Tag: Brazil

The Amazon
amazon dialogues

Protest against oil drilling during Amazon summit

Protesters demonstrated in Belém, Brazil, during the international Amazon Dialogues summit, against the state oil company Petrobras‘ proposal to begin offshore drilling at the mouth of the Amazon River. The proposed project is located in deep waters off the Brazillian state of Amapá. The company’s application for a license was rejected by the Brazilian Institute of Environment & Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) due to “technical inconsistencies.” Petrobras filed an appeal against Ibama’s decision, contending they had fulfilled all technical requirements. However, Marina Silva, Brazil’s minister of Environment & Climate Change, affirmed that the central government would uphold IBAMA’s decision. The Amazon Dialogues were hosted by Silva’s ministry, and brought together representatives from governments across the Amazon Basin. (Photo via Twitter)

The Amazon
Ibama

Brazil: Amazon deforestation drops rapidly under Lula

The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen significantly since President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva took office in January 2023, according to government data. The area of deforestation detected by space agency INPE‘s forest monitoring system amounted to 2,649 square kilometers in the first half of the year, a 34% decline from the same period last year. The loss in the first six months of 2023 is the lowest since 2019, according to the satellite-based tracking system. Lula has prioritized reining in deforestation since assuming the presidency. Last month, he announced his administration’s plan to eliminate deforestation by 2030 as part of Brazil’s pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Photo: Mongabay)

The Amazon
Brazil congress

Brazil: anti-indigenous laws advance in congress

The Brazilian Congress has approved two measures that undermine indigenous land rights and clash with the environmental policy of the new President Luiz Inácio da Silva. First, the Lower House voted in favor of a bill that limits the demarcation of indigenous territories to lands that native peoples can prove they physically occupied when Brazil’s current constitution was enacted in 1988. Advocates for indigenous peoples say this marco temporal or “time limit trick” could wipe out scores of legitimate land claims by groups who had already been evicted from their traditional territories before 1988. Then, both houses approved a bill that transfers responsibility for demarcation from the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples to the Ministry of Justice & Public Security. The changes still need the approval of President “Lula” da Silva—although he may face a veto override by Congress. (Photo via Mongabay)

The Amazon
Amazon Fires

Amazon rainforest loss approaches new height

Within just five years, the Amazon rainforest could lose half the total forest cover that it lost in the first 20 years of this century, a recent study by the Amazon Network of Georeferenced Socio-Environmental Information (RAISG) has revealed. Deforestation rates are accelerating in nearly all of the nine Amazonian countries, but especially in Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia—mostly due to road development, agricultural expansion and mining. (Photo via Mongabay)

The Amazon
Brasilia

Indigenous peoples march on Brazil capital

Hundreds of indigenous people from across Brazil marched in Brasilia, the country’s capital, to demand government protection of their land and rights against invaders. The march was part of the 19th Free Land Camp, an annual national mobilization by indigenous peoples. “The demarcation of Indigenous Lands is an ancestral right provided for in the Federal Constitution,” Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), said in a statement. “Those who invade an Indigenous Land destroy forests and attack indigenous people, who have been fighting for the protection of their families, cultures, and lands for over 500 years.” (Photo via Twitter)

The Amazon
yanomami

Lula accuses Bolsonaro of ‘genocide’ of Yanomami

Brazil’s government declared a public health emergency for the Yanomami indigenous people, now plagued by rising death rates from curable diseases and malnutrition. President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva flew to the remote Yanomami territory in Roraima state after horrifying photographs emerged of emaciated Yanomami children and adults. After his visit, Lula tweeted: “More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was genocide: a premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to suffering.” This was a reference to the previous far-right government of Jair Bolsonaro, under whose presidency gold miners and illegal loggers flooded into Yanomami territory, bringing disease and destroying the forest that the people depends on for sustenance. Interior Minister Flávio Dino said he will order an investigation into “strong indications” the Yanomami had suffered crimes including genocide–meaning the deliberate attempt to partially or completely destroy an ethnic, national, racial or religious group. (Photo: Mongabay)

