings that point to ulterior motives for the recent impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and that have already forced the resignations of two members of the new Cabinet.

Congress voted to put Rousseff on trial on charges that she shifted funds to cover holes in the national budget. The recordings — made before she was booted from office — bolster the suspicions of many Brazilians that her impeachment was both a power grab by political opponents and an effort to stop widespread corruption investigations that targeted them.

The first Cabinet resignation came last week. Romero Juca, the planning minister, stepped down after a leaked recording suggested that his main reason for wanting to remove Rousseff from office was to stop the corruption inquiries. “We have to change the government to stop the bleeding,” the then-senator said in the recording.

Then on Monday night, Fabiano Silveira, who held the newly created post of transparency minister, resigned after the release of a recording of him criticizing corruption investigations and advising two allies on how to avoid punishment. At the time, he was a member of the National Council of Justice, which monitors the court system. According to Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at Rio de Janeiro State University
“The recordings show that some of the worst fears about what was happening in Congress weren't just speculation,”

He said the revelations undermine the government of Michel Temer, who was elected vice president in a cross-party alliance with Rousseff in 2014 and became acting president after the impeachment.

“This is a government that was essentially created because of a widespread protests against corruption,” Santoro said.

After taking over as president, Temer quickly installed a conservative administration that established a government far more conservative than even right-wing presidential candidates have proposed in recent elections.

Acting President Temer has made the economy his top priority, a move that has pleased international investors and political elites.

In a poll shortly before he took power, he was more unpopular than Rousseff, whose ratings plunged over the last two years as the country slid into its worst recession in decades.

Rousseff, who was never personally accused of corruption or charged with a criminal offense, continues to speak out against the impeachment, which she and many supporters equate to a coup d’etat.

Her trial has not been scheduled, but it must be completed within the 180-day period she has been suspended from office. If convicted, she will be permanently removed.

The leaked recordings dogging the new administration were created as part of a massive corruption investigation by federal police. Known as the Lava Jato, or Car Wash, the inquiry began in 2014 as an investigation into the state-owned Petrobras oil company and quickly came to engulf the political establishment.

Sergio Machado, a former head of a Petrobras subsidiary who recently negotiated a plea bargain, had secretly recorded Juca and Silveira.

It's not only political elites who have been secretly recorded.

Renan Antonio Ferreira dos Santos, a leader of the Free Brazil Movement, a group of young activists promoting free-market economic policies, was caught discussing how the group received support from political parties to promote pro-impeachment rallies. The source of the recording was unclear.

The group told local media that it collaborated with the parties because the march “belongs to all Brazilians.”

“There's nothing more natural than inviting opposition parties to use their communications and activist networks to advertise the date,” the group said, according to UOL, an online news service.

Many Brazilians have grown even more cynical about their politicians.

It's obvious that Brazil’s politicians set this whole thing up to help themselves, not Brazil,” said Patricia Magalhaes, 19, a student who also works selling snacks with her family in downtown Sao Paulo, where she watched the pro-imeachment marches this year.

“I don't think anything Dilma actually did wrong was the real reason she was removed,” she said.

The country is braced for more revelations that could further damage the Temer administration.

On Tuesday, local media reported that Marcelo Odebrecht, one of the country's most powerful businessmen, signed a plea-bargain deal after his construction company was accused in the Petrobras scandal. Brazil is eagerly awaiting to find out whom he might implicate.


Are the Koch Brothers Behind Brazil's Anti-Dilma Coup?

The protest, organized for March 15, is being led by several groups with powerful backers. The group organizing the demonstration is the so-called Free Brazil Movement (MBL), a far-right collective of young people that believe the solutions to the country's economic problems are based on free-market policies.

Fabio Ostermann and Juliano Torres, two of MBL leaders, were educated in the Atlas Leadership Academy, linked to the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, financed by the notorious U.S. businessmen the Koch Brothers.

Furthermore, the brothers have millions of dollars invested in the oil industry, which could explain their interest in destabilizing the Brazilian government and Petrobras.

