Brazil

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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 10, 2019 1:24 pm

Brazil: Magistrates allegedly conspired to prevent Lula's return
By AFP - June 10, 2019 at 04:50 (updated to 6:30)

Image
Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, January 16, 2018 in Rio de Janeiro Photo Mauro PIMENTEL. AFP

Officials of the Lava Jato anti-corruption investigation (Wash Express) have maneuvered to prevent the return of former President Lula left to power last year, reports Sunday the investigative media The Intercept, on the basis of leaks potentially explosive.
Brazil: Magistrates allegedly conspired to prevent Lula's return
The investigation site launched these accusations after having access to a large volume of private messages exchanged on Telegram between prosecutors and Judge Sergio Moro, in charge of Lava Jato, and obtained by " anonymous source ". This judge is today the Minister of Justice of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.

" While they have long assured that they are apolitical and motivated solely by the fight against corruption, the prosecutors of Lava Jato have in fact plotted between them on the means to prevent the return to power of Lula and his Workers Party. Wrote The Intercept. If their veracity is established, these exchanges undermine the supposed necessary impartiality of Judge Moro, who would have provided indications and advice to the prosecutors against his pet peeve, the former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whom he had condemned in first instance in 2017.
Serious doubts about Lula's guilt
Other messages also reveal that the prosecutors themselves had " serious doubts about sufficient evidence of Lula's guilt " in the matter of obtaining a triplex bribe and who has finally sent to prison, for eight years and 10 months after a recent revision of his sentence.

His conviction prevented Lula, the favorite of the voting intentions at the time, from standing in the presidential election last October. He has consistently claimed his innocence and claimed to be a victim of political machinations designed to prevent him from running for a third term after those of 2003 to 2010.

For his part, Lula's presidential candidate, Fernando Haddad, demanded a thorough investigation into what could become " the biggest institutional scandal in the history of the Republic ." If the information published by The Intercept is verified, " many will have to be imprisoned, trials should be canceled and a great farce would be disclosed to the world, " added the one who lost the presidential election in the second round against Jair Bolsonaro.

In a quick reaction, Lava Jato officials said they were " serene " in the face of accusations that they acted illegally, while lamenting that they were "the victims of the criminal action of a pirate who carried out very serious activities against the prosecution, the private life and the security of its members ". Judge Moro, for his part, " lamented the non-identification of the source [...] responsible for the criminal hacking of prosecutors ' laptops " and the fact that the site " did not come into contact (with him) before publication, which is contrary to the basic rules of journalism ". The messages illegally obtained were "taken out of context", he defends himself.

Basically, he denies any irregularity in his behavior during the sprawling investigation that has allowed to lock up hundreds of political and economic leaders in five years, in connection with a huge network of bribes around the world. Petrobras Group's public markets.

" The archives obtained by our site on Brazil are among the most important in the history of journalism, " wrote in a Tweet the co-founder of The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald.

" They contain explosive secrets in the form of cats, audios, videos, photos and other documents " about the prosecutor Lava Jato, Deltan Dallagnol, Judge Moro and "a lot of officials who continue to exercise significant political and economic influence in Brazil and other countries ". " Our reports are just beginning, " he warned.

https://www.liberation.fr/depeches/2019 ... la_1732745

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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Tue Jun 11, 2019 8:48 pm

(Man, but this is a shoddy translation. Exonerated + 'fired'? Good luck)


Jair Bolsonaro exonerates all experts of the Mechanism to Combat Torture
New experts will not have salary and will not be able to connect with NGOs or universities
Bruno Fonseca
Public, June 11, 2019 at 3:19 pm

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Mechanism supervised prisons, psychiatric hospitals and shelters for the elderly. / MNPCT file

President Jair Bolsonaro exonerated, by decree published today, June 11 , all the experts of the National Mechanism for Prevention and Fight Against Torture (MNPCT), the body responsible for investigating human rights violations in places such as prisons, psychiatric hospitals, shelters the elderly, among others.

The decree 9831 , signed yesterday, also provides that the appointment of new experts to the agency need has to be approved by an act of the President himself, and that these new members will not receive salary. In addition, the Bolsonaro Act still prohibits the new experts from having any links with civil society networks and entities and teaching and research institutions, among others.

