Brazil Watch Thread

[R8Z]

While foreigner "cientists" cheer, this is going on all over the country =)

[caltrek]

Ousted Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Begs Angry Supporters to ‘Respect the Rights of Other People'
by Brandon Gage
November 3, 2022

Introduction:

(Alternet) Brazil's soon-to-be-former President Jair Bolsonaro is encouraging his right-wing supporters to respect the results of Sunday's election, which he narrowly lost to leftist challenger and ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro garnered a reputation as the "tropical" Donald Trump – who endorsed him – due to his embrace of conspiracy theories surrounding non-existent election fraud and COVID-19 vaccines. Prior to the election, Bolsonaro had vowed to contest the results if he had lost to Lula, who previously led the planet's fourth-largest democracy from 2003 to 2011.

But as of Wednesday, with protests growing and his most ardent supporters clogging highways and calling for a military coup, Bolsonaro has backed off his threats and pleaded for his followers to respect the outcome. And while he has not officially conceded, Bolsonaro is cooperating with the transition of power. Lula's inauguration will take place on Sunday, January 1st, 2023.

“I know you’re upset and sad, that you hoped for a different outcome. I did too, I’m also sad and upset just like you," Bolsonaro said in a brief video address posted to Twitter. The translation from Portuguese into English was provided by The Daily Beast.

“We have to get our heads on straight," he continued, noting that while demonstrations are “part of the democratic process," “there’s something not okay this time," referring to the blocking of transportation arteries as “infringing on the rights of people laid out in our constitution.”

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/jair- ... e-rights/

[R8Z]

Here's the reason people wanted to have a fully auditable election and also the reason why the supreme court blocked an attempt from the legislative power to establish those this and the elections in the previous year.



Btw Bolso didn't say it himself that he accepted the election results; he asked some other dude to do it for him. He only said for people to stop blocking highways in their protests (btw 930 blockages were cleared by the federal police in the first day of clearing up).

As much as I despise Lula and his destructive policies, I am not sure what to believe in this election dispute yet. The evidence is getting hard to deny, specially as the committee took the results offline after a Live stream showing the above presentation today (which ironically was from an Argentina right-wing media company). The live at its peak had 500k+ watching. It was quickly scrubbed from YouTube and twitch by judicial order (you can't question the election results down here), but it can still be seen in Rumble by searching for "Brazil was stolen" (if anyone knows spanish or portuguese to be able to understand it).

[R8Z]

Finally!

[caltrek]

Before I post another article from an admittedly foreign based left-leaning source, I do feel the need to express my hope that the coming years with Lula as president will be free of government corruption. Yes, reasonable accommodations for free speech would also be desirable.

A Joyful March for Lula
by Laura Carlsen
November 6, 2022

Introduction:

(Janata Weekly) Tens of thousands of Brazilians marched in Sao Paulo Saturday in a final show of support for former president Lula da Silva before Sunday’s election. “March” is a far too military work to describe what was really a dance, a party, an explosion of hope.

For the soured mainstream media that has tried to depict this election as a choice between two evils, the enthusiasm belied the line that Lula’s supporters are simply voting against the current president, Jair Bolsonaro. Although the chant of JAIR OUT! repeated constantly on the route down the emblematic Avenida Paulista to the Roosevelt Plaza, just as often the crowd chanted, or rather sang, LU-LA, LU-LA and held up the thumbs and index fingers in the letter “L”.

All ages, colors and affiliations turned out for the march, favored with sunny skies until the end, when a downpour shortly after dark sent marchers into nearby bars and restaurants. Lula road on the top of a truck, with José Mujica at his side. He smiled, stretched out to shake hands with the crowd, signed baseball caps and t-shirts people tossed onto the truck and spoke briefly: Alongside him rode Fernando Hadad, candidate for SaoPaulo in a close race against the far right, and former Uruguayan president José Mujica—reminder that Lula the chance to see a consolidated second “pink Tide” this century, after progressives dominated South America in the early 2000s.

Thousands of flags with LULA HADAD and other slogans waved against blue skies. In buildings along the route people gathered on balconies and leaned out of windows far above to dangle LULA banners and shout approval. Passing cars honked their horns and accepted campaign stickers and flags through open windows. A cheer rose when new spread of a new poll showing Lula pulling farther ahead of Bolsonaro at 54% to 46%.

Voting is obligatory in Brazil, but the fine is minimal – far less than the cost of transportation for Brazilians who live in remote areas or can barely scrape together the cost of a bus ticket.

