EU-DIGEST: Brazil

Showing posts with label Brazil. Show all posts

3/26/23

Brazil and China relations: Brazil tightens relations with China

Chinese leader Xi Jinping was to host hosting Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in Beijing this weekend, seeking to deepen ties with another diplomatic ally following his three-day visit to Russia that took place earlier this week.

The visit was postponed on Saturday as the Brazilian leader was admitted to hospital with pneumonia.

Had it gone ahead, the state visit would have come at a time when China is trying to present itself as an important global power that can rival the US.

China's trade relationship with Brazil was set to take center stage, as Lula was to bring a delegation of 240 business representatives with him to Beijing. Trade flow between China and Brazil currently amounts to $150 billion (€140 billion) annually, and Brazilian exports to China reached $89 billion in 2022.

China now invests in a wide range of sectors in Brazil, and experts say Beijing wants to tap into the South American country's rich resources and market size.

1/8/23

Brazil: Supporters of defeated right wing Bolsonaro Presidential candidate storm Congess, the Presidential Palace and other official Government buildings in Brazil

Supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his electoral defeat stormed Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential palace in the capital on Sunday, just a week after the inauguration of his leftist rival, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Thousands of demonstrators bypassed security barricades, climbed on the roofs, broke windows and invaded all three buildings, which are connected through the vast Three Powers square in Brasilia. Some are calling for a military intervention to restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power.

Images on TV channel Globo News showed protesters roaming the presidential palace, many of them wearing green and yellow, the colours of the flag that also have come to symbolize the nation's conservative movement, co-opted by Bolsonaro.

9/28/21

Brazil: Brazilian president's daughter-in-law and granddaughter test positive for COVID-19

Heloisa Bolsonaro shared that her daughter, Georgia Bolsonaro, only experienced mild symptoms, including a fever and runny nose.

'On the first day we felt bad, now, thank God, we're fine,' she wrote. 'And thanks to a drug that I just took and I got better right away. Impressive.'

Read more at: Brazilian president's daughter-in-law and granddaughter test positive for COVID-19 | Daily Mail Online

9/18/21

'Brazil: Everybody has to buy a rifle, damn it!' Brazilian President Bolsonaro tells his supporters

Armed people will never be enslaved, Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, who is trailing in polls for the 2022 election, told a crowd of his supporters in the capital Brasilia, urging everyone to get a rifle as soon as possible.

Bolsonaro’s ratings have crumbled amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen Brazil become one of the world’s worst-affected countries with almost 21 million infections and more than 578,000 deaths. A recent poll by XP/Ipespe revealed that only 24% of those surveyed plan to vote for the 66-year-old when he runs for reelection next year, while his leftist opponent, former president Luiz Inacio Lula. da Silva, received the support of some 40%.

Read more at: 'Everybody has to buy a rifle, damn it!' Brazilian President Bolsonaro tells his supporters

8/31/21

Brazil: Arrested, killed or victory: Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro on his future

Brazilian far-right President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday said he sees three alternatives for his future: winning the 2022 presidential elections, death or prison.

"I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory," he said, in remarks to a meeting of evangelical leaders. Bolsonaro later added that the first option is out of question. "No man on Earth will threaten me."

Bolsonaro's remarks come as he has been questioning Brazil's electronic voting system and threatened not to accept the results of next year's presidential election. He has been calling for the adoption of printed receipts, saying that electronic ballots are vulnerable to fraud.

Read more at: Arrested, killed or victory: Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro on his future

6/19/21

Coronsvirus: Brazil exceeds 500,000 COVID-19 deaths

Brazil hit the tragic milestone of half a million COVID deaths on Saturday when it added 2,495 fatalities to its count.

Read more at: Brazil exceeds 500,000 COVID-19 deaths | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 19.06.2021

4/29/21

Brazil: Families mourn as Brazil hits 400,000 COVID deaths

On Thursday the South American nation surpassed 400,000 coronavirus-related deaths, the second-highest total in the world after the United States. More than half of those were recorded in 2021, while April has been the deadliest month since the start of the pandemi

Read more at: Families mourn as Brazil hits 400,000 COVID deaths | Coronavirus pandemic News | Al Jazeera

3/9/21

Brazil: Lula has convictions quashed, leaving him free to challenge Bolsonaro

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva could be set for a sensational comeback attempt after a supreme court judge annulled a series of criminal convictions against the leftist icon and restored his political rights.

Read nore at: Brazil: Lula has convictions quashed, leaving him free to challenge Bolsonaro | World news | The Guardian

12/1/20

Brazil: Amazon deforestation at highest level in 12 years, new data reveals

Disaster strikes the Amazon forest as deforestration increases by 9.6 % in 2020.

