Tag: luiz inacio lula da silva

In blow to Lula, Brazil Congress revives controversial environmental bill

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Brazil’s conservative-led Congress on Thursday reinstated much of a bill that makes it easier for companies to secure environmental permits, infuriating the leftist government and green groups.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had vetoed dozens of provisions of what has been dubbed the “Devastation Bill”, but Congress has the power to override those actions.

Lawmakers reversed around 80 percent of Lula’s vetoes in a major blow to his government just days after Brazil wrapped up the hosting of COP30 UN climate talks.

The bill “kills environmental licensing in the country”, said the Climate Observatory, a coalition of NGOs, vowing to take legal action against it.

For some permits, all that will be required is a simple declaration of the company’s commitment to preserving the environment.

This move “contradicts the government’s environmental and climate efforts, right after hosting COP30. Very bad news,” Institutional Relations Minister Gleisi Hoffmann wrote on X.

The government had warned a day earlier that overturning the vetoes could have “immediate and hard-to-reverse effects,” citing the “alarming rise in extreme climate disasters.”

Lawmaker Sostenes Cavalcante — an ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro — celebrated the move, accusing Lula of seeking to “undermine agribusiness, the only sector still performing well economically in Brazil.”

The Climate Observatory accused congressional leaders of hypocrisy for approving what it called “the worst environmental setback in Brazil’s history” just days after appearing as “climate defenders” at COP30.

The NGO said the bill will impact everything from major new agricultural projects to mining projects to the controversial paving of a major highway in the Amazon, which will be exempt from environmental licensing.

Lula boasts an overall positive environmental record, having overseen a sharp decline in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

However, he came under fire from environmentalists for backing a controversial oil-exploration project near the mouth of the Amazon River, which began in October.

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November 27, 2025
Trump’s Tariffs Hand Lula a Political Gift in Brazil

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The Brazilian president is in a stronger position to win in elections next year following his defiant stance on President Trump’s tariffs.

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Samantha Pearson

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November 22, 2025
Brazil stumps up billions of dollars for its ambitious rainforest fund at UN climate summit

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BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Brazil on Thursday unveiled long-awaited details of a plan to pay countries to preserve their tropical forests and announced it had already drawn $5.5 billion in pledges.

The fund is President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s flagship project as he welcomes world leaders to the edge of the Amazon for the United Nations annual climate summit — an effort to draw attention and money to the imperiled rainforest crucial to curbing global warming.

Financed by interest-bearing debt instead of donations, the fund, dubbed the Tropical Forests Forever Facility, seeks to turn the economic logic of deforestation on its head by making it more lucrative for governments to keep their trees rather than cut them down.

Although destroying rainforests makes money for cattle ranchers, miners and illegal loggers, Brazil hopes to convince countries that preserving forests promises richer rewards for the entire world by absorbing huge amounts of planet-warming emissions.

As senior Brazilian officials walked reporters through the fund’s inner workings, Norway pledged $3 billion — the biggest commitment of the day — raising hopes about Lula’s ambitions becoming a reality.

Through investments in fixed-rate assets, the fund aims to issue $25 billion of debt within its first few years before leveraging that into a pot worth $125 billion that can pay developing countries to protect their tropical rainforests.

A list of more than 70 heavily forested countries — from Congo to Colombia — will be eligible for payments as long as they keep deforestation below a set rate. Nations that fail to protect their forests will see their payouts reduced at a punitive rate for every hectare that’s destroyed.

“I was already very excited about this, but now even more so,” Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said in a press conference.

But the fine print on Norway’s announcement — contingent on Brazil raising some $9.8 billion in other contributions — has ramped up the pressure on Brazil to deliver. Other pledges include $1 billion from Indonesia and $500 million from France, along with $5 million from the Netherlands and $1 million from Portugal toward setup costs.

Brazil earlier announced $1 billion to kick off the fund. Officials said they expected to hear about Germany’s contribution on Friday.

But it remained unclear how many other countries would follow suit. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed support for the initiative on Thursday but declined to declare a pledge.

Brazil is also banking on the participation of the private sector after the fund reaches $10 billion, considered enough to start preparing bond issuances.

When asked about possible concerns on Thursday, Norwegian Climate Minister Andreas Bjelland Eriksen said he thought the risks to the fund were “manageable.”

“There is perhaps an even bigger risk of not participating,” he said. “Rainforests are disappearing before our eyes.”

The fund’s rules call for 20% of the money to go to Indigenous peoples.

“These initiatives demonstrate a massive and welcome shift in recognizing the central role that Indigenous peoples, Afro-descendants and local communities play in protecting the forests that sustain us,” said Wanjira Mathai, managing director for Africa and Global Partnerships at the World Resources Institute, a research organization.

“These commitments could be transformative, but only if governments turn these words into action.”

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The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org

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November 6, 2025
Raid on gang in Rio leaves over 100 people dead, including police officers

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About 2,500 Brazilian police and soldiers launched a massive raid on a drug-trafficking gang in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday, arresting 81 suspects and sparking shootouts that left more than 100 people dead, officials said.

Brazilian police said Wednesday the death toll stood at 119 killed, including four police officers, but Rio de Janeiro’s state public defender’s office told the Agence France-Presse that 132 people were killed in the raids.

Rio state Gov. Claudio Castro initially put the death toll at around 60 on Wednesday, but warned that the real figure was likely higher as more bodies were being taken to a morgue and counted.

Residents of a favela in Rio lined up more than 40 bodies at a plaza in their low-income neighborhood on Wednesday, a day after the operation, AFP reported. The corpses were placed near one of the main roads in the Penha Complex.

The operation included officers in helicopters and armored vehicles and targeted the notorious Red Command in the sprawling low-income favelas of Complexo de Alemao and Penha, police said. Rafael Soares, a journalist covering crime in Rio, told BBC News Brasil that the Red Command had been on the offensive in the city in recent years, reclaiming territory it had lost to its rivals, First Capital Command.

The police operation was one of the most violent in Brazil’s recent history, with human rights organizations calling for investigations into the deaths.

Castro said in a video posted on X Tuesday that 60 criminal suspects had been “neutralized” during the massive raid that he called the biggest such operation in the city’s history. Some 81 suspects were arrested, while 93 rifles and more than half a ton of drugs were seized, the state government said, adding that those killed “resisted police action.”

Rio’s civil police said on X that four officers died in Tuesday’s operation. “The cowardly attacks by criminals against our agents will not go unpunished,” it said.

Police officers escort a suspect arrested during the Operacao Contencao (Operation Containment) out of the Vila Cruzeiro favela, in the Penha complex, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 28, 2025. / Credit: MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty Images

Residents scrambled for cover and shops closed their doors amid police claims that the gangs were using drones to fight back, AFP reported.

Castro posted a video on X of what he described as a gang-controlled drone launching a projectile from the cloudy sky.

“This is how the Rio police are treated by criminals: with bombs dropped by drones. This is the scale of the challenge we face. This is not ordinary crime, but narcoterrorism,” he said.

State officials said at least 50 of those killed were “indicated by police as suspected of being criminals,” BBC News reported. Dozens of people were injured, including civilians caught in the crossfire, according to the BBC.

The United Nations’ human rights body said it was “horrified” by the deadly police operation, called for effective investigations and reminded authorities of their obligations under international human rights law.

César Muñoz, director of Human Rights Watch in Brazil, called Tuesday’s events “a huge tragedy” and a “disaster.”

“The public prosecutor’s office must open its own investigations and clarify the circumstances of each death,” Muñoz said in a statement.

Footage on social media showed fire and smoke rising from the two favelas as gunfire rang out. The city’s Education Department said 46 schools across the two neighborhoods were closed, and the nearby Federal University of Rio de Janeiro canceled night classes and told people on campus to seek shelter.

Suspected gang members blocked roads in northern and southeastern Rio in response to the raid, local media reported. At least 70 buses were commandeered to be used in the blockades, causing significant damage, the city’s bus organization Rio Onibus said.

The operation Tuesday followed a year of investigation into the criminal group, police said.

Gov. Castro, from the conservative opposition Liberal Party, said the federal government should be providing more support to combat crime — a swipe at the administration of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Gleisi Hoffmann, the Lula administration’s liaison with the parliament, agreed that coordinated action was needed but pointed to a recent crackdown on money laundering as an example of the federal government’s action on organized crime.

Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and a number of ministers met in response to the operation on Tuesday afternoon. Chief of staff Rui Costa requested an emergency meeting in Rio on Wednesday, with him in attendance as well as Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski.

Emerging from Rio’s prisons, the Red Command criminal gang has expanded its control in favelas in recent years.

“Russian roulette”

Rio has been the scene of lethal police raids for decades. In March 2005, some 29 people were killed in Rio’s Baixada Fluminense region, while in May 2021, 28 were killed in the Jacarezinho favela.

While the Tuesday’s police operation was similar to previous ones, its scale was unprecedented, said Luis Flavio Sapori, a sociologist and public safety expert at Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais.

“What’s different about today’s operation is the magnitude of the victims. These are war numbers,” he said.

He argued that these kinds of operations are inefficient because they do not tend to catch the masterminds, but rather target underlings who can later be replaced.

“It’s not enough to go in, exchange gunfire, and leave. There’s a lack of strategy in Rio de Janeiro’s public security policy,” Sapori said. “Some lower-ranking members of these factions are killed, but those individuals are quickly replaced by others.”

The Marielle Franco Institute, a nonprofit founded by the slain councilwoman’s family to continue her legacy of fighting for the rights of people living in favelas, also criticized the operation.

“This is not a public safety policy. It’s a policy of extermination, that makes the everyday life of Black and poor people a Russian roulette,” it said in a statement.

“Everyone is terrified”

AFP saw police in the Vila Cruzeiro neighborhood of Penha district guarding about 20 young people huddled together and sitting on the sidewalk, heads bowed, barefoot and shirtless.

“This is the first time we’ve seen drones (from criminals) dropping bombs in the community,” said a Penha resident, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Everyone is terrified because there’s so much gunfire,” she added.

A woman cries outside Getulio Vargas Hospital shortly after her relative was brought here by police due to injury during a police operation against alleged drug traffickers in the Complexo do Alemao favela where the criminal organization

Tuesday’s operation halted ground traffic on many of the seaside city’s main streets.

“We’re left without buses, without anything, in this chaos and not knowing what to do,” said Regina Pinheiro, a 70-year-old retiree, who was trying to return home.

Eye Opener: Hurricane Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica

Hurricane Melissa expected to bring catastrophic weather to Jamaica

Judge admonishes ICE leader in Chicago after agents descend on Halloween parade

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October 29, 2025
Brazil Braces for a Verdict on Its Ex-President—and on Its Democracy

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Over the years, the Bolsonaro family and the Trumps have met up many times. In one of the more absurd sideshows of Trump’s first term, Bolsonaro brought an entourage to dinner at Mar-a-Lago, and nearly two dozen members of the group subsequently came down with COVID. (Bolsonaro evaded the virus, but it caught up to him a few months after he returned to Brazil. Held in quarantine at the Presidential palace, he was bitten by an emu-like bird that lived on the grounds.)

Even with Bolsonaro out of office, the two men’s trajectories seem unusually linked. As Trump works toward an increasingly militarized U.S., Bolsonaro has often spoken nostalgically of the military dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. Although the regime killed hundreds of citizens and tortured tens of thousands more, Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper who served as an officer during those years, has said that the only mistake it made was “not to kill” enough. As he plotted his coup against Lula, he had support from a large sector of the military; many observers worry about how the armed forces will react if he is found guilty.

