Brazil thread 2023-

[buritobr]

Lula to visit Amazon amid vow to tackle Yanomami Indigenous crisis

Move comes after country’s minister for Indigenous people says issue is an ‘absolute priority’

Brazil’s first-ever minister for Indigenous peoples, Sônia Guajajara, has vowed to make tackling the humanitarian crisis plaguing the country’s largest Indigenous territory “an absolute priority”, as she prepared to fly into the region with the new president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Under the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, thousands of illegal gold miners poured into the Yanomami enclave in the Amazon, bringing violence, pollution and a healthcare calamity captured in a recent series of photographs of severely malnourished children and adults.

On Friday, Lula announced that he and Guajajara would make an emergency visit to the Amazon state of Roraima, where the Yanomami territory is located, to lead the government’s response to the “outrageous levels of malnutrition”.

“Our Yanomami relatives are facing a humanitarian and health crisis. We cannot allow our relatives to die of malnutrition and hunger,” Guajajara tweeted.

In December, shortly before being named minister, Guajajara visited the region to denounce an illegal 75-mile road powerful mining mafias had carved out of the 96,650 sq km (37,300 sq mile) territory.

Interviewed last week in Brasília, she said solving the Yanomami crisis – which had exposed Yanomami children to horrifying levels of malaria, verminosis, malnutrition and diarrhoea – was at the top of her in-tray.

“Every 72 hours a child is dying from one of these illnesses, according to the information we’ve received,” said Guajajara, who was born in the Araribóia territory of the Amazon. “Children are dying because of the polluted water and the lack of food caused by the presence of the illegal miners.”

The 48-year-old politician said she had spoken to Brazil’s new justice minister, Flávio Dino, about launching a major security operation that would deploy troops to expel an estimated 20,000 miners from the supposedly protected territory, where about 27,000 members of the Yanomami and Ye’kwana peoples live.

If Lula’s new government approved such plans, “we will be able to get these invaders out … in less than three months”, Guajajara said.

On Monday, the health ministry dispatched a multidisciplinary team on a 10-day mission to the Yanomami territory to assess the health crisis.

Thousands of tin ore and gold miners were removed from Yanomami lands in the early 1990s after global outrage at their impact on the region’s remote communities. A 9.6m-hectare reserve was created to safeguard Yanomami lives.

But within a decade the prospectors had returned, with the number reaching new heights during Bolsonaro’s 2019-2022 administration as his anti-environmental rhetoric and policies emboldened rainforest wreckers.


Guajajara recognised such an eviction would create an “emergency situation” outside the Yanomami territory, as huge numbers of impoverished garimpeiro (independent prospectors) found themselves out of work.

“These miners come from all over the country and end up being victims of this whole process too. We need to punish the politicians and business people who own these mines,” she said.

“These are the ones who must be penalised. The miners are engaged in illegal activity. But often they’re doing it out of necessity rather than because they want to be. So we consider them victims too.”

Guajajara said another of her ministry’s priorities would be supporting isolated Indigenous groups in the Amazon’s Javari valley region, where the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were murdered last June while documenting Indigenous efforts to protect the rainforest.


Guajajara said that seven months on, the Javari continued to be blighted by “violence, persecution and murder” despite the domestic and international outcry.

Beto Marubo, a Javari leader who was close to Pereira, said there had been little sign of action to protect the region’s Indigenous defenders since the two men were shot on the Itaquaí River.

Marubo predicted the newly created ministry for Indigenous peoples would face major obstacles as it pursued ambitious goals.

“We will have to deal with an extremely conservative congress containing people with absolutely no commitment to Indigenous rights or the environment,” he said.

“But it’s undeniably a historic event,” added Marubo, who hoped the start of Lula’s new government – which began on 1 January 2023 – increased the chances there would be justice after the murders of Phillips and Pereira.

In her first speech as minister last week, Guajajara admitted the legacy of centuries of violence and discriminations towards Indigenous people that followed the “discovery” of Brazil in the year 1500 would not be vanquished overnight. “We know it will not be easy to overcome 522 years in four,” she said.

But Guajajara believed Lula was genuinely committed to the Indigenous cause. “He’s not just pretending to support us – he really wants to make a difference and to do things differently to how they were done in the past,” she said.

On Wednesday, during his first major TV interview this year, Lula vowed to “fight tooth and nail” to halt Amazon deforestation by 2030 and announced plans for a special division of the federal police to combat deforestation and drug trafficking.

Guajajara said the new ministry – and the decision to put the Indigenous politician Joênia Wapichana in charge of the Indigenous agency Funai - was the fruit of generations of Indigenous struggle.

