Brazil

BY DEREK ROYDEN Image by Rafaela Biazi. On October 30th, Brazilians voted in a presidential runoff election that was won by Luiz ‘Lula’ Ignacio Da Silva. It was a victory by the narrowest of margins, although in fairness, the president elect’s opponent had the clear support of the federal highway patrol, which reportedly set hundreds of roadblocks in areas of the country that had supported the former president in the first round of voting. It was an election with massive stakes, perhaps the most important of 2022 in any country, a vote that, in the best-case scenario, will impact not only Brazil but the whole world, especially in terms of the unfolding climate emergency. As Brazil controls the largest part of the Amazon region, the fate of the region is in its go...

Photo lula da silva By: Surya Lula da Silva, the former President and Workers’ Party (PT) candidate, won the Brazilian presidency with a narrow margin in the runoff election held on October 30th, 2022. The current President Jair Bolsonaro, known as the “Brazilian Trump,” received 49.10%. In Brazil, a presidential candidate needs more than 50% of the vote to win the election. On October 2nd, Lula received 48.4% of the votes, thus, necessitating the runoff election. Pandemic and the Brazilian Economy Brazil is the largest country in Latin America with a population of 217 million and a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $ 1.8 Trillion making it the 12th largest economy in the world. According to a recent World Bank report on Brazil, COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the people a...

There was much rejoicing in the streets of cities, towns and villages all over Brazil on Sunday 31 October 2022 when it was announced that Brazil’s right-wing populist President, Jair Bolsonaro, had been defeated in the country’s presidential election by his popular leftist opponent Luis Inacio da Silva, universally known as Lula. Lula’s popularity is based on the fact that when he was President of Brazil for two terms between 2003 and 2010, he was able to secure a substantial transfer of the wealth arising from the sale of Brazilian commodities (at a time of relatively high commodity prices on the world market) in favour of the Brazilian masses: “…during thirteen years of PT government, thirty million Brazilians were lifted out of poverty. By 2015 real wages were 78 percent...

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro prepares to speak publicly for the first time Sunday's presidential run-off election loss, at Alvorada Palace in Brasília, on November 1, 2022. (Photo: Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images). The far-right Brazilian president spoke publicly for the first time since his Sunday electoral loss to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, praising truck drivers and other protesters who caused traffic chaos by blocking major highways. BRETT WILKINS The chief of staff to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday said he has received authorization from the defeated far-right leader to start the transition process leading up to the January 1 inauguration of President-Elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and that the current administration would "comply with the law...

A firefighter combats a fire in the Brazilian Amazon on September 21, 2022. (Photo: Michael Dantas/AFP via Getty Images). Leftist President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has vowed to reverse Bolsonaro's harmful deforestation policies, declaring, "A standing tree is worth more than tons of wood illegally harvested by those who think only of easy profit." JAKE JOHNSON An analysis published Tuesday estimates that the deforestation policies enacted by Brazil's newly defeated far-right President Jair Bolsonaro helped push the country's greenhouse gas emissions to their highest level in nearly two decades, spotlighting the difficult and urgent work ahead for leftist President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. "Lula must use the political power won at the polls to pressure ...

Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro demand a military coup outside of an army building in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on November 2, 2022. (Photo: Silvio Avila/AFP via Getty Images). Thousands of the outgoing Brazilian president's far-right supporters called on the military to intervene as Bolsonaro refuses to admit his defeat to leftist President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. JAKE JOHNSON A huge crowd of defeated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's supporters rallied outside one of the national army's headquarters on Wednesday to demand a military coup to nullify the right-wing incumbent's loss and prevent President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking power. The Associated Press reported that thousands attended the...

BY WAGNER IGLECIAS Photograph Source: Valter Campanato/ABr – Agência Brasil – CC BY 3.0 br The results of the first round of the general elections in Brazil surprised everyone, given the numbers in the polls on voters’ intentions carried out by various institutes in the weeks prior to election day. In the Oct. 2 vote, former president Luis Inácio Lula da Silva almost made the 50% cut to win without a run-off, garnering 48.4% of the valid votes (57 million votes), but the surprise was that current president Jair Bolsonaro obtained 43, 2% of  valid votes (51 million votes), a figure that far exceeded the projections in the polls up until the eve of the elections and demonstrated a degree of resilience and social penetration of the Brazilian extreme right that the progres...

Aerial view of an illegal logging operation in Humaitá, Amazonas state, Brazil, on September 17, 2022. BYC.J. Polychroniou, Truthout Brazil is now headed toward a rocky presidential runoff vote on October 30, after its October 2 election produced no clear winner between far right populist president Jair Bolsonaro — an outspoken admirer of the brutal military dictatorship that came to power in 1964 by deposing a democratically elected president and lasted until 1985 — and Bolsonaro’s leftist challenger, Lula. This is a tightly contested election, but polls are giving Lula a clear edge as he has received the endorsement of both the third and fourth finishers. Meanwhile Bolsonaro has indicated on numerous occasions in the past that he will not accept the election result if he loses....

Liberation Staff Download PDF flyer Photo: Protesters in 2021 carrying signs accusing Bolsonaro of genocide for his handling of COVID-19. Credit: Parzeus/Wikimedia Commons Brazilians will go to the polls in a pivotal election on Sunday to choose a new president. Support for former President Lula da Silva of the Workers Party, the main candidate of the left, is surging. The most recent polls suggest Lula may be able to secure a first-round victory over the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro. But Bolsonaro, an avowed admirer of the fascist military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1984, is threatening a coup to remain in office. Taking a page from Donald Trump’s playbook, Bolsonaro has long been spreading rumors that the election will be rigged, a completely ...