Another of the leading groups, Students For Liberty (EPL) – working together with the MBL – is the Brazilian associate of an organization with the same name in the U.S., also financed by the Koch Brothers.


Brazil crisis: for once, a conspiracy theory turns out to be true
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late.
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Re: S America's Largest City On Verge of Collapse Pt. 4

Unread postby vox_mundi » Fri 03 Jun 2016, 14:06:59

Credibility of Brazil’s Interim President Collapses as He Receives 8-Year Ban on Running for Office

IT HAS BEEN obvious from the start that a core objective of the impeachment of Brazil’s elected president, Dilma Rousseff, was to empower the actual thieves in Brasilia and enable them to impede, obstruct, and ultimately kill the ongoing Car Wash investigation (as well as to impose a neoliberal agenda of privatization and radical austerity). A mere 20 days into the seizure of power by the corruption-implicated “interim” President Michel Temer, overwhelming evidence has emerged proving that to be true: Already, two of the interim ministers in Temer’s all-white-male cabinet, including his anti-corruption minister, have been forced to resign after the emergence of secret recordings showing them plotting to obstruct that investigation (an investigation in which they, along with one-third of his cabinet, are personally implicated).

But the oozing corruption of Temer’s ministers has sometimes served to obscure his own. He, too, is implicated in several corruption investigations. And now, he has been formally convicted of violating election laws and, as punishment, is banned from running for any political office for eight years. Yesterday, a regional election court in São Paulo, where he’s from, issued a formal decree finding him guilty and declaring him “ineligible” to run for any political office as a result of now having a “dirty record” in elections. Temer was found guilty of spending his own funds on his campaign in excess of what the law permits.

In the scope of the scheming, corruption, and illegality from this interim government, Temer’s law-breaking is not the most severe offense. But it potently symbolizes the anti-democratic scam that Brazilian elites have attempted to perpetrate. In the name of corruption, they have removed the country’s democratically elected leader and replaced her with someone who — though not legally barred from being installed — is now barred for eight years from running for the office he wants to occupy.

Meanwhile, opposition grows to this attack on democracy both domestically and internationally. Protests aimed at Temer are becoming increasingly large and intense. Two dozen members of the British Parliament denounced impeachment as a coup. Three dozen members of the European Parliament urged termination of trade negotiations with Brazil’s interim government on the ground that it lacks legitimacy. The anti-corruption group Transparency International announced it was terminating dialogue with the new government until it purged corruption from its new ministries.

... Meanwhile, the U.S. has remained silent, essentially giving tacit support to the coup. Reporters have asked the State Department about Brazil and it has persistently refused to comment. Every time it has been asked (which has not been much), the State Department has refused to say anything, other than, “I’m not going to speak to internal Brazilian politics” (ask it to speak about internal Russian, Syrian or Iranian politics, though, and it has no problem doing so).


Wall Street Behind Brazil Coup d’Etat

... A former CEO/president of one of America’s largest financial institutions (and a US citizen) controls Brazil’s key financial institutions and sets the macroeconomic and monetary agenda for a country of more than 200 Million people.

It is called a Coup d’Etat… by Wall Street.


OAS Threatens to Suspend Venezuela While Ignoring Recent Ouster of Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff

The Organization of American States has announced it will hold an emergency meeting to discuss whether to suspend Venezuela for violating the OAS Charter. OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro said Tuesday that Venezuela had suffered "grave alterations of democratic order." But supporters of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro have criticized the OAS for targeting Venezuela, not Brazil, where democratically elected President Dilma Rousseff was recently removed from power in what many have described as a coup.


Amnesty International warns Brazil against human rights violations ahead of Rio Olympics

Report cites alleged killings, beatings by police ahead of Pan-Am Games and FIFA World Cup

Image

A report issued Thursday by the non-governmental organization cites alleged extrajudicial killings and beatings by security personnel ahead of the Pan-Am Games in 2007, and the use of "unnecessary and excessive force" against protesters leading up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, among other concerns.

The report comes amid concerns about Rio de Janeiro's readiness to host the Games, which start Aug. 5, in light of issues including the Zika virus outbreak, lack of adequate public transit and sanitation, and fears over security in the notoriously crime-ridden city.