“It’s unbelievable. Sometimes it feels like it’s still a dream,” she said. “But when you look back at the journey we made to reach this point, you see that this didn’t happen by chance – and it wasn’t easy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/20/brazil-indigenous-minister-sonia-guajajara-yanomami-crisis-illegal-miners

[CumbrianLefty]

Heartening news.

[Pivaru]

Tomorrow, the newly elected members of the National Congress will be sworn in, then, the senate and the chamber of deputies will both have an election for president.

In the lower chamber (Chamber of Deputies), it is expected that Arthur Lira (Progressistas), the incumbent president, will get reelected, some of his allies are expecting him to get up to 90% of the votes. Lira was able to create a broad coalition in the chamber, the centrão is supporting him, Bolsonaro's PL is supporting him, Lula's PT is supporting him.

The only other declared candidate so far is Chico Alencar (PSOL), who wants to oppose Lira from the left. Alencar has been pretty vocal about how he feels it is dangerous to give Lira this much power, warning that, if he gets more than 400 votes, he could end up having a lot of influence in the government. It's also likely that Marcel Van Hattem (Novo) will run and oppose Lira from a libertarian position. Both of these candidates have no chance though.
The election in the senate is more interesting, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD) is running for reelection, but different from Lira, he has not been able to get a broad coalition. The right has united behind senator Rogério Marinho (PL). There's also a third candidate, Eduardo Girão (Podemos), but he's not going to win, his only objective seems to be preventing that either Pacheco or Marinho win on a first round vote.

Pacheco is expected to win, he has support from the government parties (PT, PDT, Rede, Cidadania, PSB) and also some centrão parties (MDB and his own party, PSD). Marinho on the other hand has the support of his own party and a few others which supported Bolsonaro during his presidency (PSC, Progressistas, Republicanos). There are still a few parties which have not taken an official position on the election, most notably União Brasil, Podemos and PSDB.

At the end of the day, it's not inconceivable that Marinho could get the presidency, but it'd require almost unanimous support from the neutral parties and/or for some of the senators on parties that support Pacheco, like MDB, to defect.

Edit: Van Hattem announced his candidacy for the presidency of the lower house some minutes ago. As for the race in the senate, 3 senators from Pacheco's party declared they'll support Marinho. Some other senators, such as Alessandro Vieira and Izalci Lucas, both from PSDB, also said they'll vote for Marinho.

[Pivaru]

The election for president of the chamber of representatives and for the president of the senate should be starting in 30 minutes to 1 hour. The general consensus seems to be that Marinho has the momentum in the senate. Yesterday, Pacheco's group estimated that he'd get something like 55 votes, now they're expecting around 46, only 5 above the necessary 41. While there have been some defection from MDB and PSD who announced they'll support Marinho, Pachecho is expecting 2 PL senators to vote for him.

Marinho's group are saying that they've already overtaken Pacheco, claiming they have around 38 votes while Pacheco has 35 (the other 8 are undecided according to them). One of Marinho's allies, senator Magno Malta estimates that, in the end, Marinho should end up winning with 43 votes.

Eduardo Girão has said he expects at least 10 votes for him.

Pacheco has been trying to get some support back by saying that he's open to debating reforms to the supreme court, most notably term limits and limitations to monocratic decisions by court members. It's a way  to try to attract the vote of Bolsonaristas.

According to Globo, supreme court members have been paying attention to the race in the senate. In their view, if Marinho gets more than 30 votes, that'd mean that the Bolsonaristas have enough strength to open a parliamentary commission of inquiry investigating the perceived abuses of authority by the court. Still according to Globo, some justices are reportedly making calls to senators to ask for votes for Pacheco, arguing that his reelection is fundamental for a more peaceful relation between the three powers.

Edit: It started, Girão gave up his candidacy in favor of Marinho.

[buritobr]

Center-right senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), endorsed by Lula, was elected president of the Senate. He got 49 votes. Bolsonaro's candidate Rogério Marinho (PL-RN) got 32 votes.

[Pivaru]

Arthur Lira (PP) has been reelected as president of the chamber of deputies with 464 votes. Chico Alencar (PSOL) got 21, Marcel Van Hattem (Novo) got 19. 5 blank votes.

That's the most votes someone got for president of the chamber in history.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Charlie Kirk and Bolsonaro are doing a live event together in Miami.

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-tpusa-to-host-power-to-the-people-rally-in-miami-with-president-bolsonaro

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Charlie Kirk and Bolsonaro are doing a live event together in Miami.