"We were taken by surprise. It is quite clear that this is a retaliation to the work that we have been developing, "one of the dismissed experts, Daniel Melo, told Public. As Public had revealed , since the beginning of the Bolsonaro administration, the members of the Mechanism had been denouncing that the Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights, Damares Alves, was working to prevent the performance of the experts. In February, members of the Mechanism and the National Committee for Prevention and Combat of Torture (CNPCT) stated that the minister prevented the inspection of penitentiaries in Ceará to evaluate reports of mistreatment and torture in the prison system in Ceará.

According to the expert, the decree also makes unfeasible the performance of future experts since, without compensation, they would hardly have the capacity to conduct extensive investigations. "It is unfeasible [voluntary work]. To have autonomy, to make visits, to manage to organize a job, you need sustenance. The job of the expert can not be a position like that of a counselor, that you go to a meeting on time and leave, "he criticizes.

The denunciation of the experts in February generated a crisis in the Ministry of Human Rights, which criticized the Mechanism, but later authorized the inspection in the penitentiaries of Ceará. In April, after conducting the visits, the experts released an extensive report pointing to overcrowded facilities, arrested with broken hands and fingers and head injuries claiming to have been hit by blows or blows of batons, waterlogged, moldy, and lacking medicines for prisoners with tuberculosis and hepatitis.

The inspection report also reported that HIV-positive prisoners were without access to medical care and prevented from visiting family members who could bring HIV cocktails. During the inspections, the experts found a cell, in the same prisons, occupied by detainees ex-policemen and children of police with mattress, fan and mosquito net.

The Public sought the Ministry of Human Rights but has not yet obtained a return.

Experts must denounce Bolsonaro's decree to the Public Prosecutor's Office

"We point out that the Brazilian State has provoked torture and violated the rights of persons deprived of their liberty. [The Bolsonaro decree] reminds us of the Institutional Acts [of the Dictatorship] because we are guaranteed by Federal Law and, suddenly, by means of a decree, we are exonerated, "criticizes the expert.

According to the expert Daniel Melo, the dismissal of the experts will be taken to the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), in addition to international organizations. At the beginning of the year, the complaint that Damares had prevented the visit of the Mechanism to the prisons of Ceará was taken to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, MPF, the United Nations (UN) and the Inter-American Court

However, even after the denunciations, the Ministry of Damares did not recompose the framework of experts, since several have a term of office - of the 11 experts provided for in Law, the Mechanism had only seven until the decree was published, two of these still awaited appointment.

In the last biannual report released by the system of protection against torture, the group reported degrading situations during a visit to prisons of the Curado Complex, in Recife (PE). Pavilions that should house 50 prisoners had more than 150 inmates. There were a number of unhealthy spaces, with exposed beams, leaks, molds, and no air circulation. In Belém do Pará, the group had reported overcrowding in the psychiatric hospital of the penitentiary system. According to the report, there were 96 beds for more than 180 people, in addition to five people who remained hospitalized despite having already had the restraint measure expired.

https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2019/06 ... -a-torture

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Trump with a Latin flair. Completely different yet the scum rises to the top. Something about the political environment....bourgeois democracy is 'sick'.
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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Sat Jun 15, 2019 10:12 pm

Brazil: Police Repress Rallies Against Pension Reform

[img]https://www.telesurenglish.net/__export ... 483346.jpg
Riot police take up position in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June 14, 2019. The sign reads: 'The strike did not cause chaos. It was the chaos that caused the strike.' | Photo: Reuters

Brazilian military police were out in force across the country to crackdown on the thousands of protesters at Friday's massive national strike against government social security reforms.

In Rio de Janeiro, members of the Military Police (MP) monitored the estimated 100,000 demonstrators who took over the city's main avenues, rejecting President Jair Bolsonaro's proposal to privative the national pension program. As citizens protested late into the night, the MP dispersed workers and students by launching tear gas and shooting rubber bullets at them. A Brasil de Fato journalist reporting from the scene says she was trapped inside a car and felt the effects of the tear gas, suffering from burning eyes and throat.

Protesters continued to shout: "I won't give up welfare or education," and "Be careful because if you mess with social security, you attack the whole country." Others refrained: "Our struggle brought workers and students together."

Bolsonaro's social security reform bill, which includes provisions to eliminate labor protections for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, seeks to raise the minimum retirement age to 62 years for women, and 65 for men. Anti-government demonstrators say these reforms will most affect the poor.