Read more at: Amazon deforestation at highest level in 12 years, new data reveals | Euronews

5/28/20

Brazil: Coronavirus: Brazil Is Starting to Lose the Fight Against Coronavirus

On May 9, Brazil’s death toll from the coronavirus topped 10,000. Instead of marking the grim milestone with an address or a sign of respect for the victims, President Jair Bolsonaro took a spin on a jet ski. Video footage widely circulated on social media shows Brazil’s far-right leader grinning as he pulls up to a boat on Brasília’s Paranoá Lake where supporters are having a cookout.

As he grips onto their boat, Bolsonaro jokes about the “neurosis” of Brazilians worried about the virus. “There’s nothing to be done [about it],” he shrugs. “It’s madness.”

Even by the standards of other right-wing populists who have sought to downplay the COVID-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro’s defiance of reality was shocking. From the favelas of densely packed cities like Rio de Janeiro to the remote indigenous communities of the Amazon rain forest, Brazil has emerged as the new global epicenter of the pandemic, with the world’s highest rate of transmission and a health system now teetering on the brink of collapse.

Read more at:
Brazil Is Starting to Lose the Fight Against Coronavirus | Time

2/10/20

France- Brazil Relations Sour: Brazil's military elite sees France as country's biggest threat, leaked report reveals

France is expected to be Brazil's biggest military threat over the next 20 years and could invade the Amazon in 2035, according to a secret report published by Brazilian media on Friday. Although the French embassy jokingly "saluted" its "limitless imagination", the military document is aimed at redefining the country's foreign policy strategy and could add yet another chapter to its troubled relations with France.

France has seemingly occupied the minds of Brazil's military elite ever since French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro engaged in a diplomatic spat last August. An article published on Friday in the premier daily Folha de São Paulo sourced a leaked military document that reveals Brazil’s highest rank-and-file believe France could become the country’s biggest threat over the next 20 years, due to a possible dispute over the Amazon.

Named "Defence scenarios 2040", the 45-page-long document was based on interviews with 500 highly-ranked army officers, who listed their biggest concerns and predictions during individual interviews.

But France's embassy in Brasilia reacted moments later in an ironic tweet, jokingly "saluting" the "limitless imagination of its authors".

Read more: Brazil's military elite sees France as country's biggest threat, leaked report reveals

2/5/20

Weapons Industry: India seeks shift from buying weapons to exporting them

India's arms imports account for nearly 10% of the global total, with Russia being the country's main supplier. However, New Delhi is now seeking to become a big exporter of weapons to the rest of the world.

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/india-seeks-shift-from-buying-weapons-to-exporting-them/a-52270331

11/18/19

Latin America - Going Down The Tubes: Unequal and irate, Latin America is coming apart at the seams

Latin America, which a decade ago harnessed a commodities boom to pull millions out of poverty and offer what many saw as a model of modernization, is in revolt. It’s not another pink tide, nor is it a lurch to the right; the movement is more a nonspecific, down-with-the-system rage. Furious commuters are looting cities, governments are on the run, and investors are unloading assets as fast as they can.

With almost three dozen countries and more than 600 million inhabitants, Latin America defies easy generalization, which makes it difficult to predict what will come next. A few weeks ago, Evo Morales, the longstanding president of Bolivia, seemed headed for reelection. Today, he and his top aides are in exile in Mexico while some in his country have taken to the streets again to protest what they say was the military coup that removed him.

In that sense, there are parallels with the Arab Spring, which began in 2010, and the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades earlier. Both were unforeseen and moved in surprising directions, yet they offer lessons in retrospect. “There were a lot of cracks, but no one saw it coming,” says Javier Corrales, a professor of political science at Amherst College in Massachusetts, of events in Bolivia and across the region.

Read more at: Unequal and irate, Latin America is coming apart at the seams

8/30/19

Amazon fires: Brazil accepts extra planes from Chile to fight forest fires

The Amazon includes many more South American countries than just Brazil,which covers about 60% of the Amazon area.

The vast Amazon also includes Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, an overseas region of France.

These other countries, which together control 40 percent of the Amazon will be getting together soon to put forward their own unified plan to fight the raging fires.

8/28/19

Amazon Fires: Brazil does U-turn on Amazon fire aid

A spokesperson for Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro has said the country will accept foreign aid to extinguish Amazon fires. Bolsonaro earlier declined €18m from the G7 states and insulted French president Emmanuel Macron over the offer. The Brazilian spokesman said his country must have full control of foreign grants and that outside help must not impinge on its sovereignty.

3/20/19

Brazil and the NATO: Trump misunderstands NATO ( North Atlantic Treaty Organization) so badly, he thinks Brazil could be part of it - by Rick Noack

For the United States’ NATO military allies, a good day is a day when President Trump forgets that they exist.