Many of Bolsonaro’s supporters seem fundamentally unpersuadable. Like Trump, he has gained favor from evangelical Christians, even though he seems to limit his religious observance to occasional, performative acts of piety. In Brazil, Christianity is a significant and growing political force; more than thirty per cent of residents are Pentecostalists, up from thirteen per cent a decade ago.

This phenomenon is fascinatingly illuminated by the Brazilian filmmaker Petra Costa in a newly released documentary called “Apocalypse in the Tropics.” (Her previous film, “The Edge of Democracy,” which charted Brazil’s slide toward autocracy and Bolsonaro’s victory, was nominated for an Academy Award, in 2020.) Costa seeks a deeper understanding of the wave of Pentecostalism that is reshaping the country—and particularly of the relationship between Bolsonaro and his spiritual kingmaker, a sixty-six-year-old pastor named Silas Malafaia.

Using footage that spans much of the past decade, Costa shows how the two men have worked to combine spiritual influence and populist politics. In private and at the pulpit, Malafaia has railed against “cultural Marxism” and “political correctness,” calling to depose the “left-wing nuts”—a reference to Lula’s popular Workers’ Party. On the campaign trail, Bolsonaro promised that every citizen could have a gun at home, and that “there won’t be an inch of land for Indigenous people,” a reference to Brazil’s constitutional obligation to demarcate land for the country’s disenfranchised Indigenous peoples.

Some critics have said that Costa exaggerates Malafaia’s influence. But, when I talked to her recently, she pointed to a fiery speech that Bolsonaro gave, in 2021, in which he vowed not to abide by de Moraes’s rulings and declared that his crusade to regain power could have only three outcomes: victory, prison, or death. As he spoke, Costa saw Malafaia whispering along. “Seeing that scene, I asked myself if it was not Malafaia who wrote that speech,” she said.

Her film shows Malafaia onstage with Bolsonaro in church, and at his side after a nearly lethal stabbing on the campaign trail; we see them sharing a laugh about Bolsonaro’s wedding, at which Malafaia officiated. Throughout, in interviews with Costa, Malafaia justifies his political aspiration with Biblical parables. During a hilariously chaotic drive through Rio de Janeiro, Malafaia succumbs to road rage, then excuses his behavior by saying, “Jesus cracked a whip at the people messing around in the temple.”

A few weeks ago, Malafaia was placed under investigation, after messages found on Bolsonaro’s cellphone revealed that he was advising the former President on dealing with the charges against him; at one point, Malafaia suggests that Bolsonaro record a message for Trump, providing talking points to use against Lula’s government. Bolsonaro tells Malafaia that he’ll try, but that he’s distracted by a fit of hiccups.

After the messages became public, Malafaia shared an unrepentant social-media post: “When Billy Graham counselled American Presidents, we celebrated his courage as proof that the Gospel can reach the highest echelons of power. But when a Brazilian pastor is called to counsel a politician, he is immediately labelled ‘corrupt,’ as if Heaven changes its mind depending on the nationality of the person preaching. When Martin Luther King, Jr., raised his voice against racism, he was killed as a martyr and remembered as a prophet of justice.”

As the Supreme Court prepares to announce its verdict in Bolsonaro’s case, it is difficult to know how many Brazilians will put their faith in Malafaia’s version of politicized religion and how many will adhere to de Moraes’s uncompromising view of justice. In a striking scene from Costa’s film, she accompanies recently elected evangelical legislators to a gathering in the parliament building, where they pray ecstatically, weeping and begging God to enter the chamber. In a subsequent voice-over, Costa muses that, although she is from the same country as the Pentecostals, her basically secular milieu seems like a world apart: “I knew what the Russian Revolution was, and the formula for oxygen, but nothing about the apostle Paul.” She felt that she was witnessing religion being molded into “an unprecedented political force”—a triumph of faith over reason, and over the democratic tenets that underpin modern Brazil.

Yet Costa told me that Bolsonaro’s trial represented a historical reckoning of its own. “Brazil never tried the military for what they did during their dictatorship,” she said. “They were never punished for their crimes. Bolsonaro was elected President celebrating those crimes, so, if he is convicted, this will be a civilizational threshold for Brazil. In a country shaped by coups, this will be the first time someone has been sent to prison for promoting one.” She went on, “It’s interesting to see that we are changing places with the United States, somehow. The United States promoted the Brazilian military coup [of 1964], but now Brazil is the first nation to actually defeat this wave of new fascism, while the United States has shown itself unable to do anything about its own coup attempt and has even elected Donald Trump again.”

I asked Costa what might happen if Bolsonaro is convicted. Would Malafaia’s army of believers take to the streets? Would Bolsonaro’s followers storm the capitol again? She acknowledged that the situation remained “fragile,” and that the risk of insurrection seemed dangerously real. “Many of us are afraid of a return to 1964,” she said. At the same time, Trump’s efforts to impose his will had backfired; in at least some parts of Brazilian society, the tariffs and the bullying rhetoric had made people more insistent that the country seek justice on its own terms. Almost anything could happen, Costa said: “Let’s see what the dramaturgy of Brazilian life has in store for us.” ♦

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Jon Lee Anderson

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September 10, 2025
Israel-Brazil relations wither as Lula gov’t refuses to approve Israeli ambassador

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Israel’s decision to withdraw the application for an ambassador came after Brazil refused to approve Gali Dagan as the new ambassador from Israel.

Diplomatic relations between Israel and Brazil are now operating “at a low level,” the foreign ministry confirmed after Israel withdrew its request to appoint a new ambassador to Brazil.

The decision to withdraw the application came after Brazil refused to approve Gali Dagan as the new ambassador from Israel.

“After Brazil, unusually, refrained from replying to Ambassador Dagan’s request for agrément, Israel withdrew the request, and relations between the countries are now being conducted at a lower diplomatic level,” the foreign ministry confirmed.

The ministry further added that the “critical and hostile line that Brazil has displayed toward Israel” has worsened since Hamas ignited the war with its terror attack in 2023 and was further “intensified” by comments made throughout the duration of the war by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

China’s Premier Li Qiang, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, attend the BRICS Summit, at the Museum of Modern Art (MAM) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil July 6, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/RICARDO MORAES)

Brazil’s declining relationship with Israel

Lula has been declared “persona non grata,” after he accused Israel of carrying out a genocide in Gaza and drawing on Holocaust references to illustrate his claim.

The country also joined South Africa’s case against Israel at the Hague, formalizing Lula’s accusations of genocide.

In July, Brazil withdrew from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, where it had served as an observer member since 2021.

Brazil, a member of BRICS, also has relations with Iran despite its attacks against the Jewish state, including civilian populations, and long record of human rights abuses.

Brazil has not had an ambassador in Israel since it withdrew the former ambassador last year.

Amichai Stein contributed to this report.

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August 25, 2025
Dilma Rousseff Fast Facts | CNN

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CNN
—

Here’s a look at the life of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.

Birth date: December 14, 1947

Birth place: Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Birth name: Dilma Vana Rousseff

Father: Pedro Rousseff, construction entrepreneur

Mother: Dilma Jane (da Silva) Rousseff, teacher

Marriages: Carlos Araujo (1973-2000, divorced); Claudio Galeno Linhares (1968-early 1970s, divorced)

Children: with Carlos Araujo: Paula, 1976

Education: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, B.A. Economics, 1977

Prior to running for president, she had never run for an elected office.

Joined the resistance movement against the military dictatorship and was jailed and allegedly tortured in the early 1970s.

Rousseff democratized Brazil’s electricity sector through the “Luz Para Todos” (Light for All) program, which made electricity widely available, even in rural areas.

1986 – Finance secretary for the city of Porto Alegre.

2003 – Is named minister of mines and energy by President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva.

2003-2010 – Serves as chair of Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil company.

June 2005-March 2010 – Lula da Silva’s chief of staff.

April 2009 – Is diagnosed with stage one lymphoma and begins treatment. By September, she is declared cancer free.

October 31, 2010 – Wins a run-off election to become Brazil’s first female president.

September 21, 2011 – Becomes the first female leader to kick off the annual United Nations General Assembly debates.

2011 – Allegations of corruption are the basis of her dismissal of six cabinet ministers in her first year in office. Between June and December, her chief of staff, ministers of tourism, agriculture, transportation, sports and labor along with 20 transportation employees resign as a result of the scandal.

September 17, 2013 – The United States and Brazil jointly agree to postpone Rousseff’s state visit to Washington next month due to controversy over reports the US government was spying on her communications.

September 24, 2013 – In a speech before the UN General Assembly, Rousseff speaks about allegations that the US National Security Agency spied on her. “Tampering in such a manner in the lives and affairs of other countries is a breach of international law and, as such, it is an affront to the principles that should otherwise govern relations among countries, especially among friendly nations.”

2014 – Executives at Petrobras are accused of illegally “diverting” billions from the company’s accounts for their personal use or to pay off officials. Rousseff served as chair of Petrobras during many of the years when the alleged corruption took place. She denies any knowledge of the corruption.

October 26, 2014 – Is reelected president.

December 2, 2015 – A bid to impeach Rousseff is launched by the speaker of the country’s lower house of Congress, Eduardo Cunha. Rousseff has been accused of hiding a budgetary deficit to win reelection in 2014, and opponents blame her for the worst recession in decades.

April 17, 2016 – A total of 367 lawmakers in the Brazilian parliament’s lower house vote to impeach Rousseff, comfortably more than the two-thirds majority required by law. The impeachment motion will next go to the country’s Senate.

May 12, 2016 – The Brazilian Senate votes 55-22 to begin an impeachment trial against Rousseff. Rousseff will step down for 180 days and Vice President Michel Temer will serve as interim president while the trial takes place.

August 4, 2016 – After a final report concludes that reasons exist to proceed with formally removing Rousseff, the Brazilian Senate impeachment commission votes in favor of trying the suspended president in front of the full senate chamber.

August 25, 2016 – Rousseff’s impeachment trial begins.

August 31, 2016 – Brazil’s Senate votes 61-20 in favor of removing Rousseff from office.

September 5, 2017 – Corruption charges are filed against Rousseff, her predecessor Lula da Silva, and six Workers’ Party members. They are accused of running a criminal organization, to divert funds from state-owned oil firm Petrobras. The charges are related to Operation Car Wash, a lengthy money laundering investigation conducted by the Brazilian government. Lula da Silva, Rousseff, and the Workers’ party deny the allegations.

October 7, 2018 – Rousseff only receives 15% of the vote for senator in the general election.

March 24, 2023 – The New Development Bank announces its board of governors elected Rousseff as its new president.

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December 25, 2023
Keir Starmer pitches for summit with Joe Biden ahead of 2024 elections

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LONDON — He’s embraced Bidenomics. Now, U.K. Labour leader Keir Starmer wants to meet U.S. President Joe Biden for face-to-face talks before both men head into elections next year.

The U.K. opposition leader — on course to become Britain’s next prime minister, if current polling proves correct — is seeking talks with Biden in 2024, two Labour Party officials told POLITICO. They were granted anonymity to discuss private conversations.

“David Lammy [Starmer’s shadow foreign secretary] has been tasked with making it happen,” one of the officials said. “But it’s tricky because we don’t know when the election is going to be.”

The precise date of the U.K. election will be chosen by Starmer’s opponent, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who indicated on Monday that it would be some time in 2024.

Lammy has emerged as a key figure in Labour’s efforts to deepen its relationship with the Biden administration. He has visited the U.S. five times in his two years as shadow foreign secretary, and prides himself on his Washington contacts — even counting former U.S. President Barack Obama as a friend.