As if to underscore those concerns, Rio police swarmed through the city's slums this week after the gang rape of a 16-year-old girl that involved more than 30 men, video of which was posted online.

"Police officers are going into these neighbourhoods with the intention of fighting the enemy," Roque said.

"Their initial response is very violent."

Many of the hundreds of slums in Rio are controlled by heavily armed drug traffickers. Police operations in such areas often lead to shootouts.

Roque said he was worried that increased security for the Games could result in more bloodshed in rough neighbourhoods.

"In mega-sporting events, you send more police officers who follow the same logic," Roque said. "The natural result is a higher death toll."


Court ruling casts shadow over Brazil offshore oil sector

A Brazilian appeals court has ruled that a Liberian mortgage is invalid for a Brazilian-owned oil production ship, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday, casting further doubt over the future of secured lending for such vessels in the world's largest deepwater market.

... The case underscores the extent to which loopholes in Brazil's bankruptcy protection laws and their interpretation by courts could stall secured lending for offshore oil vessels, complicating development of Brazil's deepwater fields.

According to London-based law firm Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, the lower court's ruling was affecting ongoing and future projects and financing deals, putting borrowers at risk of breaching credit terms. Lenders were ordering foreign-flagged ships operating in Brazil to reflag in countries that are signatories of the treaty, such as Panama.

Nordic Trustee's lawyers said the prior rulings declaring Liberian mortgages void in Brazil could have a ripple effect within the industry, noting in one of the documents that "the court is ignoring widely followed principles of maritime law."
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late.
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Re: S America's Largest City On Verge of Collapse Pt. 4

Unread postby vox_mundi » Mon 06 Jun 2016, 20:29:42

The Difference Between How the U.S. Treats Brazil and Venezuela in One Video

A State Department spokesperson repeatedly refused to comment on the momentous political crisis in Brazil during his daily press briefing on Friday — in almost ludicrous contrast to his long and loquacious criticisms of neighboring Venezuela.

When questioned on the stark contrast, increasingly exasperated department spokesperson Mark Toner replied, “I just – again, I don’t have anything to comment on the ongoing political dimensions of the crisis there. I don’t.”

Watch the spokesperson’s responses: Video

The State Department has long been eager to criticize Venezuela’s left-wing government, which has pursued policies antagonistic to global corporations. In contrast, it has been silent about the takeover of Brazil by a staunchly right-wing, pro-business government that is making the privatization of state industry a priority.

Friday’s exchange began when The Intercept asked Toner why the U.S. has been joining in regional criticisms of Venezuela’s democratic backsliding but has ignored Brazil’s political crisis, where right-wing lawmakers voted on May 12 to suspend the elected government and open impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff.

“I’m not aware of the particular allegations that you’ve raised. … We believe it is a strong democracy,” Toner replied.

“Do strong democracies allow the military to spy on political opponents?” we followed up, pointing to recent reports that the new administration is spying on the former government. When Toner again deflected, saying he didn’t “have any details” about the surveillance, veteran Associated Press State Department reporter Matt Lee jumped into the fray, asking if the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff was itself “valid.”

Toner continued to deflect, affirming U.S. confidence in Brazilian institutions.

But when Pam Dawkins of Voice of America asked about Venezuela and “the state of democracy there” in light of the delay of a proposed recall referendum put forth by the country’s opposition, Toner’s tone changed dramatically.

In a response that went on for two full minutes, Toner got all moralistic, asking Venezuela to respect democratic norms. “We call on Venezuela’s authorities to allow this [proposed recall referendum] process to move forward in a timely fashion, and we encourage the appropriate institutions to ensure that Venezuelans can exercise their right to participate in this process in keeping with Venezuela’s democratic institutions, practices, and principles consistent with the Inter-American Democratic Charter.”

Lee felt obliged to note the contrast. “You just – those are two very long responses, critical responses, about the situation in Venezuela,” he said. “And yet Brazil, which is a much bigger country and with – a country with which you have enjoyed better relations merits, what, two sentences?