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-tpusa-to-host-power-to-the-people-rally-in-miami-with-president-bolsonaro

Yeah, this ought to totally refute his claims to a 'tourist visa' and see him swiftly booted from the country. Ridiculous.

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Charlie Kirk and Bolsonaro are doing a live event together in Miami.

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-tpusa-to-host-power-to-the-people-rally-in-miami-with-president-bolsonaro

Yeah, this ought to totally refute his claims to a 'tourist visa' and see him swiftly booted from the country. Ridiculous.

Tourist Visas allow for particpating in confrences and rallies.

[No War, but the War on Christmas]

Charlie Kirk and Bolsonaro are doing a live event together in Miami.

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-tpusa-to-host-power-to-the-people-rally-in-miami-with-president-bolsonaro

Yeah, this ought to totally refute his claims to a 'tourist visa' and see him swiftly booted from the country. Ridiculous.

Tourist Visas allow for particpating in confrences and rallies.

I'm aware that they likely wouldn't specifically prohibit it; but when your entire case for a tourist visa was because he supposedly wants to 'take some time off from politics and rest' and now he's attending rallies as the headliner then I definitely think immigration officials should be a lot more skeptical of his claims.

Certainly no foreigner is 'entitled' to a tourist visa, especially not ex-despots.

[Pivaru]

Espirito Santo senator Marcos do Val (Podemos) denounced a planned coup attempt today. Do Val said he received a proposal by former federal deputy, Daniel Silveira (PTB), a radical bolsonarista. The plan was for Marcos to record a conversation between himself and supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes, the senator would then try to steer to conversation to a route that lead to Moraes saying something objectionable, something that went against the constitution. The idea was for the tape to be released and then Moraes would get jailed, leading to a chain of event which culminated in Lula not getting sworn in.

Do Val initially said that he'd resign as senator, but now CNN is reporting that he actually hasn't decided yet if he'll actually do it. He also initially said Bolsonaro was also involved, but then walked back on his word, now he's saying that the former president had nothing to do with the plot, pinning the blame solely on Silveira. Moraes has ordered police to interview Do Val in 5 days at most.

After this all came to light, Silveira was arrested and it seems like the possibility of the senate opening an investigation in relation to the post-election antidemocratic acts is high. The president of PL, Bolsonaro's party, Valdemar Costa Neto, will be talking to police later today. Last month he said something to the effect of "everyone in the party had documents related to a coup attempt" after. Bolsonaro's former minister of justice, Anderson Torres, who was arrested following the Jan 8 attacks, will also get interrogated by police today (they already tried to talk to him once back in January 18, but he stayed silent in that occasion).

[buritobr]

Florida became a meeting point a Latin American right-wing extremists

[DavidB.]

Mean fascist Bolsonaro is sinking off a 30,000 ton aircraft carrier into the Atlantic Ocean after it was denied entry to Turkey. It's filled to the brim with asbestos and other toxic materials. So happy environmentalist Lula will soon take over! Nature will heal...

Oh wait... it was Lula's government who did this?

Communists: committing ecocide everywhere, but it's okay, because they have noble intentions.

The toxic material aboard São Paulo could disrupt ecosystems, kill animals and plants and poison marine food chains with heavy metals, according to IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency.

[buritobr]

Mean fascist Bolsonaro is sinking off a 30,000 ton aircraft carrier into the Atlantic Ocean after it was denied entry to Turkey. It's filled to the brim with asbestos and other toxic materials. So happy environmentalist Lula will soon take over! Nature will heal...

Oh wait... it was Lula's government who did this?

Communists: committing ecocide everywhere, but it's okay, because they have noble intentions.

The toxic material aboard São Paulo could disrupt ecosystems, kill animals and plants and poison marine food chains with heavy metals, according to IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency.

It was a decision of the Navy and not a decision of the government. The Navy decided to sink the aircraft carrier many months ago.

[DavidB.]

It was a decision of the Navy and not a decision of the government. The Navy decided to sink the aircraft carrier many months ago.

Apparently Lula's Justice Minister Mucio supported the move. In general it's hard to see how any Navy could decide something like this independently, without political backing.

[LM Brazilian Citizen]

It was a decision of the Navy and not a decision of the government. The Navy decided to sink the aircraft carrier many months ago.

Apparently Lula's Justice Minister Mucio supported the move. In general it's hard to see how any Navy could decide something like this independently, without political backing.

José Múcio is a right-wing politician. He was appointed Defense minister because he’s a personal friend of Lula, and to placate the military, many of whom support Bolsonaro. Even though Lula is widely known for his strong left-wing beliefs, he constantly dialogues with right-wing politicians in the Brazilian Congress to gain government support.