The president's proposal would also increase the number of contributions that a worker must make before being able to receive a monthly retirement pension, which will be equivalent to only 60 percent of his or her highest salary, rather than the current 80 percent.

In Sao Paulo where, since Friday morning unions and organizations were burning tires and shutting down major roads, at least 15 students were detained by the Military Police, while two leaders at a local university were injured, reports
#GreveGeral | Urgente: 15 estudiantes detenidos por la policia militar durante las movilizaciones en el marco de la huelga general. 2 funcionarios de la Universidad de São Paulo heridos por represión policial. pic.twitter.com/JmdZnG6Z3E

— Nacho Lemus (@LemusteleSUR) June 14, 2019

#GreveGeral | Urgent: 15 students detained by the military police during the demonstrations during the general strike. 2 officials of the University of São Paulo injured by repressive police

“We closed the avenue because this is an important day for everyone. Everyone knows how important the retirement system is especially for youth, women, and rural workers,” Vitor Quarenta, a Worker’s Party (PT) activist told teleSUR as the demonstrations began in Rio.

Students from the Federal Rio de Janeiro University protested along the Red Line, an expressway which connects Sao Joao de Meriti and Rio de Janeiro. They were joined there by healthcare professionals, electrical workers, and members of the Brazilian Popular Front (FBP) who were all harshly repressed by the Military Police.​​​​​​​

Petrobras oil workers stopped all their activities in the Duque Caxias, Campos dos Goytacazes and Macae refineries.

During a day when even the private banks closed, open-air lectures on the pension reform took place in Brazilian cities such as Angra dos Reis, Rio das Ostras, Campos dos Goytacazes, Macae, Barra do Pirai, Barra Mansa, Valenca Volta Redonda, and Cabo Frio.

"We are showing working class strength to stop the social security reform. They are scared," said Duda Quiroga, member of a main national union, Unified Central Workers (CUT), in response of the far-right government policies and police repression.​​​​​​​

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bra ... -0001.html
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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Thu Jun 27, 2019 8:37 pm

Brazilian Army Sergeant Arrested for Trafficking 39 Kilos of Cocaine on Presidential Plane

The Spanish police arrested the military officer as he was traveling in a reserve plane that was accompanying President Bolsonaro to Japan.


Spanish security forces arrested a member of President Jair Bolsonaro's military entourage at the Sevilla airport for possession of 39 kilos of cocaine in his suitcase.

Today in the morning the Defense Minister informed me of the arrest of an aeronautical officer carrying narcotics. I ordered the Defense Minister to collaborate immediately for early clarification of the facts," President Bolsonaro tweeted.

The 39-year-old air force Sergeant was traveling on an official plane that was making a reconnaissance trip before the Brazilian president was due to board another plane to attend the G20 summit in Japan on Wednesday. Once the incident in Seville was made public, Bolsonaro altered his travel plans.

"Brazil's president changed Tuesday night the route of his trip to Tokyo... After taking off in Brasilia, Bolsonaro had to stop in Seville; however, late in the evening, his agenda showed Lisbon as the fight plan's new scale. The president's press office did not explain the reason for the change," El Pais, a Spanish newspaper, reported.

Through his Twitter account, Bolsonaro also defended the Brazilian army's "ethics and morality" and said that "if the military officer's participation in this crime is proven, he will be tried and condemned."

Em comitiva de Bolsonaro, avião da FAB com 39 kg de cocaína está tirando brasileiros do sério: https://t.co/KB7ydOHWG1 via @sputnik_brasil

— Oscar Ricardo Goular (@Tigrinho9) June 26, 2019
"In Bolsonaro's delegation, the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane with 39 kg of cocaine is making Brazilians lose patience. Brazilian military was arrested in Spain transporting 39 kilos of cocaine in a FAB plane which was the reserve vehicle of the Bolsonaro's delegation to the G20."

Bolsonaro's statement contrasts with some facts because it is not the first time that Brazilian air force members have taken advantage of their status to traffic drugs.

"In April, the Brazilian Military Superior Court ordered the expulsion of a lieutenant colonel for being involved in trafficking 33 kilos of cocaine," El Pais recalled and added that the official was convicted for integrating a "cocaine trafficking international specialized network" which used military aircraft.

Bolsonaro and his government received a massive backlash as Brazilians took to social media to reject such actions by members of the right-wing government referring to the scandal as "cocaine affair" the news of which surfaced just a few hours after the country's Supreme Court rejected two habeas corpus requests for the freedom of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, while delaying the ruling on one until August.

