Yearbook 2019
Brazil. After more than a year and a half in prison,
former President Lula da Silva (2003-10) was released on
November 8. However, the success for him and his followers
was to some extent illusory. The Supreme Court's decision
the day before, with the vote numbers 6–5, was that Lula was
jailed in April 2018 on insufficient grounds because he had
previously not been able to take advantage of all the
opportunities for appeal. Thus, he was not released from
charges, and the 2018 verdict on corruption is thus up to
date, as is the ban until 2025 against candidacy for public
office.
According to
CountryAAH, Brazil was hit by several environmental disasters during
the year. The most internationally recognized was the
extensive forest fires in the Amazon. By mid-September, it
was clear that the fires were the most devastating in many
years and hit important tourism and nature conservation
areas, especially in the states of Pará, Mato Grosso and
Acre, all of which declared emergency. President Jair
Bolsonaro and the government were criticized for not doing
enough of the situation and on nationalist grounds to oppose
foreign aid. Instead, governors from all the states
concerned contacted international players on their own
initiative.
On January 25, a pond collapsed at an iron ore mine in
Brumadinho in the state of Minas Gerais. Already after a
week, it was clear that the death toll would exceed 100,
more than in a similar accident in Mariana in November 2015.
13 million liters of poisoned water leaked into the
Paraeopeba River, damaging both forest and wildlife. The
mining company responsible, Vale do Rio Doce, was fined $ 94
million.
In addition, at the beginning of September, over one
hundred beach areas totaling 2,000 kilometers in
northeastern Brazil were affected by a large oil spill.
Where the oil came from remained unclear; According to
authorities, it probably originated from some leakage in an
oil tanker, and Environment Minister Ricardo Salles hinted
at Venezuela as origin.
The events of the year damaged the confidence of the
already controversial President Bolsonaro, who was sworn
into office January 1. In addition to criticism of his
actions following the environmental disasters, people in
both the government and Bolsonaro's family were accused of
corruption.
In March 2010, the Labor Party, PT, appointed Dilma
Rousseff as the party's presidential candidate. Lula was
limited by the constitution to two presidential terms, and
PT should therefore find a replacement for the fall
elections. Rousseff is the daughter of a Bulgarian immigrant
to Brazil and a schoolteacher. After the military coup in
1964, she entered the urban guerrilla fighting the
dictatorship. In the Danish legal sense, therefore, she was
a terrorist. In 1970-72, she was imprisoned and subjected to
torture. During the 1st round of elections in October 2010,
she got 46.91% of the vote and therefore had to run in a
second round of elections with Social Democrat José Serra as
a candidate. In the second round, she gained 56.05% and was
therefore able to take over the presidential post on January
1, 2011 - the first woman and the first economist to post in
the country's history. But at the same time a different
educational background than the popular Lula, who was a
metal worker.
Rousseff invited several political prisoners at her
inmate with whom she had been imprisoned in the 1970's.
In 2012, Parliament passed an amendment to the
Constitution, which opened for land confiscation if it is
found that landlords employ slave labor.
The fight for the earth remains high on the agenda in
many states. In Mato Grosso do Sul, members of the
Guarani-Kaiowá tribe were displaced from their land in
August 2012, and their leaders were subsequently threatened,
abducted and fired. Despite the country's development, there
are still many areas, far from the central power, where the
landlord and his gunmen are the "law".
Despite 10 years of PT governments, Brazil remained one
of the world's most violent countries - a consequence of the
huge class divisions in the country. The country ranks 5th
in the world in terms of dollar billions - ahead of
countries such as the UK and Japan. In 2012, 1890 Brazilians
were "killed during police operations", equivalent to 5 a
day. In its reports, police almost always refer to the
murders as "shootings with criminals," while human rights
organizations can report that the innocent and unarmed are
often killed. However, the Brazilian police cover-up of
their crimes does not differ from similar cover-ups in e.g.
USA and Denmark. In 2013, however, the state of Säo Paulo
got enough of the police brutality and banned the police
from removing the victims from the murder sites. The measure
had immediate effect, as the number of police killings
dropped by 34% in the first 6 months of the year compared to
the same period the previous year. However, the basic
problem remains. The police often falsify evidence, or let
the evidence disappear, and the authority to investigate the
criminal activities of the police is understaffed and
underfunded.
Rousseff was one of Brazil's most popular presidents. A
March 2013 survey found that 63% of Brazilians support her
government and 79% support her personally. This is
especially attributed to her efforts for the country's
poorest. During her time, energy taxes were lowered and a
number of basic foods were exempt from VAT.
In June 2013, demonstrations broke out in Sao Paolo.
Initially aimed at price increases on public transport, but
as security forces cracked down on the protesters, they
spread geographically and politically. Other Brazilian
cities joined in the protests and the protests focused on
the huge infrastructure projects related to hosting the
World Cup in Brazil in 2014. The corruption was also
demonstrated against. Young Western journalists with no
knowledge of history or Latin America believed that the
protests were an expression of "the Arab Spring had spread
to Brazil". They overlooked that the Brazilian protests were
not directed at Western-backed autocratic regimes such as
the Middle East, but at specific political actions by mayors
or governors. The demonstrations culminated in the middle of
the month as hundreds of thousands were on the streets
across the country. On June 24, Rousseff met with leaders of
the protests and pledged to allocate $ 50 billion Reals for
improved public transport, health care and education.
In July 2013, British journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote
about US Internet espionage targeting Brazil, revealing that
the country was one of the biggest targets of NSA espionage.
On September 1, it was revealed that espionage was aimed
directly at President Rousseff, her advisers and ministers,
who had phones intercepted and emails intercepted. The
revelations triggered a serious diplomatic crisis between
the two countries. US Ambassador Thomas Shannon was called
to the Foreign Office to explain the superpower's actions
and explained that the interceptions in Brazil were a
totally unacceptable violation of Brazil's sovereignty. A
few days later, Rousseff canceled an otherwise scheduled
state visit to the United States in protest. On September
24, Rousseff spoke at the UN General Assembly and used his
speech to condemn the United States'. |