On bad days, he calls the alliance “as bad as NAFTA,” ponders whether it could result in World War III and raises questions about its future. Tuesday probably would fall into the category of bad days for NATO. Yet again, Trump showed that he either doesn’t understand the alliance — or at least ignores everything he knows about it.

During a news conference with right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Trump said: “I also intend to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally, or even possibly — if you start thinking about it — maybe a NATO ally. I have to talk to a lot of people, but maybe a NATO ally.”

This might be an interesting suggestion — if Brazil were located somewhere between Greece and Britain. NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization and is a European-North American alliance, which is, in many ways, tailored to the two regions.

To add Brazil, Trump wouldn’t just have to “talk to a lot of people,” but he also would need to get all NATO member states to agree to change Article 10 of the alliance’s 1949 founding treaty, which states that only European countries can join, besides Canada and the United States.

Note EU-Digest: Bottom-line - Donald Trump did not do his homework again, and basically does not know what he is talking about when he suggests Brazil could be in the NATO

3/17/19

Brazil - US relations: Brazil's t Right - Wing Presiden Jair Bolsonaro arrives in US for meetings with his US counterpart

Brazil’s Bolsonaro heads to US to strengthen economic and military cooperation On his first visit, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro arrived in Washington on Sunday to meet with his American counterpart Donald Trump to strengthen military and economic ties and to seek for a “major non NATO ally” status upgrade.

11/15/18

Brazil-EU Relations: As Brazil moves right, what is left for Europe in Latin America? – by Gustavo Müller

The election of Jair Bolsonaro as Brazilian president continues the regional trend in Latin America that has seen the rise of a variety of right-wing governments. As the world’s 4th largest democracy turns to the extreme right, the European Union will be forced to review its foreign policy towards Latin America.

Notably, it will have to adapt to the weakening of the region’s cooperative projects and organisations. If the polarising discourse of Bolsonaro and its campaign team shapes Brazilian foreign and domestic policies over the next four years, the EU should expect a growing gap regarding interests and values between both regions.

The EU’s multi-layered foreign policy towards Latin America has been laid out in its 2016 Global Strategy which emphasises region-to-region relations with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) – a consensus-based intergovernmental organisation of 33 sovereign members – as its counterpart.

The Global Strategy also mentions an approach that builds on “competitive advantages” of various regional groupings, including the current negotiations of the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement, as well as an open relationship with Cuba and support for the implementation of the peace agreement in Colombia.

Read more: As Brazil moves right, what is left for Europe in Latin America? – EURACTIV.com

Brazil and the environment: Why Brazil’s New President Poses (the Troppical Trump) an Unprecedented Threat to the Amazon "and the world" - by Philip Fearnside

For people concerned about the environment and climate change, U.S. President Donald Trump has proven to be as bad, or worse, than feared. He is in the process of pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement, continues to flatly dismiss the science of human-caused global warming, and has worked ceaselessly to undo environmental regulations and weaken environmental agencies.

or people concerned about the environment and climate change, U.S. President Donald Trump has proven to be as bad, or worse, than feared. He is in the process of pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement, continues to flatly dismiss the science of human-caused global warming, and has worked ceaselessly to undo environmental regulations and weaken environmental agencies.

Not for nothing is Bolsonaro known as the “tropical Trump.” The parallels are many, including their embrace of the far right and their inflammatory rhetoric. And among their similarities is the way that a constant barrage of outrageous comments diverts discussion from the environmental damage that their policies portend.

A 63-year-old retired army captain who had served as an undistinguished member of the lower house of Brazil’s National Congress, Bolsonaro won the October 28 presidential runoff. Marshaling an unprecedented social media effort, Bolsonaro’s campaign reflected his nationalist, authoritarian, racist, misogynistic, anti-press views. The vote represented a widespread rejection of the Workers’ Party, which had ruled Brazil for 13 years and was characterized by massive corruption scandals and an economic collapse. Brazil’s high crime rate made personal security a paramount issue, and Bolsonaro’s tough image appealed to many voters.

With Bolsonaro’s ascension, Brazil — home to the largest rainforest in the world — is facing an “Apocalypse Now” moment for the Amazon. When he takes office on January 1, Bolsonaro — with deep support in Brazil’s Congress, military, and agribusiness sector — has vowed sweeping changes. These include an effective end to environmental licensing for infrastructure projects, which would open up vast areas of the already beleaguered Amazon to development, and a ban on creating new protected areas or indigenous territories. If these scenarios play out, the deforestation rate in the Amazon — already on the rise in recent years — could nearly triple, according to a recent study. This environmental disaster would unfold at a time when climate change and diminishing rainfall already pose a serious threat to the Amazon, whose vast stores of carbon could be released to the atmosphere.

Read more: Why Brazil’s New President Poses an Unprecedented Threat to the Amazon - Yale E360

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