"Justice Minister Sergio Moro or President Bolsonaro must explain how a member of the military was trafficking drugs in a presidential reserve plane. And as a public servant, Moro has an obligation to provide the details of his agenda in the U.S.," said Jean Wyllys, the former socialist senator and gay-rights activist who was forced to leave Brazil after death threats he received from far-right paramilitary groups.

"Brazil has become a country so sui generis that while its justice minister was talking about the fight against drugs at the DEA, the presidential plane was trafficking cocaine in Spain," said Maufalavigna, a Brazilian man from Sao Paulo.

"While Lula remains as a prisoner of justice without any evidence against him, 39 kilos of cocaine travel in a soldier's bag inside a Bolsonaro plane," La Nave Comunica commented.​​​​​

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Bra ... -0001.html

Apparently the "decline & fall of bourgeois democracy' ain't just for the USA anymore.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 06, 2019 3:44 pm

Banana Republic: Bolsonaro defends child labour

A 2018 report commissioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Brazil’s Labour Prosecution Office showed that at least 8,000 Brazilian children and teenagers currently work in the chocolate production chain alone. Brazil’s Far-Right Brazilian President, who this week told the powerful ruralista agriculture lobby that “this government belongs to you”, isn’t just fine with this, he evidently thinks that child labour should be liberalised and expanded.

By Bruno de Oliveira

This week Jair Bolsonaro delivered a speech defending child labour, and even attacked those who protest against it, comparing working on a farm favourably to the “alternative” of smoking crack. Is that really what is left for the future of Brazilian children? drugs or child labour? These narrow, binary choices show the level of Bolsonaro. How about investing in cutting edge education? I can only imagine Bolsonaro saying to the Ministry of Education of Finland, a country that has one of the best education systems in the world, that Finland could learn a thing or two about education with Brazil. Under Bolsonaro, The Brazilian educational policy is the brick or the rock.

During the speech, Bolsonaro elaborated: “Look, working nine, ten years old at the farm, I was not harmed at all. When a 9 or 10 year-old kid goes to work somewhere, it is full of people there talking about ‘slave labour’…or I do n’t know, ‘child labour’. Now, when he is smoking a rock of crack, no one says anything.” he continued, “I remember perfectly that one of the things that were planted there, besides banana, was corn. And at that time for you to cut the corn, you did not have to get on the plantation and pick it up. You had to break the corn. You had to put the burlap bag on your arm. And when I was nine, ten years old, I would break corn in the plantation and four, five days later, in the sun, you would harvest the corn. So, work does not disturb anyone’s life” said the President.

Abrinq Foundation’s report on childhood and adolescence that 40% of children aged 0-14 in the country live in poverty. Brazil has 2.6 million children and adolescents (between 5 and 17 years) in a situation of child labour. The harmful impact of missing school can lead a person not to understand the history of its own country. For example, “The mistake of the dictatorship was to torture and not kill.” Twenty thousand people were tortured during the military dictatorship in Brazil (1964-1985), according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) survey. At least 434 people were killed or remain missing, according to official figures. Many of the poor, afro-Brazilian and Indigenous victims are not included in this count.

The effect of a lack of education can impact your understanding of gender equalities, and Education can broaden people’s view about the topic. Bolsonaro also said: “I would not employ men and women with the same salary, but there are many women who are competent.” There is a clear argument for education and understanding gender equality. Iceland was found to have a smaller gender gap than any other country. Compulsory education starts at 6 and lasts for ten years. It provides primary education and low secondary. Schools are run by local authorities and are free. The students get all their textbooks and other learning devices free of charge. But, Bolsonaro would provide a pick-mattock.

Absenteeism, missing school, not only affects student achievement, it can affect a student’s attitude and behaviour. When a student has attendance issues, achievement issues and behaviour issues it increases their risk of dropping out of school. Broadly, education is seen as a way out of poverty because it enables children from low-income families to move upwards not only when it comes to income but social status too. In other words, children born to poor parents who completed higher education are more likely to climb the social ladder than those with a lower level of education.