“If I become foreign secretary, I don’t just want to build on those links, I want to bring a little bit of American energy into Britain’s foreign policy,” Lammy said. “We need to travel, make connections and share ideas at more of an American pace.”

But while polls suggest Starmer is on course for victory in 2024, Biden faces a struggle to be re-elected.

There are also questions over whether Starmer’s team is really prepared for a possible win by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2024 — and therefore how warmly the party should embrace Biden’s economic ideas in the meantime.

Hangin’ with Joe

As the U.K. election approaches, Starmer has been keen to present himself as a prime-minister-in-waiting, lining up meetings with leaders around the globe.

So far he’s sat down with France’s Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s Justin Trudeau, Australia’s Anthony Alabanese, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, among others.

Biden, however, has remained elusive — even though Labour politicians and officials have become a regular presence in Washington over the past year.

Shadow Cabinet ministers including Lammy, Rachel Reeves, John Healey, Nick Thomas-Symonds and Lisa Nandy, and top aides such as Morgan McSweeney, have all crossed the Atlantic in the past 12 months to meet senior U.S. figures.

Labour’s closeness to Biden’s administration has been likened by some to Tony Blair’s courtship of Bill Clinton’s Democrats | Anna Moneymaker via Getty Images

In interviews and in private, Labour politicians stress their closeness in policy terms to the Biden administration as well as their embrace of Bidenomics — an interventionist U.S. policy characterized by robust green subsidies and a push for domestic manufacturing.

“The economic analysis — where you link foreign policy and domestic policy — is something on which there is a really, really strong sense of shared mission,” one shadow Cabinet minister said, granted anonymity to speak frankly.

They added: “The other thing which has been a real shared point is the green transition … Joe Biden has said ‘when I think climate, I think jobs, jobs jobs.’ And I think that’s very similar in terms of the approach that that we will want to take as well.”

Beyond the headline goals, key Labour figures have been talking tactics as well.

On a trip to D.C. in May, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves was convinced she had to water down her pledge to invest £28 billion a year in green projects until 2030. On her return, she downgraded this to an “ambition” that Labour hoped to meet in its first term in government.

One of the Labour officials cited earlier said that Democrat strategists had advised them to “make yourself as small [a target] as possible” by addressing any political weaknesses well ahead of the election — and that the decision to dilute the £28 billion pledge was part of that strategy. The governing Tories have used the huge spending commitment as a regular attack line against Labour.

Labour’s closeness to Biden’s administration has been likened by some to Tony Blair’s courtship of Bill Clinton’s Democrats in the run-up to the 1997 general election and the 1996 presidential run in the U.S.

Yet that proximity presents Starmer and Reeves with a problem: “If the electorate rejects [Bidenomics] in America, that puts them in a difficult position,” former Starmer aide Chris Ward told POLITICO’s Westminster Insider podcast.

“Does that mean Starmer and Reeves now suddenly say, ‘actually, do you know what? That kind of approach isn’t the right one?’”

Trumped by Trump?

Labour’s embrace of Biden also raises questions about the party’s preparedness for a Trump victory in November 2024.

Starmer told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast in September that a Trump win would not be his “desired outcome.” He later told the BBC he would have to make the relationship work if Trump did become president.

But Labour’s recent internal split over a cease-fire in Gaza demonstrates how foreign policy issues can throw up difficulties for the center-left party.

While polls suggest Starmer is on course for victory in 2024, Biden faces a struggle to be re-elected | Leon Neal/Getty Images

Asked about the prospect of a Trump victory, Starmer’s Shadow Climate Secretary Ed Miliband told guests at a private event in November that he simply hoped it wouldn’t happen, according to two of those in the room. “He seemed very unwilling to even think about Trump winning,” one of the two said.

Michael Martins, a former political and economic specialist at the U.S. State Department, suggested Labour’s approach would need to evolve as the U.S. election grows near.

“Starmer has already done a lot to rebuild Labour’s credibility,” he said. “Now the party has to develop a foreign policy that is not just sticking as close to President Biden as possible.”

“If President Trump wins in 2024 — which currently seems like the most likely outcome — Starmer will have to strike a balancing act between representing U.K. interests and managing his own party. Many Labour MPs and party members will want him to [publicly] criticize Trump and his politics.”

Bridging the divide

Nevertheless, senior Labour MPs insist they’re building links with American politicians on all sides, and would be ready to work with any administration.

Lammy and Shadow Defense Secretary John Healey traveled to Washington in September to meet senior American politicians, and held lengthy talks with Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. “He gave us a great deal of his time in a diary which normally struggles to accommodate a 5-minute meeting,” Healey said.

But Healey stressed that the broader purpose of the trip was to strengthen “Labour’s credentials as a wannabe government of Britain — not party relations with the Democrats.”

“David and I deliberately made our program bipartisan,” he said. “We met and spoke with as many Republican Senators and Congress members as we did Democrats.”

“I’m an Atlanticist who spent childhood summers with my aunt in New York, studied law at Harvard and worked as a lawyer in San Francisco,” Lammy said. “These days some of my closest political relationships, which I’ve built up over many years, are on the Hill. Not only with Democrats, but also Republicans.”

Lammy’s Republican contacts include former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Nadia Schadlow, Trump’s former deputy national security adviser .

“Whoever is in charge, the U.S. remains the UK’s most important military, intelligence and nuclear relationship,” Lammy said.

Healey agreed: “The U.S. is the U.K.’s most important security ally, and vice versa. That will remain, and has survived through decades, whatever the ups and downs of the political leaderships.”

A second Trump presidency would undoubtedly test that maxim.

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Eleni Courea

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December 14, 2023
Renewed Israel-Gaza war crowds out climate at COP28

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DUBAI — The war in Gaza crashed into the United Nations climate summit on Friday, as furious sideline diplomacy, blunt censures of violence and an Iranian boycott shoved global warming to the side.

It was a sharp change in tone from the COP28 opening on Thursday, which ended on an upbeat note as countries promised to support climate-stricken communities. The mood darkened the following day as news broke that the week-old truce between Israel and Hamas was collapsing.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog spent much of the morning in meetings telling fellow leaders about “how Hamas blatantly violates the ceasefire agreements,” according to a post on his X account. He ended up skipping a speech he was meant to give during Friday’s parade of world leaders.

There were other conspicuous no-shows. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was absent, despite being listed as an early speaker. And Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader, also disappeared from the final speakers’ list after initially being scheduled to talk just a few slots after Herzog.

Then, shortly after leaders posed for a group photo in the Dubai venue on Friday, the Iranian delegation announced it was walking out. The reason, Iran’s energy minister told his country’s official news agency: The “political, biased and irrelevant presence of the fake Zionist regime” — referring to Israel.

By Friday afternoon, the Iranian pavilion had emptied out.

The backroom drama played out even as leader after leader took the stage in the vast Expo City campus to make allotted three-minute statements on their efforts to stop the planet from boiling. The World Meteorological Organization said Thursday that 2023 was almost certain to be the hottest year ever recorded.

U.N. climate talks are often buffeted by outside events. This is the second such meeting held after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That war provoked some public barbs and backroom discussions at last year’s summit in Egypt, but leaders still maintained their scheduled speaking slots and a veneer of focus on the matter they were supposedly there to discuss.

This year, that veneer cracked.

“There are currently a number of very, very serious crises that are causing great suffering for many people. It was clear that these would also affect the mood at the COP,” a German diplomat, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly, told POLITICO.

But that can’t distract officials working on climate change, the diplomat added: “It is also clear that no one on our planet, no country on Earth, can escape the destructive effects of the climate crisis.”

Tell-tale signals

There had been early signs that the conflict would spill over into discussions at the climate summit.

Sameh Shoukry, president of the COP27 climate conference and Egyptian minister of foreign affairs, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, president of COP28 | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

At Thursday’s opening ceremony, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry — president of last year’s COP27 summit — asked all delegates to stand for a moment of silence in memory of two climate negotiators who had recently died, “as well as all civilians who have perished during the current conflict in Gaza.”

On Friday, Jordanian King Abdullah II, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were among the leaders who used their COP28 speeches to draw attention to the war.

“This year’s COP must recognize even more than ever that we cannot talk about climate change in isolation from the humanitarian tragedies unfolding around us,” Abdullah said. “As we speak, the Palestinian people are facing an immediate threat to their lives and wellbeing.”

Ramaphosa went further: “South Africa is appalled at the cruel tragedy that is underway in Gaza. The war against the innocent people of Palestine is a war crime that must be ended now.

But, he added, “we cannot lose momentum in the fight against climate change.”

Asked for comment, an official from the United Arab Emirates, which is overseeing COP28, said the country had invited all parties to the conference and “are pleased with the exceptionally high level of attendance this year.”

The official added: “Climate change is a global issue and as the host for this significant, momentous conference, the UAE welcomes constructive dialogue and continues to work with all international partners and stakeholders across the board to deliver impactful results for COP28.”

The other summit in Dubai

In the back rooms of the conference venue, leaders were holding urgent talks on the war. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken huddled with Herzog on Thursday, according to a post on Herzog’s X account.

“In addition to participating in the COP, I’ll have an opportunity to meet with Arab partners to discuss the conflict in Gaza,” Blinken told reporters Wednesday while in Brussels for a NATO gathering. He didn’t offer further details.

A senior Biden administration official told reporters Vice President Kamala Harris would also be “having discussions on the conflict between Israel and Hamas” during her trip to Dubai.

On his X account, Herzog said he had met with “dozens” of leaders at the summit. His post featured photographs of Britain’s King Charles III, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, India’s Narendra Modi and Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He also posted about meetings with Blinken and UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed.

Erdoğan met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at COP28 to discuss the war in Gaza, according to a statement by the Turkish communications directorate that made no mention of climate action.

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made no secret of the fact that he intended to use some of his brief visit to Dubai to talk about regional security.

U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made no secret of the fact that he intended to use some of his brief visit to Dubai to talk about regional security | Sean Gallup/Getty Images

“I’ll be speaking to lots of leaders … not just [about] climate change, but also the situation in the Middle East,” he told reporters on his flight out of the U.K. Thursday night.

The reignited Israel-Hamas conflict came to dominate his time at the summit. Meetings with other leaders were arranged with regional tensions in mind — not climate. Sunak met Israel’s Herzog and Jordan’s Abdullah, as well as Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al Sisi and the emir of Qatar.

“Given the events of this morning in Israel and Gaza, the prime minister has spent most of his bilateral meetings discussing that situation,” Sunak’s spokesperson told reporters in Dubai.

The meetings focused on “what more we can do both to support the innocent civilians in Gaza, to de-escalate tensions, to get more hostages out and more aid in,” the spokesperson said.

Even the U.K.’s ostensibly nonpolitical head of state, King Charles III — in Dubai to give an opening address to world leaders — was deployed to aid the diplomatic effort. Buckingham Palace said the king would “have the opportunity to meet regional leaders to support the U.K.’s efforts to promote peace in the region.”

Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron was planning to meet various leaders on the security situation and then fly on for talks in Qatar, according to an Elysée Palace official.

Meanwhile, three of Europe’s leaders who have been the strongest backers of the Palestinians — Irish leader Leo Varadkar, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez — held talks on the fringes of COP on Friday morning.

Earlier on Friday, Israel withdrew its ambassador to Spain, blasting what it called Sánchez’s “shameful remarks” on the situation.

Brazil’s Lula, whose country will host a major COP conference in 2025, lamented that just as more joint action is needed to prevent climate catastrophe, war and violence were cleaving the world apart.

“We are facing what may be the greatest challenge that humanity has faced till now,” he said. “Instead of uniting forces, the world is going to wars. It feeds divisions and deepens poverty and inequalities.”