I just – again, I don’t have anything to comment on the ongoing political dimensions of the crisis there. I don’t,” Toner stated.

But you — you have plenty to say about the political situation in Venezuela.”

We do,” Toner replied.

Why is that?” Lee followed up.

Well, we’re just — we’re very concerned about the current…” Toner started, before being interrupted by Lee once more.

Why aren’t you very concerned about Brazil?” Lee probed.

Again – well, look, I’ve said my piece. I mean, I don’t have anything to add.

Really? Okay.”

Another reporter then jumped into the fracas, asking Toner if the composition of the new Brazilian cabinet — it is composed entirely of men, many of them tied to large industries in the country, and replaces the cabinet led by the first female leader in Brazil’s history — raised any concerns.

“Look, guys, I will see if we have anything more to say about the situation in Brazil,” Toner concluded.

Rousseff and supporters have called impeachment a “coup” and multiple international observers have questioned its legitimacy, including OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro and The Economist.
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

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Re: S America's Largest City On Verge of Collapse Pt. 4

Unread postby vox_mundi » Tue 07 Jun 2016, 17:11:36

Brazilian prosecutor targets senior ruling party leaders: report

Brazil’s embattled interim president, Michel Temer, has suffered a fresh blow after the prosecutor general requested the arrest of four of the most powerful members of his party for trying to obstruct the Lava Jato (Car Wash) investigation into corruption at the state oil company Petrobras.

Those targeted are Senate President Renan Calheiros, Senator Romero Jucá, the president of the ruling PMDB, former Brazilian President José Sarney and the suspended speaker of the lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha, the newspaper said.

Prosecutor Genal Rodrigo Janot accuses them of seeking to block a sprawling two-year-old investigation into political kickbacks on contracts with state-run oil company Petrobras, according to the report.

The four men, powerful members of Brazil's political establishment and the centrist PMDB, the country's largest party, have denied the accusations.

The Supreme Court must authorize their arrests.


Mired in corruption scandal, Brazil's politicians weigh bill making prosecuting them harder

Some of the evidence in the ever-widening corruption scandal at state-owned oil giant, Petrobras, has been obtained from internet sources. In fact, in the last two weeks alone, the administration of the interim president, Michel Temer, has lost two cabinet members, both targets of Petrobras investigators, because of recorded conversations that were leaked online.

Planning Minister Romero Jucá was taped talking about making a “pact” to end the investigation; and, ironically, the man who became the country’s first Minister of Transparency, Fabiano Silveira, was caught discussing with other politicians how to avoid prosecution. Both men have since resigned.

If P.L. 215/2015 – as the omnibus bill, which includes five proposals introduced by various congressman, is known – is approved, politicians and others who feel they have had their "honor damaged" by someone online or in a social media post could have the objectionable content removed and require internet providers and webpage hosts to turn over the user’s information without the need of judicial authorization.

And the person responsible, if found guilty, would face up to six years in prison.

Deputy Soraya Santos, who is the author of the damaged honor portion of P.L. 215/2015, has said that the proposed changes are not intended to punish critics of politicians, but to protect people from those who publish damaging information online anonymously or under false names.

Santos is in the same political party as Temer and the suspended president of the Chamber of Deputies, Eduardo Cunha, who has been indicted for allegedly taking $40 million in bribes, tax evasion and money-laundering in the Petrobras scandal, and Carlos Affonso Souza, a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, isn’t convinced by her argument.

"You don’t have to go far to see how the removal of such content can have serious restrictions on freedom of expression,” Souza told Fox News Latino, “and that could benefit some politicians. In general, Congress seems committed to put forward the notion that the internet is a den of illicit activity – a threat rather than a tool that empowers freedom of expression and access to knowledge."

The timing of a vote on P.L. 215/2015 amid the increased scrutiny and allegations demonstrates a willingness to repress content for "personal reasons," Souza told FNL. "There is a perception of the internet as a threat, and that could lead to more repression."
“There are three classes of people: those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

Insensible before the wave so soon released by callous fate. Affected most, they understand the least, and understanding, when it comes, invariably arrives too late.
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