The difference between ‘child labour’ and ‘child work’ is that child labour refers to work that is harmful to children. It is work that is mentally or physically dangerous, work that interferes with their ability to go to school, which can affect their income-earning potential as adults. The health and wellbeing of child labourers are at risk, and they can end up being trapped in a cycle of poverty. Child labourers can suffer from long-term health problems due to malnutrition, exposure to chemicals, abuse, injuries, exhaustion, and psychological harm. In agriculture, children may be exposed to toxic pesticides or fertilisers. They work with dangerous blades and tools and carry heavy loads. Worldwide, 22,000 children are killed at work every year.

I can only imagine Bolsonaro meeting Malala and Greta and saying: “You should have done some farm work like me”. Children are vulnerable and need to be protected. The only tools children should be given educational tools.

Meanwhile, Mister President, if you cannot competently govern the country, you yourself should instead go and plant some bananas, rather than transforming Brazil into a banana republic.

http://www.brasilwire.com/banana-republ ... ld-labour/
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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Tue Jul 09, 2019 12:49 pm

The Smoking Gun of U.S. Involvement in Lava Jato
By Bryan Pitts.

Ever since the Obama administration’s silence in 2016 when Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was removed in a legally-spurious impeachment that constituted a congressional coup, the question of the role of the United States in that process has been the elephant in the room.

Even a casual student of history knows that the U.S. has seldom hesitated to attempt to overthrow troublesome Latin American governments. Guatemala’s Arbenz in 1954, Brazil’s Goulart in 1964, Chile’s Allende in 1973, Panama’s Noriega in 1989, Venezuela’s Chávez in 2002 – the list goes on.

Since this time there were no American marines landing in Rio, no American ambassadors publicly cheerleading for the coup, no premature recognition by Washington of post-coup governments, it was hard to see what shape U.S. involvement might be taking. Since 2016 this question has come into sharper focus, and this week has added another huge piece to the puzzle, perhaps the smoking gun.

Last night The Intercept published the fifth segment of its bombshell report on unethical and possibly illegal collaboration between former federal judge and current Minister of Justice and Public Safety Sérgio Moro and federal prosecutor Delton Dallagnol. Dallagnol was the chief prosecutor for Operation Lava Jato, the sweeping anti-corruption probe that has swept up hundreds of politicians in Brazil and abroad; Moro was the judge who was to decide the cases. Their coordination went as far as Moro contacting Dallagnol to suggest possible witnesses he could interview to bolster his cases.

Unlike the second, third, and fourth segments, which analyzed specific themes of the conversations between the two, as well as group chats including additional members of the Lava Jato team, this fifth installment provided extensive excerpts from the hacked conversations (with personal material, as well as information related to pending legal cases, redacted).

Buried in these chats was an offhand comment Dallagnol made to Moro on August 31, 2016 that provides some of the strongest evidence to date of the involvement of the United States (most likely the Department of Justice) in Lava-Jato. Here is the full text:

Moro – 18:44:08 – Hasn’t it been a long time without an operation?

Dallagnol – 20:05:32 – It has. The problem is that these operations involve the same people [i.e., investigators or judges] who have the accusation against [former president Luiz Inácio] Lula [da Silva]. We decided to postpone everything until this accusation is released, except for the op[eration involving] Tacla, because there`s a risk that he will flee, but it depends on our articulação (links, negotiations, joint efforts) with the Americans (emphasis added).

Dallagnol – 20:05:45 – (Which is in the works)

Dallagnol – 20:05:59 – We are scheduled to release the accusation on [September] 14.

In other words, Moro was concerned that there had not been another operation (i.e., a new phase of the investigation that might include raids on suspects’ homes or businesses, charges, warrants, or arrests) in a while. Dallagnol responded that this was because the people responsible for the next operation were also working on an accusation against Lula, so they had decided to prioritize that and put the next operation on the back burner, but that it depended on coming to an articulação with the Americans.

What the “it” (ela) refers to is unclear. Grammatically, it could be the accusation against Lula, the postponement of the next operation, or the execution of the pending operation against Odebrecht lawyer Rodrigo Tacla Duran. The most likely is that it refers to the postponement of the next operation, based on the structure of the sentence, with the two dependent clauses in the middle. “We decided to postpone everything until the accusation is released – except for the operation Tacla, because there’s a risk he might flee – but it depends on our articulação with the Americans.”

The obvious question is the meaning of the word “articulação,” most literally translated as “articulation.” The Michaelis dictionary, one of the top dictionaries of Brazilian Portuguese, gives 17 possible meanings for articulação and 11 for the related verb articular. At its most basic level, the word means “to come together, to tie together, to join.” So the elbow joint is an articulação. The place where the stem of a leaf attaches to a branch is an articulação. The hinge where a pocketknife folds is an articulação.