Read more here: https://janataweekly.org/a-joyful-march-for-lula/

[caltrek]

Report by Brazil’s Military on Election Count Cites No Fraud
by Diane Jeantet and Carla Bridi
November 10, 2022

Introduction:

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP via Latino Rebels) — The defense ministry has put out a report highlighting flaws in Brazil‘s electoral systems and proposing improvements, but there is nothing to substantiate claims of fraud from some of President Jair Bolsonaro’s supporters protesting his October 30 defeat.

The document released Wednesday was the first comment by the military on the runoff election, which has drawn protests nationwide even as the transition has begun for President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva‘s inauguration January 1. Thousands have been gathering outside military installations in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasilia, and other cities calling for intervention by the armed forces to keep Bolsonaro in office.

When the defense ministry announced this week that it would present its report on the election, some Bolsonaro supporters rejoiced, anticipating the imminent revelation of a smoking gun. That didn’t happen.

“There is nothing astonishing in the document,” Diego Aranha, an associate professor of systems security at Aarhus University in Denmark, who has been a member of the Brazilian electoral authority’s public security tests, told the Associated Press. “The limitations found are the same ones analysts have been complaining about for decades… but that doesn’t point to evidence of irregularity.”

Defense Minister Paulo Nogueira wrote that “it is not possible to say” with certainty the computerized vote tabulation system hasn’t been infiltrated by malicious code, but the 65-page report does not cite any abnormalities in the vote count. Based on the possible risk, however, the report suggests creating a commission comprised of members of civil society and auditing entities to further investigate the functioning of the electronic voting machines.

Read more here: https://www.latinorebels.com/2022/11/1 ... ionfraud/

[R8Z]

Before I post another article from an admittedly foreign based left-leaning source, I do feel the need to express my hope that the coming years with Lula as president will be free of government corruption. Yes, reasonable accommodations for free speech would also be desirable.

I feel it is a bit too late for free speech in Brazil. Yesterday one of my favorite YouTubers got his channel and Twitter account suspended in Brazil because he cited an Argentinean live which was showing some "statistical coincidences" in the election. Note that the dude didn't even question the election results (as this results in an instant judicial court case against you).

I am counting now at least a handful of politicians and high profile people that have questioned the status quo of the electoral system and were prosecuted like that. No wonder such a havoc started where people are demanding something from another power (be it the executive, military or the legislative) to help us.

Report by Brazil’s Military on Election Count Cites No Fraud
by Diane Jeantet and Carla Bridi
November 10, 2022

It also said that the software is basically a joke as far as security goes. It also says that the result is simply impossible to audit. It also says that they couldn't audit the source code as they didn't even have access to it. What an audit, right? Even without being able to see that they noticed that the compilation procedure had to reach for the network to grab additional libraries. Pretty safe.

I know that the process and software is like that (crap) as we've been shouting this onto the wind for far too long -- it's literally know to be like this for more than 15 years by now. Any electoral system that is fully based on software is flawed from the start on the trustfullness side (even if the code is perfect). Tom Scott has some great theoretical videos on the topic. My view? As a software developer and security consultant, it's clear that the entire thing is the way it is (a joke on security) on purpose but it is finally backfiring.

[caltrek]

Federal Deputy Juliana Cardoso Says Lula Must Save Brazil From Savage Capitalism
by Vijay Prashad & Zoe Alexandra

Introduction:

(Rozenberg Quarterly) Juliana Cardoso is sitting in her office in front of a lavender, orange, and yellow mandala that was made for her. She has been a member of São Paulo’s city council since 2008. On October 2, 2022, as a candidate for the Workers Party (PT), Cardoso won a seat in Brazil’s lower house, the Federal Chamber of Deputies.

She is wearing a t-shirt that bears the powerful slogan: O Brasil é terra indígena (Brazil is Indigenous land). The slogan echoes her brave campaign against the disregard shown by Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s 38th president defeated on October 30, towards the Indigenous populations of his country. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, Bolsonaro vetoed Law no. 14021 which would have provided drinking water and basic medical materials to Indigenous communities. Several organizations took Bolsonaro to the International Criminal Court for this action.

In April 2022, Cardoso wrote that the rights of the Indigenous “did not come from the kindness of those in power, but from the struggles of Indigenous people over the centuries. Though guaranteed in the [1988] Constitution, these rights are threatened daily.” Her political work has been defined by her commitment to her own Indigenous heritage but also by her deep antipathy to the “savage capitalism” that has cannibalized her country.