Zia Weise, Suzanne Lynch and Charlie Cooper reported from Dubai. Karl Mathiesen reported from London.

Clea Calcutt contributed reporting from Paris. Nahal Toosi contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.

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November 28, 2023
Brazil’s Lula pushes end to deforestation, stumbles on fossil fuels

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Under pressure from the EU to rein in deforestation or face trade restrictions, Amazon countries must figure out how to bring prosperity to the region without destroying the forest. And that’s proving difficult.

At a two-day summit starting Tuesday, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is looking to corral countries to speed up efforts to stop deforestation and decide on a common strategy to save the rainforest.

But it’s likely to be an uphill climb, with countries disagreeing on whether they should commit to a zero deforestation goal and on whether oil and gas drilling should be banned in the region.

The summit comes as the EU is rolling out new rules to ban commodities’ imports driving deforestation abroad and is asking countries to police their supply chains against environmental and human rights violations.

That’s increasing pressure on the Amazon region — and particularly on Brazil, one of the largest exporters of agri-food products to the EU and home to 60 percent of the rainforest — to commit to ambitious action at this week’s meet-up.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has argued that phasing out fossil fuels is essential for the forest’s protection. “Even if we get deforestation under control, the Amazon faces dire threats if global heating continues to climb,” he wrote in an op-ed last month, adding that “to avoid the point of no return, we need an ambitious transnational policy to phase out fossil fuels.”

But Lula isn’t pushing to phase out fossil fuels domestically, highlighting a tension between conservation efforts and ensuring economies stay on track.

The Brazilian leader told local media ahead of the summit he wants to “keep dreaming” about drilling in the region. His comments come as Brazilian oil major Petrobras is looking to open new fields near the mouth of the Amazon River despite receiving a negative opinion from the national institute for the environment.

If fossil fuels are kept underground, Amazon countries will need alternative activities to keep their economies afloat. Observers have suggested using this week’s summit as a way to promote greener farming and sustainable forest management, as well as discuss potential schemes to pay farmers and indigenous people to help protect the forest.

“The bioeconomy is the key to unlocking the region’s economic potential while preserving its ecological heritage and, as such, needs to be at the center of any sustainable and inclusive development plan for the Amazon,” said Vanessa Pérez, global economics director at the World Resources Institute.

Indigenous groups are also watching the summit closely, and want their contribution to climate protection, as well as their rights and territorial claims recognized by country leaders.

“It is not possible to plan the future of the Amazon without indigenous peoples, without guaranteeing our territorial rights,” said Ângela Kaxuyana, political adviser at the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon.

High stakes

The outcome of the summit is a major political and diplomatic test for Lula, who has pledged to achieve zero deforestation in the Amazon.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has argued that phasing out fossil fuels is essential for the forest’s protection | Guillermo Legaria/Getty Images

Since taking office last year, Lula has stepped up efforts to crack down on illegal miners, protect indigenous groups and boost conservation efforts in the Amazon, with the government reporting a 66 percent drop in the rate of deforestation in July compared to the same month last year.

But not all Amazon countries are ready to commit to a similarly ambitious goal; Bolivia and Venezuela failed to sign a pledge made at the COP26 climate talks to end global deforestation by 2030.

Scientists have warned that the continued deterioration of the Amazon, a major carbon sink, is likely to have a profound impact on global climate efforts.

“If [Lula] doesn’t come out of this summit with agreement from other countries that they also see this goal as important, it really undermines Brazil’s efforts to reach this [zero deforestation] goal,” said Diego Casaes, campaign director at the NGO Avaaz.

The regional meet-up is also a key opportunity for Lula to assert his credibility as a climate leader both domestically and internationally as Brazil prepares to host the COP30 summit in 2025, Casaes added.

The outcome is “a test of how far Lula can go given the constraint that he has from the congress,” he said, given the Brazilian legislative body has pushed back against measures to boost policing and protection of the rainforest.

Scientists have warned that the continued deterioration of the Amazon, a major carbon sink, is likely to have a profound impact on global climate efforts | Victor Moriyama/Getty Images

European lawmakers will be looking for signals for how the region is preparing to adapt to new rules to police imports driving deforestation, tackle human rights abuses and green trade.

Under the EU Deforestation Regulation, imports of commodities like soy and beef produced on deforested land will be forbidden from 2024, while under the new corporate sustainability due diligence rules companies will be forced to scrutinize their supply chains for environmental damage and human rights abuses.

And although the trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur countries isn’t officially on the agenda, it will certainly come up.

That’s because the EU is currently negotiating a sustainability addendum to the trade deal with his Latin American counterparts, which should give reassurances — notably to France — the agreement will not have negative consequences on the environment and worsen deforestation.

The summit is an opportunity to see whether Amazon countries “are able to coordinate efforts” and to ensure policies related to the forest “are aligned with [global] climate goals,” said Caseas.

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August 7, 2023
US should stop ‘encouraging’ Ukraine war, Brazilian president says | CNN

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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Saturday that the United States should stop “encouraging” the war in Ukraine.

“The United States needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace; the European Union needs to start talking about peace so that we can convince Putin and Zelensky that peace is in the interest of everyone and that war is only interesting, for now, to the two of them,” Lula told reporters in Beijing.

Lula also revealed that during his talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping they discussed forming a group of like-minded leaders on Ukraine.

“I have a theory that I have already defended with Macron, with Olaf Scholz of Germany, and with Biden, and yesterday, we discussed at length with Xi Jinping. It is necessary to constitute a group of countries willing to find a way to make peace,” Lula said.

The US and EU have been major suppliers of arms and aid to Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out peace talks as long as Russian President Vladimir Putin remains in power.

Lula was in Beijing on Friday for talks with Xi Jinping seeking a reset in the China-Brazil relationship, which saw tense moments under former leader Jair Bolsonaro.

But it also reveals a growing distance from geopolitical questions preoccupying the West.

While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dominated much diplomatic conversation in Europe and in Washington, Lula’s trip to China is instead largely focused on trade, how Chinese investment can help Brazil’s economy get back on track, and the potentially lucrative universe of carbon credits.

Like many leaders in middle income and developing countries, Lula has adopted a policy of non-intervention over the war in Ukraine, rebuffing efforts led by US President Joe Biden to unite the global community in opposition to Russia’s invasion.

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April 15, 2023
The Yanomami people lived in harmony with nature. Invaders turned their lives into a fight for survival. | CNN

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Shaman Davi Kopenawa Yanomami furrowed his brow as he stared out at the skyscrapers and buildings looming through the window of his oak-panelled hotel room in New York City. “I’m here, in the city of stone, and mirrors and glass… but in my heart, I’m in mourning,” he told CNN.

Davi has campaigned for Brazil’s Yanomami people, one of the largest relatively isolated indigenous groups in South America, for nearly 40 years – braving threats on his life for his activism. Last week, he was invited to Manhattan for the opening of a group exhibition of Yanomami artists and Brazilian photographer Claudia Andujar at cultural center The Shed, which counted among its guests United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

Despite the glamour of the surroundings, Davi’s mind was more than 2,000 miles away, deep in the forests of Brazil, where a health crisis has gripped his people. “I’m in mourning…for my people, who I’ve lost,” he said, referring to recent images that emerged from the territory showing emaciated Yanomami adults and children, some with swollen bellies from hunger.

Disease and malnutrition have torn through Yanomami villages over the last four years – a crisis that experts lay at the feet of the scores of illegal miners who have set up camp in their sprawling territory, spurred by the high price of gold.

Yanomami children are dying at a disproportionate rate from preventable diseases, like malaria and malnutrition. At least 570 Yanomami children have died from preventable causes since 2018, Brazil’s health ministry told CNN.

Fiona Watson, research and advocacy director at indigenous human rights group Survival International, said high malaria rates – spread by miners – have left many Yanomami adults too unwell to hunt or fish, as they rely entirely off the forest and rivers for food. “That means the food’s not coming in, hence you get so much malnutrition (that) has led to this terrible catastrophe,” she said.

Their predicament is exacerbated by water pollution and environmental destruction from the mines, and sometimes violent encounters with the intruders. In January, Ariel Castro Alves, Lula’s National Secretary for the Rights of Children and Adolescents, said a federal government delegation were told in January that at least 30 Yanomami girls and teenagers had been abused and impregnated by miners.

Government health workers, who might have mitigated the crisis, have been intimidated and even driven out of the area by miners who took over health facilities and airstrips, Junior Hekurari Yanomami, president of the Urihi Yanomami Association, told CNN.

The emergency is the latest test for Brazil’s newly inaugurated President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has made environmental protection a priority for his term in office. In January, he launched a crackdown on illegal mines in Yanomami territory, and the country’s military, environmental agencies and police forces are currently sweeping through the area to clear it of miners.

Lula’s administration has brought hope, says Davi, especially through his appointment of the country’s first minister for indigenous people, Sonia Guajajara.

“But he’s going to need a lot of support,” the activist said of Brazil’s bitterly polarized political landscape.

Yanomami territory, which spans the Brazilian states of Roraima and Amazonas, is supposed to be a protected reservation where mining is illegal. But miners have flooded the area over the last several years as gold prices boomed, stripping the natural environment and in some cases driving away vital health workers.

While it is hard to get an accurate number of mines in the sprawling territory, which equals the size of Portugal, a report by Brazilian NGO Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), based on satellite imaging, found that mines on Yanomami land had risen from four in 2015 to 1,556 by the end of 2021.

As hunter-agriculturalists, the Yanomami maintain a symbiotic relationship with their environment. Some 30,400 Yanomami live in the territory, and as they are largely isolated from the outside world, they are more vulnerable to common viruses. Exploitation and encroachment in the forest by extractive industries has proven to be fatal for the indigenous group and their traditional way of life.

The building of the Trans Amazonian highway, started in the 1970s by the Brazilian military dictatorship who were keen to develop the Amazon basin, introduced measles, malaria and the flu that decimated Yanomami communities, said Watson.

A goldrush in 1986 later saw an estimated 20% of the Yanomami community die in a seven-year period, according to Watson. Many of those miners were driven out in 1992, when the area was demarcated by the government of then-President Fernando Collor de Mello.

Davi says he noticed a shift when former President Jair Bolsonaro was in power. Miners felt emboldened to enter the territory armed “with a lot of heavy equipment, the mechanised dredgers, and they were using petrol, mercury, and then they… used planes and small landing strips and helicopters,” Davi said.

The arrival of new miners brought misery, said Davi, including reported threats and attacks against Yanomami communities. In May 2021, a half-hour shootout with miners left four dead, including two Yanomami children – a video of the incident showed women and children running for cover as a boat passed the riverbanks of their village.

“It’s his fault. He let the illness of mining in,” Davi says of Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro has called accusations that he turned a blind eye to the Yanomami plight a “left-wing farce” on his official Telegram channel on January 21. Having visited the region before, he shared pictures of him with indigenous people on his Telegram account as well as government press releases from his presidency, including one saying the World Health Organization praised the vaccination rate of Brazil’s indigenous people under his government in 2021.

During his term from 2019 to 2022, Bolsonaro signed an environmental protection decree to raise fines for illegal logging, fishing, burning, hunting, and deforestation. His administration also saw Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) – a government agency that oversees policies related to indigenous communities – invest $16 million in surveillance of indigenous lands to combat illegal activities there.

However, the far-right leader also supported legislation to open indigenous protected areas to mining, reduced funding or dismantled agencies tasked with monitoring and enforcing environmental regulations, and repeatedly claimed that indigenous territories are “too big” – all of which emboldened trespassers, experts say.

Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered an investigation to determine whether the actions of the Bolsonaro government amounted to “genocide” of the Yanomami. Ahead of Lula’s meeting with President Joe Biden on Friday, he reiterated to CNN that Bolsonaro could be “punished” by courts for “the genocide against the Yanomami indigenous people.”

On January 30, Brazil’s Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship (MDHC) also released a report on alleging that its previous administration disregarded numerous alerts made about the Yanomami’s deteriorating situation.

CNN has reached out to Damares Alves, who led MDHC at the time. When asked about the claims by a Brazilian reporter on February 1, Alves responded: “The Yanomami have been living in a calamitous situation for decades. It’s time for the people (the Senate) to change the union’s budget so that we can take better care of the Yanomami Indians. As for the accusations, I will only speak when cited by a court”.

There has been momentum since Lula’s intervention in the territory. Speaking from Boa Vista in late January, Lula pledged to eliminate illegal mining, saying he was “shocked” by the Yanomami’s poor health.

More than 1,000 unwell indigenous people have been evacuated from the Yanomami territory, and the Justice Ministry announced a major offensive against the miners, and closed the territory’s airspace as it tackles their supply routes.

On Monday, Brazilian security forces began their enforcement operation to expel the miners, many of whom may have already left the area. Videos have emerged on social media of miners fleeing from the territory or imploring the government to help them leave the area. Last week, Justice Minister Flavio Dino said he expected 80% of the illegal miners to have left the first week of February.

A miner, who was seen leaving the area, told Reuters that the Yanomami were desperate for food parcels dropped by Air Force planes. “The day the parcels arrived, they were gone,” Joao Batista Costa, 65, told Reuters, while holding up a food parcel.

But resolving the crisis will be a long road, and Lula is likely to face resistance among parts of the sizeable number of Brazilians who support Bolsonaro’s policies. Nor are all politicians on a regional level as enthused about indigenous protections; Roraima state governor Antonio Denarium, a Bolsonaro ally, for example, appeared to downplay the Yanomami crisis in an interview to Folha de S. Paulo newspaper in January, saying it was time for them to adapt to urban living and “leave the bush.”

In a later statement to CNN, Denarium’s office said the quotes were “taken out of context,” adding that “the desire for people’s lives to improve is the desire of anyone who values the dignity of indigenous or non-indigenous people.”

For Davi, there has been little evidence that authorities valued Yanomami dignity in recent years.

“We indigenous peoples are badly treated, as are our rivers, the animals – but it’s not just indigenous peoples who are dying, the city people are suffering as well,” Davi said from his hotel room. “These two worlds really need to come together in a big embrace and not let our world be ruined.”

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February 10, 2023
Brazil’s Lula Works To Reverse Amazon Deforestation

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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Shaking a traditional rattle, Brazil’s incoming head of Indigenous affairs recently walked through every corner of the agency’s headquarters — even its coffee room — as she invoked help from ancestors during a ritual cleansing.

The ritual carried extra meaning for Joenia Wapichana, Brazil’s first Indigenous woman to command the agency charged with protecting the Amazon rainforest and its people. Once she is sworn in next month under newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Wapichana promises to clean house at an agency that critics say has allowed the Amazon’s resources to be exploited at the expense of the environment.

As Wapichana performed the ritual, Indigenous people and government officials enthusiastically chanted “Yoohoo! Funai is ours!’’ — a reference to the agency she will lead.

Environmentalists, Indigenous people and voters sympathetic to their causes were important to Lula’s narrow victory over former President Jair Bolsonaro. Now Lula is seeking to fulfill campaign pledges he made to them on a wide range of issues, from expanding Indigenous territories to halting a surge in illegal deforestation.

To carry out these goals, Lula is appointing well-known environmentalists and Indigenous people to key positions at Funai and other agencies that Bolsonaro had filled with allies of agribusiness and military officers.

In Lula’s previous two terms as president, he had a mixed record on environmental and Indigenous issues. And he is certain to face obstacles from pro-Bolsonaro state governors who still control swaths of the Amazon. But experts say Lula is taking the right first steps.

The federal officials Lula has already named to key posts “have the national and international prestige to reverse all the environmental destruction that we have suffered over these four years of the Bolsonaro government,” said George Porto Ferreira, an analyst at Ibama, Brazil’s environmental law-enforcement agency.

Bolsonaro’s supporters, meanwhile, fear that Lula’s promise of stronger environmental protections will hurt the economy by reducing the amount of land open for development, and punish people for activities that had previously been allowed. Some supporters with ties to agribusiness have been accused of providing financial and logistical assistance to rioters who earlier this month stormed Brazil’s presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court.

When Bolsonaro was president, he defanged Funai and other agencies responsible for environmental oversight. This enabled deforestation to soar to its highest level since 2006, as developers and miners who took land from Indigenous people faced few consequences.

Between 2019 and 2022, the number of fines handed out for illegal activities in the Amazon declined by 38% compared with the previous four years, according an analysis of Brazilian government data by the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental nonprofit groups.

One of the strongest signs yet of Lula’s intentions to reverse these trends was his decision to return Marina Silva to lead the country’s environmental ministry. Silva formerly held the job between 2003 and 2008, a period when deforestation declined by 53%. A former rubber-tapper from Acre state, Silva resigned after clashing with government and agribusiness leaders over environmental policies she deemed to be too lenient.

Silva strikes a strong contrast with Bolsonaro’s first environment minister, Ricardo Salles, who had never set foot in the Amazon when he took office in 2019 and resigned two years later following allegations that he had facilitated the export of illegally felled timber.

Other measures Lula has taken in support of the Amazon and its people include:

— Signing a decree that would rejuvenate the most significant international effort to preserve the rainforest — the Amazon Fund. The fund, which Bolsonaro had gutted, has received more than $1.2 billion, mostly from Norway, to help pay for sustainable development of the Amazon.

— Revoking a Bolsonaro decree that allowed mining in Indigenous and environmental protection areas.

— Creating a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, which will oversee everything from land boundaries to education. This ministry will be led by Sônia Guajajara, the country’s first Indigenous woman in such a high government post.

“It won’t be easy to overcome 504 years in only four years. But we are willing to use this moment to promote a take-back of Brazil’s spiritual force,” Guajajara said during her induction ceremony, which was delayed by the damage pro-Bolsonaro rioters caused to the presidential palace.

The Amazon rainforest, which covers an area twice the size of India, acts as a buffer against climate change by absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide. But Bolsonaro viewed management of the Amazon as an internal affair, causing Brazil’s global reputation to take a hit. Lula is trying to undo that damage.

During the UN’s climate summit in Egypt in November, Lula pledged to end all deforestation by 2030 and announced his country’s intention to host the COP30 climate conference in 2025. Brazil had been scheduled to host the event in 2019, but Bolsonaro canceled it in 2018 right after he was elected.

While Lula has ambitious environmental goals, the fight to protect the Amazon faces complex hurdles. For example, getting cooperation from local officials won’t be easy.

Six out of nine Amazonian states are run by Bolsonaro allies. Those include Rondonia, where settlers of European descent control local power and have dismantled environmental legislation through the state assembly; and Acre, where a lack of economic opportunities is driving rubber-tappers who had long fought to preserve the rainforest to take up cattle grazing instead.

The Amazon has also been plagued for decades by illegal gold mining, which employs tens of thousands of people in Brazil and other countries, such as Peru and Venezuela. The illegal mining causes mercury contamination of rivers that Indigenous peoples rely upon for fishing and drinking.

“Its main cause is the state’s absence,” says Gustavo Geiser, a forensics expert with the Federal Police who has worked in the Amazon for over 15 years.

One area where Lula has more control is in designating Indigenous territories, which are the best preserved regions in the Amazon.

Lula is under pressure to create 13 new Indigenous territories — a process that had stalled under Bolsonaro, who kept his promise not to grant “one more inch” of land to Indigenous peoples.

A major step will be to expand the size of Uneiuxi, part of one of the most remote and culturally diverse regions of the world that is home to 23 peoples. The process of expanding the boundaries of Uneiuxi started four decades ago, and the only remaining step is a presidential signature, which will increase its size by 37% to 551,000 hectares (2,100 square miles).

“Lula already indicated that he would not have any problem doing that,” said Kleber Karipuna, a close aide of Guajajara.

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January 22, 2023
‘Command your troops, damn it!’ How a series of security failures opened a path to insurrection in Brazil | CNN

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A sea of people, draped in the yellow and green of the Brazilian flag, surge onto the roof of the country’s modernist congressional building in the capital Brasilia, a video shared on social media shows.

In the foreground, officers from the military police of Brazil’s Federal District, which includes Brasilia, can be seen standing, chatting or filming the crowds in the distance.

Their calm belies the chaos unfolding on January 8. For around four hours, thousands of far-right supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed all three branches of Brazil’s government – Congress, the Supreme Court, and presidential palace – overwhelming security forces and calling for the leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to be ousted.

The violence has shocked the country, with many wanting answers as to how so many people managed to enter some of the most highly securitized buildings in the country, with practically no resistance. Questions are mounting as to whether members of the security forces tasked with protecting the area and their leaders were just overstretched, incompetent or even actively assisted the protesters.

Top Brazilian officials say that pre-agreed security plans were not carried out on the day.

CNN has analyzed a series of videos and livestreams posted on social media to explore the security failures that allowed an insurrection to take place with such extraordinary ease and found that some officers appeared friendly to the rioters, while many others seem woefully underprepared for the angry mob. CNN has not identified and spoken to the officers in the videos.

Videos show some police officers standing and watching the protestors as they stormed Congress, one even filmed the events. Credit: YouTube, Twitter and Telegram.

Authorities investigating the riots, like the Supreme Court, have pointed fingers at officials in Brasilia, and several Federal District security chiefs have been fired or issued with arrest warrants for alleged collusion since the Sunday riots.

“The Brasilia police neglected [the attack threat], Brasilia’s intelligence neglected it,” Lula claimed one day after the siege. He said that from the footage it was easy to see “police officers talking to the attackers. There was an explicit connivance of the police with the demonstrators.”

Suspicions of “connivance” have been fueled by his predecessor Bolsonaro’s close relationship with the military during his presidency, filling his then-cabinet with military chiefs. In the weeks leading up to the siege, supporters of the ex-leader and former army captain – who never explicitly conceded his election loss in October – camped outside army barracks across Brazil, calling for a military intervention to overturn Lula’s victory.

Bolsonaro has made false claims of election fraud, sowing doubt in the legitimacy of the election. He left for Florida more than a week before the insurrection.

Lula on Thursday also accused some people in the armed forces of complicity. “There were many people complicit in this. There were many from the (military police), many from the armed forces complicit,” he said during a press conference.

The Brazilian president said he doesn’t think of the events of January 8 as a “coup” but as a “smaller thing, a band of crazy people who haven’t realized that the election is over.”

The military police of the Federal District have not responded to CNN’s questions about the alleged security failures of their forces. Nor has the Army Command in Brasilia – which has yet to make a public statement on the riots.

Videos taken on January 8 suggest a reduced security presence compared to Lula’s inauguration a week before, at the same government complex, when more than 8,000 troops from military and civil forces were deployed.

On January 8, there were just 365 military police officers working in the area. After Lula authorized a federal intervention at around 6 p.m. local that evening, another 2,913 were summoned, a caretaker Federal District spokesperson told CNN. The leadership of the office has changed since the January 8 riots.

The army and civil police forces did not respond to CNN’s request for information on how many army troops and police forces were deployed to the area on Sunday.