So when Dallagnol tells Moro that decisions on how to proceed require an articulação with the Americans, he means a point of connection, a tying together, or, to put it more directly, making a deal. The importance of this remark cannot be overstated. A leading federal prosecutor stated matter-of-factly to a federal judge who is now Minister of Justice that key decisions about a Brazilian investigation (into Brazilian citizens, who may have stolen Brazilian tax dollars) could only proceed when some sort of an agreement was reached with the Americans.

By itself this statement could mean almost anything. But when placed alongside other evidence that has emerged, we gain a better idea of its meaning and significance.

There was the 2009 cable from the U.S. embassy detailing a conference held for Brazilian officials on how to prosecute money laundering, at which Moro was a featured speaker. There was the revelation in 2013, based on Edward Snowden’s leaks to Glenn Greenwald (who would go on to found The Intercept) that the NSA was spying on world leaders and foreign businesses, including Brazil’s Rousseff and Petrobrás, the state oil company. And in 2017 acting assistant attorney general Kenneth Blanco admitted that the Department of Justice had collaborated with Brazilian prosecutors on Lula’s conviction.

Two of these three revelations, like Dallagnol’s comment, came from exchanges or plans that were never supposed to become public. From the point of view or a journalist or a historian, they constitute the highest type of evidence – the things people say or do when they think no one is listening.

The previous sources, however, all came from U.S. sources. Dallagnol’s comment is different because it is the first to show that key Brazilian actors saw Lava Jato as a collaborative effort with “the Americans.”

Still unknown is precisely who these Americans were, what they might have wanted from Brazil, and what agreements Dallagnol’s deal might have entailed. But the evidence that the U.S. government was involved in some way with Lava Jato and, by extension, the impeachment of Dilma and imprisonment and electoral disqualification of Lula is compelling and can no longer be ignored.

Brasil Wire has been the only English-language media outlet to consistently point to U.S. involvement since the earliest days of the coup. We were laughed at as conspiracy theorists, accused of denying Brazilians their “agency” by blaming the U.S. for Brazil’s woes.

Well, who’s laughing now?

http://www.brasilwire.com/the-smoking-g ... lava-jato/
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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:57 pm

Brasil under Lula & Dilma disrupted US plans for South America, says former ambassador

By Revista Consultor Jurídico.

The US government closely followed – and worried about – the Brazilian government’s initiatives to create a strong and cohesive political bloc in South America, especially the way construction company Odebrecht had become a government partner in those plans. This is according to former US ambassador to Brazil, Thomas Shannon, who occupied the post between 2010 and 2013.

The main focus of attention, he says, were the relations between Brazil and Venezuela. “Brazil identified how Venezuela directed its oil industry to integrate with the American market. So something needed to be done to bring it to South America”, explained the diplomat, noting the growing animosity between the then Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and the United States. The background to this was the Brazilian project of “building a large and cohesive South America”, said Shannon, now a consultant to the Arnold & Porter law firm.

Shannon was talking to reporters form Poder360, Época magazine, and the Miami Herald newspaper, a member of the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) newspaper association.

According to the former ambassador, Brazil’s intentions were made clear by BNDES financing the port of Mariel in Cuba. The construction work was carried out by Odebrecht and the bank invested R$624 million. This would position Brazil as an important actor in international relations in the Caribbean, especially in the face of the US government’s stance of maintaining embargoes on Cuba, even with signs of economic openness.

Shannon states that the United States believed that Brazil was moving towards the construction of a cohesive international bloc of progressive and left orientation. This would be an obstacle to the resuscitation of the Free Trade Area of ​​the Americas, or FTAA, a project by the US government to create a trade bloc with tariff incentives, which had been rejected by the Latin American countries.

Car wash
Shannon’s analysis opens a few more pages in the North American chapter of Lava Jato. Odebrecht has signed one of the largest leniency agreements in history with the US Department of Justice (DoJ). And it was only possible thanks to the free transit of information and evidence between the prosecutors of the DoJ and the prosecutors of Lava Jato in Curitiba. Amongst the evidence were extracts from accounts of the construction company in the USA.

The leniency agreement foresees payment of $8.5 billion by the contractor, of which 80% was sent to Brazil – included an attempted $682 million dollar payment to the Lava Jato task force in Curitiba. In exchange for giving up the money, the US demanded the presence of an “external compliance monitor” to report every 120 days.