[Mike88]

This is a joke, right?

PL "preparing" to make Michelle Bolsonaro as the party's candidate for the 2026 elections.

If Bolsonaro is not a candidate, we have Michelle, at the launch of Bolsonaro's candidacy for re-election in Maracanãzinho, she spoke and revealed herself", said Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the Liberal Party (PL), the political formation that hosts Jair Bolsonaro - and Michelle Bolsonaro The former first lady was, in an interview with the party leader on CNN Brasil, officially elevated to the status of "presidential", almost four years away from the 2026 suffrage.
(...)

[buritobr]

Since the president is the commander of the three armed forces, Lula could give an order to the Navy to stop the sinking. But there are other trouble with the military, and Lula didn't want an extra one.
We can criticize by saying that this dispute is very important to the environment and Lula should have tried more. But it's not correct to consider Bolsonaro and Lula equal evils on environment. Bolsonaro had a clear intent to make Ibama (the environment protection agency) weaker.

[CumbrianLefty]

And plans for this were well advanced before Lula was elected.

[buritobr]

Lula will travel to the US next Thursday. He will meet Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

[Red Velvet]

Great news! Dilma’s role in the new Lula government is now out. She’s going to be the new president from the BRICS bank, working from Chinese headquarters of the institution.

Our allies from Russia, India, China and South Africa already gave the green light for Lula to make the substitution of the current Brazilian who is ahead of the bank, whose term is referent to the 2020-2025 period.

Good to see Dilma back in a big position after what was done to her, rooted in misogyny.

https://www.twitter.com/davidrkadler/status/1623731682929963008

[buritobr]

Lula arrived in the US yesterday.

Today, he met Bernie Sanders. You can see that the Vermont senator is very happy in the meeting


Than, he met Joe Biden

[Epaminondas]

Funny to see Bernie still ecstatic at meeting Lula after all this time. He's been quite frank about his delight at the meeting in recent interviews.
Had they interacted much before? Bernie only became US Senator shortly before Lula left office, but they're only 4 years apart.

What's the stated objective for the first 100 days of the Lula presidency?

[Pivaru]

Ipec released their first approval rating polling for Lula today, results were:

Good/great - 41%
Regular - 30%
Bad/terrible - 24%

These numbers are better than Bolsonaro's back in March of 2019 (he had 34% good/great, 34% regular and 24% bad/terrible), but worse than his own numbers in March of 2003 and March of 2007.

They also asked a few other questions. The first one was in regards to the international community's view of Brazil, they asked if, now that the country has a new government, it once again gained the respect from the rest of the world, 47% agreed while 44% disagreed.

Ipec also asked about the January 8 attack to congress and Bolsonaro's relation to it. 51% say that the former president has no responsibility, 22% say he should be prosecuted and lose his right to run for office, 19% say Bolsonaro should be prosecuted and arrested.

Finally, they also asked if people think Brazil has a chance of becoming communist and found that 44% think so, 48% disagree. Evangelicals seem to be the group that believes in this the most, 57% of them thought this is possible.

[Pivaru]

Nine people were arrested yesterday after the police uncovered a plot to kidnap and assassinate former operation car wash judge and senator Sergio Moro, his wife, Rosangela Moro, their kids and attorney Lincoln Gakiya. All the preparators were associated with PCC, Brazil's largest criminal organization and their reasoning for the planned attack was unrelated to politics. The timing of this even was a bit unfortunate for Lula, just the day before, he said that "things will only be fine when I f--- with Moro", now, in fairness to him, Lula did mention that this is only what he thought during his time in prison, but still, it's not a very good look. Flavio Dino, the Minister of Justice, criticized people trying to politicize the situation, however, that's a bit hard to do when Lula himself decided that it'd be a cool idea to say today that he "thinks the whole thing was set up by Moro".

Don't get me wrong, this won't destroy Lula's government or anything like that, of course, but like, what? All this does is give the opposition something to attack him with, hurt the conciliatory "love and peace" image he tried to build during the election campaign and give people material to create conspiracy theories about how "the left is trying to kill Moro to get vengeance".

On other news, ever since Lula got into office, there's been tension between his government and Roberto Campos Neto, the president of the Central Bank of Brazil, over the interest rates, which are currently 13.75%. The government's strategy so far has been to demonize Neto for not decreasing the rates, pinning the blame for the country's poor economic performance on him, otherwise, people would start blaming Lula. After Neto and his team decided to not change the interest rates yesterday, the government has decided to pressure the senate to remove Neto before 2024, however, they've already been warned by Rodrigo Pacheco, the president of the senate, that they don't have the votes for this at the moment.