The military police are investigating the events on January 8 and “will start procedures to investigate” the alleged conduct of “police agents who behaved differently from (how) they were supposed to,” Ricardo Cappelli, the caretaker head of security for the Federal District of Brasilia, who got the role Sunday after his predecessor was fired, said this week.

Sunday’s protests had been openly organized online days before and intelligence services were aware of their plans. Telegram conversations seen by CNN show people messaging as early as January 5 about their intentions to storm Brazil’s Congress.

One post mentions a plan to use the Zello phone app, which works like a walkie talkie, if the internet was disrupted. The same app was used by some US Capitol rioters on January 6, 2021.

Several others shared detailed maps of the parliamentary area, labeling clearly the Congress and Senate buildings as the assembly point.

Brazil’s intelligence agency said it issued daily alerts ahead of January 8 to the government and the federal district government, warning the protests would be large and violent, CNN Brasil reports.

Their intelligence was based on a warning raised by the country’s transport agency that an unusual volume of buses had been chartered to Brasilia. Both the Minister of Justice Flávio Dino and then-Federal District Governor Ibaneis Rocha, a Bolsonaro ally, were notified, said the intelligence agency.

Despite the warnings, on January 7, Rocha told a Federal District news portal, Metropoles, that the protest would go ahead on the Esplanade – a grassy stretch surrounded by governmental buildings that leads directly to Brazil’s seats of power.

In a press conference a day after the riot, Justice Minister Dino said special security plans had been agreed upon with the Federal District – which handles the defense of the governmental complex and was led by Rocha – but did not materialize on January 8. There was a “change in administrative orientation yesterday in which the planning, which did not allow people to enter the Esplanade, was changed at the last minute,” he said.

Rocha was removed from his post for three months on Sunday. He said he respected the decision in an official statement and had also apologized to officials, including Lula, for what happened that day, saying his team “did not believe at all that the demonstrations would take on the proportions that they did.” CNN has reached out to Rocha for comment.

When protesters, as planned, turned out in droves on January 8, they were met with little resistance.

Beginning from their encampment outside the army headquarters, they walked over 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) down Brasilia’s main avenue, the Monumental Axis, to Congress.

Prior to the breach of Congress, a long line of protesters march to the government complex. In one video, a military police officer appears to give a thumbs up while shaking hands with the pro-Bolsonaro crowd walking down the avenue. Some are even patting officers on the back.

Military police attempted to stop the protesters by the Esplanade of Ministries along Eixo Monumental at around 2:25 p.m. local time, live video posted on YouTube by a protester and reviewed by CNN shows. But they were quickly over-run by protesters, who broke through the barricades. Police attempted to pepper spray a few of them as they tried to maintain the barricade but were overwhelmed.

The time the crowds arrived outside Congress at around 2:45 p.m. local time. Videos showed some federal and military police units further attempting to block their way, but they were severely outnumbered.

Chaos ensued.

Another attempt by Brasilia’s military police to use pepper spray on protesters failed. The officers, standing behind a line of metal barricades, were quickly overwhelmed as the crowd surged through, tossing the barricades to the ground.

Police confront protestors with pepper spray as they approach Congress but are quickly overwhelmed. Credit: Twitter

Free to roam in Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Square), thousands of Bolsonaro supporters climbed the ramp leading to the Congress, which houses the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. They entered the buildings just before 3 p.m.

Videos from inside show overturned chairs and documents strewn on the floor as the crowds march through chanting pro-Bolsonaro slogans.

With the barricades gone, several military police officers simply watched the scene. One even filmed the protesters climbing onto the roof of Congress.

Meanwhile, outside the Congress building two federal police vans sat with smoke billowing from their windows, video shows. One has swerved off the road half-submerged in a lake.

The swarm of protesters also moved to the Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace. Officers seemed once again unable to control the situation. Some on horseback were attacked near the Supreme Court, pulled to the ground and pummeled by rioters.

In the end, the crowd managed to break inside these buildings as well and wreak havoc.

Videos showed little coordination between police divisions and left some officers overwhelmed by the crowds. Credit: TikTok and Telegram

Lula has suggested that someone deliberately left the doors to the palace unlocked. It was “opened for these people to enter because there is no broken door. It means someone facilitated their entry here,” he told reporters Thursday.

While he waits for the dust to settle, “I want to see all the tapes recorded inside the Supreme Court, inside the palace. There were a lot of conniving agents. There were a lot of people from the MP (Military Police) conniving,” he added.

The January 8 videos found online seem to convey the chaos of the moment.

In one video, responders seem to struggle to coordinate and communicate as security forces seem overwhelmed as they try to gain control.

A military police officer shouts at soldiers from the presidential guard battalion to fight the invaders as they stand by the presidential Planalto Palace.

“Command your troops, damn it!” he yells at the battalion commander.

But the soldiers appear hesitant, and their leader remains silent as they struggle to make decisions while confronted by the horde.

In pictures: Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazilian Congress

As it approaches 7 p.m. local time, the police and army finally have things under control. A YouTube livestream shows crowds filing off the roof of Congress and leaving the governmental compound.

Two hours later, Bolsonaro condemns the day’s events, saying “peaceful demonstrations, respecting the law, are part of democracy. However, depredations and invasions… escape the rule.”

Brazil’s response to the riots has been swift. The pro-Bolsonaro encampments outside army barracks were cleared, and a new round of protests on January 11 never materialized.

The Supreme Court agreed to prosecutor’s requests on Friday to investigate Bolsonaro for the alleged involvement in the attacks. His lawyer has rebutted the accusations, saying Bolsonaro always “rejected all illegal and criminal acts … and has always been a defender of the constitution and democracy.”

High level officials have aimed their sights on Bolsonaro allies still working in government, including Anderson Torres, who was effectively in charge of security for the Three Powers Square, where the governmental buildings were located.

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the arrest of Torres, who was previously Bolsonaro’s justice minister and assumed the role of security secretary of the Federal District in January, and the district’s former military police commander Fabio Vieira.

The order accuses the pair of attempting a coup d’état, terrorist acts, damage to public property, criminal association, and violent abolition of the rule of law. It also argues “the absence of the necessary policing” during the riots happened due to the “omission and connivance of several authorities in the area of security and intelligence.”

Torres, who was fired on Sunday with Vieira, had traveled to Florida on January 7, a day before the riots. It is unclear if he met with Bolsonaro, who was also in Florida, having left Brazil in December, days before the inauguration of Lula.

The former security secretary has strenuously denied any involvement in the riots. “I deeply regret these absurd hypotheses of any kind of collusion on my part,” he tweeted on Sunday, and wrote days later that he would return to Brazil and fight the charges.

He was arrested on his return to Brazil on Saturday, CNN Brasil reports.

On Thursday, the Federal Police announced that during a search of Torres’ home, it found a draft decree proposing to overturn October’s presidential election. Torres has denied being the author.

CNN has reached out to his lawyer for comment.

Investigators are looking for funders and leaders of the riots, an unenviable task due to the protesters lack of formalized leadership, Michele Prado, an expert on the Brazilian far right, told CNN.

“Despite this fluidity of (protest) leaders and horizontality,” there are thousands of people online who continue to share extremist positions, she added.

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January 14, 2023
Jair Bolsonaro Fast Facts | CNN

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Here is a look at the life of Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil.

Birth date: March 21, 1955

Birth place: Campinas, Brazil

Birth name: Jair Messias Bolsonaro

Father: Percy Geraldo Bolsonaro, dentist

Mother: Olinda Bonturi Bolsonaro

Marriage: Michelle Bolsonaro; Ana Cristina Valle (divorced); Rogéria Bolsonaro (divorced)

Children: with Michelle Bolsonaro: Laura; with Ana Cristina Valle: Jair Renan; with Rogéria Bolsonaro: Flavio, Carlos and Eduardo

Education: Agulhas Negras Military Academy, 1977

Military: Army, Captain

Religion: Roman Catholic

A conservative provocateur, Bolsonaro has a predilection for making inflammatory statements. His rhetorical targets include women and the LGBTQ community. In 2003, he told a congresswoman that she was not worthy of being raped. During a 2011 interview with Playboy magazine, Bolsonaro said he would be incapable of loving a gay son. He has expressed a sense of nostalgia for Brazil’s past as a military dictatorship.

Bolsonaro served seven terms as a congressman in the Chamber of Deputies. While in congress, his priorities included protecting the rights of citizens to own firearms, promoting Christian values and getting tough on crime. In 2017, he said, “A policeman who doesn’t kill isn’t a policeman.”

Bolsonaro changed his party affiliation numerous times, ultimately campaigning for president as a member of the Social Liberal Party.

When Bolsonaro took office, Brazil was suffering through a prolonged period of economic malaise and rising insecurity. His ascent was preceded by a corruption scandal that rocked political and financial institutions. During his inaugural address, Bolsonaro vowed to transform Brazil into a “strong and booming country.”

1986 – Bolsonaro writes an opinion column for the magazine Veja that criticizes the Brazilian Army’s pay system. He is subsequently disciplined for insubordination.

1989-1991 – Councilman for Rio de Janeiro.

1991-2018 – Congressman representing Rio de Janeiro in the Chamber of Deputies.

July 22, 2018 – Bolsonaro announces he is running for president.

August 15, 2018 – Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former president of Brazil, announces he has submitted the necessary paperwork to register as the Workers’ Party candidate to run against Bolsonaro. Lula da Silva campaigns from prison, where he is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.

September 1, 2018 – Brazil’s top electoral court bars Lula da Silva from running for reelection while incarcerated. Ultimately, a former mayor of São Paulo named Fernando Haddad steps in as the Workers’ Party candidate.

September 6, 2018 – Bolsonaro is stabbed in the stomach during a campaign rally. He spends more than three weeks in the hospital recovering.

October 7, 2018 – Voters cast ballots in the first round of elections. Although Bolsonaro wins more votes than Haddad, he doesn’t surpass the 50% threshold. A runoff is set for later in the month.

October 28, 2018 – Bolsonaro wins the runoff. The final tally shows Bolsonaro with 55.13% and Haddad with 44.87%.

January 1, 2019 – Bolsonaro is sworn into office. On the same day, he issues a series of executive orders. One order could potentially strip away many LGBTQ civil rights protections by eliminating LGBTQ issues from the list of matters handled by the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights. Another order gives the Agriculture Ministry the authority to designate indigenous lands, paving the way for agricultural development in areas that were previously off limits.

January 15, 2019 – Signs an executive order temporarily eliminating a regulation that limits firearms purchases only to individuals who provide a justification for owning a gun. The regulation gave police discretion to approve or deny gun sales.

January 28, 2019 – Officials say Bolsonaro has undergone successful surgery to remove a colostomy bag he was fitted with after being stabbed four months ago.

February 28, 2019 – Bolsonaro meets with Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaidó in Brasilia. During a joint news conference, Bolsonaro pledges Brazil’s support to help ensure “democracy is re-established in Venezuela.”

May 3, 2019 – A spokesman for Bolsonaro announces that the president has canceled a trip to New York, where he was set to be honored with a Person of the Year award from the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce. The trip was scrapped amid a political backlash. The event’s original host venue, the American Museum of Natural History canceled and some corporate sponsors dropped out. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had called Bolsonaro “a dangerous man.”

May 7, 2019 – Bolsonaro signs an executive order relaxing gun control restrictions. The executive order makes it easier for guns to be imported and boosts the amount of ammunition an individual can purchase annually.

July 11, 2019 – During a news conference, Bolsonaro says that he wants his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, to serve as ambassador to the United States. He says that Eduardo is friendly with the children of US President Donald Trump.