These reports “probably include proprietary, financial, commercial and confidential information” the agreement says.

What Shannon is saying, therefore, is that the Brazilian MPF ​​has ratified an agreement in which a Brazilian company, recognized by the American government as important for the interests of the Brazilian government, has committed to send reports to the US on its commercial activities.

This article appeared on Consultor Jurídico, and was translated by Brasil Wire.

http://www.brasilwire.com/brasil-under- ... mbassador/
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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Wed Jul 24, 2019 3:04 pm

Petrobras to privatise Brazil's top gas seller in $2 bn share sale

Each of Branco's three predecessors discussed privatizing Petrobras Distribuidora SA

SAO PAULO/RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA is set to relinquish control of the country's biggest fuel distributor in a share offering due to be priced late on Tuesday, pushing ahead with a privatization drive under new Chief Executive Roberto Castello Branco.

Each of Branco's three predecessors discussed privatizing Petrobras Distribuidora SA. The share offering of the gas station chain underscores the new government's commitment to an array of public asset sales in industries ranging from energy to finance.

Petrobras, as the company is known, plans to sell 25% of shares in Petrobras Distribuidora, which would bring in roughly 7.57 billion reais ($2 billion) at Tuesday's closing price.

Shares rose 2% on Tuesday to 26 reais, ahead of the offering pricing.

The stake sale could increase to 33.75% via overallotment provisions, raising up to 10.2 billion reais ($2.7 billion). Supplementary and additional allotments will be allocated by Aug. 28, according to the prospectus.

The fuel distributor, also known as BR Distribuidora, owns 17.7% of all gas stations in Brazil, according to oil regulatory agency ANP data. Its closest rival is Ipiranga, controlled by Ultrapar Participacoes SA, with 14% of gas stations.

The sale of state-owned assets is expected to drive mergers, acquisitions and share offerings in Brazil in the second half of the year, bankers and investors said, after a slower-than-expected first half.

Petrobras management, appointed by President Jair Bolsonaro in January, is aggressively exiting downstream and midstream businesses to sharpen its focus on offshore oil exploration and production.

Analysts at UBS AG and Banco Bradesco SA have "buy" and "outperform" ratings on Petrobras Distribuidora, with price targets of 30 and 35 reais, respectively. Both say privatization will free the firm of some onerous legal obligations.

"Personnel costs should fall after privatization, as (the company) will be free to follow its own hiring process rather than public-tender hiring and the dismissal process will be significantly less complex than the current one," wrote UBS analysts led by Luiz Carvalho.

The offering will be led by the investment banking units of JPMorgan Chase & Co, Citigroup Inc, Itau Unibanco Holding SA, Bank of America Corp, Credit Suisse Group AG and Banco Santander Brasil SA.

https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes ... e/70360768

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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Tue Aug 13, 2019 3:03 pm

Indigenous women occupy the Ministry of Health in Brazil to defend their rights

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So far, a representation of 113 women from 25 Brazilian states have joined the march. | Photo: EFE

Posted 12 August 2019

The women said that in various native populations, health services are threatened by the policies promoted by the Government of Jair Bolsonaro.

Hundreds of women from various indigenous tribes of Brazil continue this Monday with protests in Brasilia (capital) to demand President Jair Bolsonaro more health care in their territories, so they occupied the headquarters of the Ministry of Health.

After arriving at the ministerial facilities, the women said that in various native populations, health services are threatened by the policies promoted by the Bolsonaro Government.

The indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara said that, so far, in the march there is a representation of 113 women from 25 states, of the 1,500 indigenous women in Brazil.

Indigenous women occupy the Ministry of Health. Thus begins the week with the 1st March of Indigenous Women in Brasilia. https://t.co/KzgTTYgIar

- Nacho Lemus (@LemusteleSUR) August 12, 2019
"We are representing those who have not yet come here to say that we will never accept any imposition of the destructive agenda of the Bolsonaro Government," Guajajara said.

Similarly, the representative of the indigenous land Xakriabá de Minas Gerais, Célia Xakriabá, said that the moment is of female prominence. "We dress in the grip of the force of nature, but our enemy is the State, which does not recognize us as original peoples."