Southern Cone
brasilia putsch

Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazilian congress

In scenes eerily reminiscent of the January 2020 attack on the US Capitol,​ crowds supporting former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro infiltrated and vandalized the country’s seats of power, one week after the inauguration of left-wing President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva. Demonstrators smashed the windows of the the National Congress building and stormed its senate chamber. Protesters then breached the Supreme Federal Tribunal, entering the main courtroom clad in Brazillian flags. Many also forced their way into the Planalto Palace, the presidential building. Clashes between police and protesters have been reported, but one journalist tweeted a video of what appears to be a Federal District Military Police officer taking a selfie with demonstrators. Brazil’s Attorney General Office has asked judicial authorities to arrest former Bolsonaro justice minister and current head of Federal District security Anderson Torres. (Image: MeidasTouch)

Southern Cone
Lula

Tough congress for Brazil’s new indigenous caucus

In Brazil’s general elections, five self-identified indigenous candidates won seats as federal deputies and two as senators—the highest number in the country’s history. The most celebrated victory was that of Sônia Guajajara, a leader of her own Guajajara people in Maranhão state who has emerged as a voice for indigenous peoples on the national stage, and now takes a seat as deputy. But this new “Bancada do Cocar” (Feathered Headdress Caucus) will face tough odds in a generally more conservative National Congress. More seats were won by supporters of the reactionary outgoing president Jair Bolsonaro, and especially the Bancada Rural (Rural Caucus, dominated by the agribusiness lobby), in both the lower and upper houses. (Photo of indigenous leaders with president-elect Lula da Silva via Mongabay)

Southern Cone
University of São Paulo

Brazil: cyberattack on ‘Democracy Manifesto’

Faculty at the University of São Paulo produced a “Manifesto for Democracy” in response to threats by President Jair Bolsonaro not to respect the results of Brazil’s upcoming elections if he loses. The letter was released and read aloud at an event at the university on Aug. 11—the date of the release of a similar manifesto in 1977, opposing the military dictatorship then in power. The letter has accrued more than 800,000 signatures. However, the day before the manifesto’s release, the computer system collecting the signatures was debilitated by a “distributed denial of service” (DDoS) attack. The IP addresses indicated that the attack originated in Russia. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons viia Brazilian Report)

The Andes
Partnership of the Americas 2009

Colombia joins ‘new partnership’ with NATO

President Joe Biden issued an executive order designating Colombia a Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) of the United States. The designation facilitates further weapons transfers from the US to Colombia, and increased military cooperation between the two countries. Colombia is the third MNNA in Latin America, after Brazil and Argentina. Weeks earlier, a delegation of NATO staff visited Colombia to discuss the South American country’s participation in the alliance’s Defense Education Enhancement Program (DEEP). Colombia became NATO’s newest “global partner” in 2018, but this relationship was reinforced last December, when it became a member of the NATO Individually Tailored Partnership Program (ITPP). (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The Amazon
Ato Pela Terra

Brazil: bill to open indigenous reserves to mining

Under the slogan “Ato Pela Terra” (Stand for the Earth), thousands of protesters, including some 150 indigenous leaders from eight ethnic groups, gathered for the biggest environmentalist demonstration ever held in Brazil’s capital, protesting a series of bills dubbed the “death package” by critics. The package being pushed by President Jair Bolsonaro would open indigenous reserves to a wide range of economic activities, including mineral exploitation. This measure, assailed as unconstitutional, is actually opposed by the Brazilian Mining Institute (IBRAM), which issued a statement calling it “inappropriate” and warning that it would give legal cover to informal “garimpo” mining in the Amazon rainforest. But Bolsonaro maintains the measure is mandated by the Ukraine war, which has threatened supplies of strategic minerals, including the key fertilizer ingredient potassium. Brazil, the world’s top soy producer, imports 80% of its fertilizer—20% from Russia, its biggest supplier. (Photo via Twitter)

The Amazon
Guiana shield

French troops hunt outlaw miners in Guiana

France has dispatched hundreds of army troops to the overseas territory of French Guiana, to hunt down outlaw gold miners who have destroyed thousands of hectares of rainforest along the Maroni River. But apprehending the garimpeiros is nearly impossible; they abandon their camps and dredges and melt into the jungle as the troops approach. Some 9,000 illegal miners are believed to be operating at around 150 sites across the territory—up from little more than 100 a decade ago. The garimpeiros, however, are the smallest links in a chain, paid a pittance—while the dealers they sell the gold to race up and down the river in speedboats. “We’re only catching the little guys,” admitted French Guiana’s public prosecutor Samuel Finielz. (Map of Guiana Shield: WikimediaCommons)