August 23, 2019 – Bolsonaro announces a plan to send army troops to fight wildfires sweeping through the Amazon rainforest.

August 26, 2019 – At the G7 summit in France, French President Emmanuel Macron announces a $20 million emergency fund to help Brazil with the fires. Bolsonaro responds that he cannot accept Macron’s “intentions behind the idea of an ‘alliance’ of the G7 countries to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if we were a colony or no man’s land.” The dispute devolves after a Facebook user posts a meme ridiculing the appearance of Macron’s wife on Bolsonaro’s page and the president jokes, “Don’t humiliate the guy…haha.”

September 8, 2019 – Bolsonaro undergoes a hernia operation to treat complications from prior surgeries conducted as he recovered from a stab wound.

December 24, 2019 – Tells the Band TV network that he was hospitalized overnight after falling in the presidential palace December 23. He says he had brief memory loss, but that he has recovered.

April 19, 2020 – Bolsonaro joins a rally in the country’s capital, where protesters called for an end to coronavirus quarantine measures and some urged military intervention to shut down Congress and the Supreme Court. He later defends his participation, saying that he was not calling for military action against the country’s other branches of government.

June 23, 2020 – Bolsonaro is ordered by a federal judge in Brasilia to wear a face mask in public or face a fine. The decision extends to all government employees in the Federal District, where the capital Brasilia is located.

July 7, 2020 – Bolsonaro announces he has tested positive for Covid-19, following months of downplaying the virus.

March 16, 2021 – A Brazilian court orders Bolsonaro to pay damages to a journalist after he made remarks that questioned her credibility.

April 27, 2021 – Brazil’s Senate launches an inquiry Tuesday into the federal government’s response to Covid-19.

July 14, 2021 – Bolsonaro is admitted to the hospital to investigate the cause of persistent hiccups that are leading to abdominal pains, according to Brazil’s Special Secretariat for Social Communication.

December 3, 2021 – Brazil’s Supreme Court orders an investigation into Bolsonaro’s false claim that people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 may have a higher risk of contracting AIDS. The inquiry is launched in response to a request by the country’s parliamentary commission which has been investigating Bolsonaro’s government’s response to the pandemic.

January 3, 2022 – Bolsonaro is admitted to a hospital with a blockage in his intestine, the latest medical issue linked to his 2018 stabbing.

June 29, 2022 – A Brazilian court rules that Bolsonaro must pay “moral damages” of 35,000 reais (approximately $6,700) to a Brazilian journalist after making remarks with sexual innuendo about her in 2020.

October 2, 2022 – In the presidential election, Bolsonaro finishes with 43.2% versus Lula da Silva’s 48.4%. Either candidate needed to surpass 50% to be elected in the first round of voting, so the two will face each other in a runoff on October 30.

October 30, 2022 – Bolsonaro loses his bid for a second term, after receiving 49.1% of the vote against Lula da Silva, who wins with 50.9%.

November 22, 2022 – Bolsonaro files a petition with Brazil election authorities formally contesting the results of the presidential vote, alleging that some voting machines had malfunctioned and any votes cast through them should be annulled. The petition is rejected the following day.

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January 5, 2023
Thousands bid farewell to Pelé | CNN

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CNN
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Soccer great Pelé was laid to rest on Tuesday after thousands lined the streets in the city of Santos to view his funeral procession.

The procession had started at the Urbano Caldeira Stadium, home of Pelé’s former club Santos, and his coffin was carried through the streets of Santos, including the street where Pelé’s 100-year-old mother, Celeste Arantes, lives.

It continued to the Memorial Necrópole Ecumênica cemetery, where a private funeral would be held for family members.

The three-time World Cup winner died on Thursday at the age of 82 from multiple organ failure due to the progression of colon cancer.

Tributes from around the world have poured in ever since, with people of all ages flocking to his 24-hour public wake, which began on Monday at Santos’ 16,000-seater stadium, popularly known as “Vila Belmiro.”

More than 230,000 people, many wearing Brazil’s iconic yellow jersey, had attended the wake, according to Santos.

The doors to the stadium closed with thousands of mourners still in line and people were turned away, according to CNN teams on the ground.

Huge crowds then lined the streets, waving flags and applauding as the Brazilian’s coffin passed by.

Pelé’s sister, Lucia, was seen tearfully waving from a balcony at crowds who had gathered outside her mother’s house. The coffin then arrived at the cemetery.

Brazilian president Lula da Silva arrived at the wake on Tuesday morning with police security “very much” reinforced to accommodate the President’s presence, Santos told CNN.

“Pele is incomparable, as a soccer player and as a human being,” Lula said Tuesday, per Reuters.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino also traveled to Brazil to pay his respects on Monday.

“Pelé is eternal,” Infantino told reporters, per Reuters. “FIFA will certainly honor the ‘king’ as he deserves.

“We have asked all football associations in the world to pay a minute of silence before every game and will also ask them, 211 countries, to name a stadium after Pelé. Future generations must know and remember who Pelé was.”

For more than 60 years, the name Pelé has been synonymous with football. He played in four World Cups and is the only player in history to win three, but his legacy stretched far beyond his trophy haul and remarkable goalscoring record.

“I was born to play football, just like Beethoven was born to write music and Michelangelo was born to paint,” Pelé famously said.

Pelé, born Edson Arantes do Nascimento, is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history and Brazil held three days of national mourning following his death.

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January 3, 2023
Lula da Silva sworn in as Brazil’s president, amid fears of violence from Bolsonaro supporters | CNN

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CNN
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Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva was sworn in as Brazil’s president for the third time on Sunday, as threats of violence loomed from supporters of his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

“I promise to maintain, defend and fulfill the constitution, observe the laws, promote the general good of the Brazilian people, support the unity, integrity and independence of Brazil,” Lula said.

The 76-year-old politician, returning to the presidency after a 12 year hiatus, arrived with his wife, Rosângela da Silva, at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Brasília at 12:20 p.m. local time before heading to congress where a formal congressional session took place.

Parliamentarians applauded Lula before breaking into a chant of “ole, ole ola, Lula, Lula.”

The Senate president opened the ceremony by paying respects to Pelé and Pope Benedict with a minute of silence.

During the ceremony, Lula broke with traditional protocol to tell a short story about the pen he used to sign congressional documents.

“In 1989 was in a rally in Piaui, then we walked until the San Benedict church, and a citizen gave me this pen and asked me to use this to sign in if I win the election in ’89. I didn’t win the election in ‘89, didn’t win in ‘94, didn’t win ‘98. In 2002 I won, but when I arrived here I had forgotten the pen and signed with a senator pen. In 2006, I signed with the Senate pen, and now I found the pen, and I do in honor of the people of Piaui state,” he said.

The newly inaugurated president and the first lady then traveled in an open car parade to attend a military honors ceremony outside the presidential palace.

Looming over the ceremony was the notable absence of Bolsonaro, who left Brazil for Florida on Friday and did not specify his return date.

His trip to the United States breaks with Brazilian convention of outgoing leaders being present at their successors’ inauguration ceremony. It came as Brazil’s government issued an ordinance on Friday authorizing five civil servants to accompany “future ex-president” Bolsonaro to Miami, Florida, between January 1 and 30, 2023.

Lula won a tight run-off race on October 30, in a stunning comeback that marked the return of the left in power in Brazil following four years of Bolsonaro’s far-right administration.

Lula accomplished a remarkable return to power after a series of corruption allegations that led to his imprisonment for 580 days. The Supreme Court later ruled it a mistrial, clearing his path to run for reelection.

After previously governing Brazil for two consecutive terms between 2003 and 2010, Lula will inherit a country with crippling debt and much higher levels of poverty than when he left office.

Bolsonaro’s former vice president, Hamilton Mourao, addressed the nation in a speech on national television this Saturday on the last day of his government and criticized leaders whose silence created “an atmosphere of chaos.”

“Leaders that should reassure and unite the nation around a project for the country allowed that silence to create an atmosphere of chaos and social division,” said Mourao, who added that the armed forces had to pay the bill. Since the election results, Bolsonaro had addressed the public only three times. He did not accept election results in those addresses, fomenting his radical base into believing the result could be reversed.

Lula vowed to rebuild the country, after thanking the “vow of trust given by the Brazilian people” during a speech addressing Congress.

“Today our message to Brazil is of hope and reconstruction,” Lula said. “If we are here today, it is thanks to the political conscience of Brazilian society, and the democratic coalition that we built during the campaign.”

Lula said that democracy was the biggest winner of the Brazilian election after his campaign was able to overcome a series of obstacles.

“Despite everything, the decision in the ballots prevails, thanks to an electoral system internationally recognized for its efficacy. It was fundamental the courageous attitude of the Judiciary, mostly from the Supreme Electoral Court,” Lula continued.

Lula proceeded his speech by criticizing the government of Bolsonaro, accusing the former president of using Brazil’s resources to further increase his power.

“The diagnosis we received from the transition cabinet is appalling. They emptied the resources for health, dismantled education, culture, science, they destroyed the environmental protections, haven’t left resources to school meals, vaccines, public security, forest protection and social assistance,” Lula said.

Violence has taken grip of the country with Bolsonaro yet to explicitly concede his election loss, despite his administration saying it is cooperating with the transition of power.

Security presence at Lula’s inauguration was high, as approximately 8,000 security agents from several security forces were mobilized Sunday, according to the Federal District’s security department.

Earlier on Sunday, a man was arrested in Brasilia after he was caught trying to get into the inauguration party carrying a knife and fireworks, the State Police of the Federal District said in a statement. The suspect traveled from Rio de Janeiro.

A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Wednesday ordered a four-day ban on carrying firearms in the capital that will run through the end of Sunday, as a precautionary measure ahead of the ceremony.

It will not apply to active members of the armed forces, policemen and private security guards, Judge Alexandre de Moraes wrote.

Lula da Silva’s team had requested the ban on firearms at the inauguration days after police arrested a man on suspicion of planting and possessing explosive devices at Brasilia International Airport.

The suspect, identified as 54-year-old gas station manager George Washington de Oliveira Sousa, is a Bolsonaro supporter and told police in a statement, seen by CNN, that he intended to “create chaos” so as to prevent Lula from taking office again in January.

Moraes’ ban came into force as thousands of Bolsonaro supporters have gathered at military barracks across the country in protest of the election result, asking the army to step in as they claim, with no evidence, that the election was stolen.

Bolsonaro condemned Sousa’s bombing attempt on Friday, saying “there is no justification” for a “terrorist act.”

“Brazil will not end on January 1, you can be sure about that,” the outgoing president said in reference to Lula’s inauguration date.

“Today we have a mass of people who know more about politics,” he added. “They understand they are at risk. Good will win. We have leaders all over Brazil. New politicians or reelected politicians, they will make a difference.”

Lula praised Brazil’s natural resources and promised a U-turn to his predecessor’s deforestation policy in the Amazon while aiming to maximize the country’s potential.

“No other country has the conditions Brazil has to become an environmental power. Having creativity, the bioeconomy and socio biodiversity enterprises as starting points, we will start the energy and ecology transition towards sustainable agriculture and mining activities, family agriculture and green industry. Our goal is zero deforestation in the Amazon, zero greenhouse gasses emissions,” Lula said during his address to Congress.

“We will not tolerate (…) the environmental degradation and deforestation that harmed the country so greatly. This is one of the reasons, albeit not the only one, for the creation of the indigenous people’s ministry,” Lula continued.

The new Brazilian president promised to address the inequality inflicted on minorities in the country by creating “the ministry of racial equality promotion to expand the affirmative action policy in universities and public service, as well as resuming policies for Black and brown people in the health, education and culture areas.”