The march has the theme "Territory: our body, our spirit", and its conveners expect that some 2,000 women from various regions of Brazil attend the day, which this Wednesday will join the Esplanade of Ministries, to continue with the protests in rejection of the current policy of Bolsonaro towards the original peoples.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/brasil-m ... -0024.html

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Bolsonaro rejects donation from Germany to the Amazon

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Peasant and indigenous sectors would convene massive demonstrations for policies in favor of Bolsonaro's agribusiness. | Photo: Reuters

Posted 11 August 2019

The decision comes after the great march of indigenous women who demand visibility and guarantees of their rights as native peoples.

The president of Brazil , Jair Bolsonaro , dismissed this Sunday the German financing for projects focused on sustainability in the jungles of the country, amid a tense environment due to the possible repeal of environmental agreements between both nations.

The Minister of Environment of Germany, Svenja Schulz , indicated in national media that the executive in Berlin, plans to stop sending resources to the South American country for his lack of commitment to stop deforestation in the Amazon; the money that would be frozen is approximately 35 million euros .

For his part, Bolsonaro said that "the country does not need this" by revalidating the allegations of peasant and indigenous communities that associate the ultra-right-wing head of state with Brazilian landowners and agro-industrialists.

Bolsonaro insists on exploiting the Amazon rainforests by endorsing the legalization of illegal mining, including in indigenous reserves, and promoting the construction of hydroelectric plants https://t.co/Ar00GZvQDW

- Emergency Ecology (@ecologismo_urg) August 8, 2019
Since 2008, Germany and Brazil strengthened their relationships, donations from the European country were destined to monitor, prevent and combat deforestation in the jungle; Another country that contributes to the project is Norway .

Bolsonaro has distinguished himself by questioning deforestation index figures published by the National Institute for Space Research , which has led to the resignation of the president of that body.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/bolsonar ... -0062.html

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Re: Brazil

Post by blindpig » Thu Aug 15, 2019 1:39 pm

Anti-austerity protests: Students and Unions paralyze 200 cities

3rd “Education Tsunami” shut down schools and traffic in the downtown areas of cities in all 26 Brazilian states, but was whitewashed in the international media.

Brazilian students and union members blocked major thoroughfares in over 200 cities on August 13th to protest the Bolsonaro government’s austerity cuts to the public education system. The protests were almost completely ignored in the Anglo media.

During the protest in São Paulo, which shut down Avenida Paulista for 5 hours, President of the Brazilian High School Students Union (UBES)Pedro Gorki, said, “The risk of these cuts is that education will lose its public, democratic and free characteristics. The backdrop of this education plan is the destruction of the public nature of Brazilian schools and universities. They don’t want education to be a right for all, they want to transform it into right for the few so we are here to protest against this and guarantee that all Brazilian people can have access to schools and universities”


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UBES President Pedro Gorki traveled from his home town of Natal to São Paulo for the protest

The protest represented the 3rd national education strike after two similar days of protests in May brought a combined estimated 3.6 million people to the streets of hundreds of towns and cities. Dubbed the “Education Tsumani” and was organized by student unions, it started early in the morning in small towns and gradually kicked off in larger and large cities, culminating in huge street protests in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro. Thousand of people from all walks of life came out in solidarity with the students.

In São Paulo, the actress Beatriz Santos said, “I am here today for the future of my daughter. I have a four year old daughter and I don’t want her to live in a country that has a fascist President and Government. I love Brazil and will fight for it.”


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Beatriz Santos came to Avenida Paulista to show solidarity with the students and teachers

Although a national strike which involved millions of workers was unable to completely halt the Bolsonaro government’s pension reform proposal from being passed in Congress, in exchange for R$ 3 billion in pork that was handed out to lawmakers who supported the initiative, some of the most brutal elements of the bill, such as raising the retirement age as high as 74, were removed from it. It’s widely believed that this happened due to the pressure from the unions. The student unions who organized the Education Tsunami believe that, at the very least, these demonstrations and linked pressure strategies on lawmakers will reduce the size of the public education cuts. On Avenida Paulista, Mariana, from the São Paulo Municipal High School Students Union said, “We want to pressure the Government and I think that if we continue this fight we will achieve results. We will be able to draw attention to the problem and reduce the cuts. “


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Downtown Belo Horizonte, Brazil’s 3rd largest city, was paralyzed during the evening rush hour. Photo by Dowglas Silva

http://www.brasilwire.com/anti-austerit ... 00-cities/
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