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January 1, 2023
Guns temporarily banned from Brazil’s capital ahead of Lula da Silva’s inauguration | CNN

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A Brazilian Supreme Court judge on Wednesday issued a four-day ban on carrying firearms in the capital as a precautionary measure ahead of the January 1 inauguration of President-elect Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva.

In his ruling that temporarily suspends the licenses of registered gun owners, Judge Alexandre de Moraes wrote that “terrorist groups financed by shameless magnates” have been committing crimes against the rule of law in recent weeks, which is why public safety had to be made secure via a temporary firearms ban.

If a registered gun owner is caught in Brasilia with a firearm in those four days, they can be prosecuted for illegally carrying a weapon, according to the ruling.

Lula da Silva’s team had requested a ban on firearms at the inauguration days after police arrested a man on suspicion of planting and possessing explosive devices at Brasilia International Airport.

The suspect, identified as 54-year-old gas station manager George Washington de Oliveira Sousa, is a supporter of incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro and told the police in a statement, seen by CNN, that he intended to “create chaos” so as to prevent Lula da Silva from taking office again in January.

The firearms ban was to start on Wednesday at 6 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) and will run through the end of Sunday. It will not apply to active members of the armed forces, policemen and private security guards, Moraes wrote.

Even though Bolsonaro’s administration has said it is cooperating with the transition of power, the far-right leader has stopped short of explicitly conceding his election loss on October 30. In protest, thousands of his supporters have gathered at military barracks across the country, asking the army to step in as they claim, with no evidence, that the election was stolen.

According to the police statement, Sousa arrived in Brasilia from his home state of Para on October 12 to join other Bolsonaro supporters, who were camped in front of the Armed Forces headquarters in the city.

Sousa said he was inspired by President Bolsonaro to spend over $30,000 to purchase the guns and ammunition, according to his statement. CNN has reached out to Bolsonaro for comment.

Violence has flared in the country ahead of Lula da Silva’s inauguration.

In mid-December, protesters clashed with police in the capital Brasilia as they attempted to break into a federal police building following the arrest of an outspoken Bolsonaro supporter.

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December 28, 2022
Brazil Is Back As A Climate Leader, Former Environmental Minister Says

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SHARM el-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — Marina Silva, a former environmental minister and potential candidate for the job again, on Saturday brought a message to the U.N. climate summit: Brazil is back when it comes to protecting the Amazon rainforest, the largest in the world and crucial to limiting global warming.

The recent election of leftist President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva represents a potentially huge shift in how Brazil manages the forest compared to current President Jair Bolsonaro. Da Silva was expected next week to attend the conference known as COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Brazil’s president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and former environmental minister Marina Silva in September.

Silva said the fact that da Silva was coming to the summit, months before he assumes power Jan. 1, was an indication of the commitment of his administration to protect forests and take a leadership role on combating climate change. Da Silva was expected to meet with several heads of delegations.

“Brazil will return to the protagonist role it previously had when it comes to climate, to biodiversity,” said Silva, who spoke with reporters at the Brazilian Climate Hub.

Brazil’s Marina Silva, a former environmental minister, speaks during a session at the Brazil Pavilion at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty

Bolsonaro, who was elected in 2018, pushed development of the Amazon, both in his actions and rhetoric. Environmental agencies were weakened and he appointed forest managers from the agribusiness sector. The sector opposes the creation of protected areas such as Indigenous territories and pushes for the legalization of land robbing. The deforested area in Brazil’s Amazon reached a 15-year high from August 2020 to July 2021, according to official figures. Satellite monitoring shows the trend this year is on track to surpass last year.

Upon winning the October elections, da Silva, president between 2003 and 2010, promised to overhaul Bolsonaro’s policies and move toward completely stopping deforestation, referred to as “Deforestation Zero.”

That will be a huge task. While much of the world celebrates policies that protect the rainforest in Brazil and other countries in South America, there are myriad forces pushing for development, including among many Amazon dwellers. And Da Silva, while much more focused on environmental protection compared to Bolsonaro, had a mixed record as president. Deforestation dropped dramatically during the decade after Da Silva took power, with Marina Silva as environment minister. But in his second term, Da Silva began catering to agribusiness interests, and in 2008 Marina Silva resigned.

An area of forest on fire near a logging area in the Transamazonica highway region, in the municipality of Humaita, Amazonas state, Brazil, Sept. 17, 2022.

In recent weeks, news reports in Brazil have focused on a possible alliance between Brazil, the Congo and Indonesia, home to the largest tropical forests in the world. Given the moniker “OPEC of the Forests,” in reference to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and the way they regulate oil production, the general idea would be for these three countries to coordinate their negotiating positions and practices on forest management and biodiversity protection. The proposal was initially floated during last year’s climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, according to the reports.

When asked for details on any alliance, including whether it might be announced during the second week of the summit, Silva demurred, making clear that any such announcement wasn’t hers to make.

“We don’t want to be isolated in our protection of forests,” she said more generally, adding that Brazil wanted forest management to be coordinated among “mega forest countries” but wouldn’t try to impose its will.

Silva won a seat in Congress in October’s elections. A former childhood rubber-tapper who worked closely with murdered environmentalist Chico Mendes, she has moral authority when it comes to environmental issues and is one of a handful of people talked about as a possible minister in da Silva’s government.

While making clear she was not speaking for the president-elect, Silva shared details of what she thought would be part of the next administration. She said Brazil would not take the position that it “had to be paid” to protect its forests, a position that Bolsonaro’s administration has taken.

Brazil would not undertake the kind of large energy projects that it did in the past under Da Silva’s first terms, like a major hydropower dam, but instead would focus on a shift to renewable energies like solar. Along the same lines, she said there would be a push to transition state oil company Petrobras from a focus on oil to a focus on renewable energies.

“We need to use those (oil) resources, which are still needed, to do a transition to other forms of energy and not perpetuate the model” of a company focus on oil, she said.

Silva said Brazil would participate in carbon offsets markets, but that they needed to have “rigorous” oversight, something that arguably isn’t the case currently. Such carbon credits allow companies and countries to offset some of their carbon emissions by paying for activities that capture carbon, like planting trees.

Silva also said she had proposed a government body to focus on climate change, which presumably would be in addition to the environmental ministry. She said the idea would be to have close regulation of climatic changes so things could be addressed in real time, such as greenhouse gas leaks, or weaknesses in climate policy. She made a comparison to the way that governments always keep a close watch on inflation.

“The idea is to avoid climate inflation,” she said.

Associated Press writer Diane Jeantet contributed to this story from Rio de Janeiro.

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November 12, 2022
Brazil’s Bolsonaro offers no concession as leftist Lula declared presidential election winner

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Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s former president and president-elect, center, addresses supporters after winning the runoff presidential election in Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 30, 2022.

Tuane Fernandes/Bloomberg/Getty

Sao Paulo — Brazilian president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called for “peace and unity” after narrowly winning a divisive runoff election Sunday, capping a remarkable political comeback by defeating far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, who has yet to accept defeat.

The victory marks a stunning turnaround for the charismatic but tarnished leftist heavyweight, who left office in 2010 as the most popular president in Brazilian history, fell into disgrace when he was imprisoned for 18 months on controversial, since-quashed corruption charges, and now returns for an unprecedented third term at age 77.

All eyes will now be on how Bolsonaro and his supporters react to the result after months of alleging — without evidence — that Brazil’s electronic voting system is plagued by fraud and that the courts, media and other institutions had conspired against his far-right movement.

“This country needs peace and unity,” Lula said to loud cheers in a victory speech in Sao Paulo.

“The challenge is immense,” he said of the job ahead, citing a hunger crisis, the economy, bitter political division, and deforestation in the Amazon.

He later addressed a tightly packed crowd of hundreds of thousands of supporters who flooded the city center clad in Workers’ Party red, vowing: “democracy is back.”

Bolsonaro, 67, was silent in the hours after the result was declared.

Incumbent Jair Bolsonaro of Liberal Party (PL) casts his vote at Vila Militar district on October 30, 2022 in Brasilia, Brazil.

BRUNA PRADO / Getty Images

“Anywhere in the world, the losing president would already have called to admit defeat. He hasn’t called yet, I don’t know if he will call and concede,” Lula told the massive crowd.

Some Bolsonaro supporters, gathered in the capital Brasilia, refused to accept the results.

“The Brazilian people aren’t going to swallow a faked election and hand our nation over to a thief,” said 50-year-old teacher Ruth da Silva Barbosa.

Electoral officials declared the election for Lula, who had 50.9 percent of the vote to 49.1 percent for Bolsonaro with more than 99.9 percent of polling stations reporting, in the closest race since Brazil returned to democracy after its 1964-1985 dictatorship.

Bolsonaro, the vitriolic hardline conservative dubbed the “Tropical Trump,” becomes the first incumbent president not to win re-election in the post-dictatorship era.

With no word from Bolsonaro, some of his key allies appeared in public to accept the results. They included the speaker of the lower house of Congress, Arthur Lira, who said it was time to “extend a hand to our adversaries, debate, build bridges.”

I send my congratulations to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his election to be the next president of Brazil following free, fair, and credible elections. I look forward to working together to continue the cooperation between our two countries in the months and years ahead.

— President Biden (@POTUS) October 31, 2022

Congratulations for Lula poured in from U.S. President Joe Biden, as well as the French, British and other European leaders, and from the Russian and Chinese governments. Leaders from across Latin America also offered their congratulations.

Lula supporters around the country erupted into celebration Sunday evening.

“We’ve had four years of a genocidal, hateful government,” said Lula voter Maria Clara, a 26-year-old student, at a victory party in downtown Rio.

“Today democracy won, and the possibility of dreaming of a better country again.”

In Brasilia, the tearful crowd of Bolsonaro supporters — outfitted in green and yellow, the colors of Brazil’s flag which the ex-army captain has adopted as his own — fell to their knees to pray.

Bolsonaro surged to victory four years ago on a wave of outrage with politics as usual, but came under fire for his disastrous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic — which left more than 680,000 dead in Brazil — as well as a weak economy, his polarizing style and attacks on democratic institutions.

Brazil struggles to combat coronavirus infections

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Regardless of how the incumbent reacts, Lula will face huge challenges when he is inaugurated on January 1.

Bolsonaro’s far-right allies scored big victories in legislative and governors’ races in the first-round election on October 2, and will be the largest force in Congress.

On Sunday, Bolsonaro’s former infrastructure minister Tarcisio de Freitas clinched the governorship of Sao Paulo, the most populous and the wealthiest state in the country.

In his victory speech, Lula touched on gender and racial equality and the urgent need to deal with a hunger crisis affecting 33.1 million Brazilians.

“Today we tell the world that Brazil is back,” he said, adding that the country is “ready to reclaim its place in the fight against the climate crisis, especially the Amazon.”

He vowed to “fight for zero deforestation.”

Lula inherits a deeply divided country, with a hugely difficult global economic situation that looks nothing like the commodities “super-cycle” that allowed him to lead Latin America’s biggest economy through a watershed boom in the 2000s.

Lula’s win is “one of the biggest comebacks in modern political history,” tweeted Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly.

But the president-elect will face a hostile Congress and have “a weak government,” Winter told AFP.

None of that mattered for the time being to elated Lula supporters.

“Brazil is starting to stand upright again after four years of darkness. We were going through so many problems, so much fear,” Larissa Meneses, a 34-year-old software developer, told AFP at a joyful victory party in Sao Paulo.

“Now with Lula’s victory, I really believe things will start getting better. This is a day to laugh a lot.”

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October 31, 2022