Savage Capitalism

Bolsonaro had accelerated a project that Cardoso told us was an “avalanche of savage capitalism. It is a capitalism that kills, that destroys, that makes a lot of money for a few people.” The current beneficiaries of this capitalism refuse to recognize that the days of their unlimited profits are nearly over. These people—most of whom supported Bolsonaro—“live in a bubble of their own, with lots of money, with swimming pools.” Lula’s election victory on October 30 will not immediately halt their “politics of death,” but it has certainly opened a new possibility.

New studies about poverty in Brazil reveal startling facts. An FGV Social study from July 2022 found that almost 63 million Brazilians—30% of the country’s population—live below the poverty line (10 million Brazilians slipped below that line to join those in poverty between 2019 and 2021).

Read more here: https://rozenbergquarterly.com/lula-mu ... -cardoso/

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

While foreigner "cientists" cheer, this is going on all over the country =)

I guess Brazil is still the one place where politics does not need so much theatre (though the theatre is helpful in its own way) due to an unsatisfied population unlike here in the USA. I guess this is what would happen here in the USA if the amount of massive investments in things like entertainment and all did not exist. I am not surprised with recent events from the Climate Change world that it has been selected as the main focus this year at COP 27 and I do not follow those folks as much. With the way tech will change everything I would be surprised if something like this does not happen at the small scale eventually here in the USA.

[R8Z]

Things are warming up here; here's a very brief description of what happened so far since my last post:

- some audits were conducted on the logs the voting machines produced;
- some mistakes were found (mostly: errors led to information disclosure and logs weren't printing the right id of the voting machine);
- as expected the election results were contested in the above failing voting machines (this would concede the election to the opposing candidate) by the candidate that lost the election (his coalition);
- the contestation wasn't accepted, tbh... the responsible judge didn't even read it, and he proceed to give a fine (sorta R$ 23mi) to the coalition (several parties) that pushed for the election to be evaluated;
- now the deputies have opened an investigation (CPI) to evaluate if the judge isn't proceeding as he should, not only because of the above but also because he has issued online bans (censored) and fines to far too many people already (all of the... wait for it... right-wing conservatives); some even had their passport confiscated/suspended;
- now we wait; maybe we will have a coup; maybe we will have nothing, maybe the above judge will get deposed/arrested; you can never be sure!

I am loving it; there's always something to come next

[erowind]

.

[caltrek]

Lula Aims to Create New Federal Police Unit to Curb Environmental Crimes in Brazil
by Kenny Stancil
December 1, 2022

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) The administration of leftist Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wants to establish a new Federal Police unit focused on deterring environmental crimes, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The news outlet cited Sen.-elect Flavio Dino, who is widely considered a top candidate to be Lula's next justice minister and currently runs the transition team's task force aimed at reducing violent crime, restricting gun ownership, and protecting the Amazon rainforest, roughly 60% of which is located in Brazil.

In an interview with Reuters, Dino said that "there is now a specific complexity of environmental crimes, in which there is, a kind of combo of crimes in the Amazon," referring to the interconnected nature of illegal deforestation, drug trafficking, money laundering, and gang violence. "We no longer have isolated environmental crimes."

"You have this sophistication and there is a transnationality, because it involves other countries in the Amazon," Dino continued. "So the idea is a specialized unit for greater efficiency and greater articulation with neighboring countries."

While environmental crimes are currently addressed by the Federal Police's organized crime department, Dino said that creating a new unit would be a "practical proposal, which shows a sense of priority for this environmental issue."

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... es-brazil

[caltrek]

Bolsonaro Contests Brazil Election Loss, Wants Votes Voided
by David Biller and Carla Bridi
November 23, 2022

Introduction:

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP via Latino Rebels) — More than three weeks after losing a reelection bid, President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday blamed a software bug and demanded the electoral authority annul votes cast on most of Brazil’s electronic voting machines, though independent experts say the bug doesn’t affect the reliability of results.

Such an action would leave Bolsonaro with 51 percent of the remaining valid votes—and a reelection victory, Marcelo de Bessa, the lawyer who filed the 33-page request on behalf of the president and his Liberal Party, told reporters.

The electoral authority has already declared victory for Bolsonaro’s nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and even many of the president’s allies have accepted the results. Protesters in cities across the country have steadfastly refused to do the same, particularly with Bolsonaro declining to concede.

Liberal Party leader Valdemar Costa and an auditor hired by the party told reporters in Brasilia that their evaluation found all machines dating from before 2020 —nearly 280,000 of them, or about 59 percent of the total used in the October 30 runoff— lacked individual identification numbers in internal logs.

Neither explained how that might have affected election results, but said they were asking the electoral authority to invalidate all votes cast on those machines.

Read more here: https://www.latinorebels.com/2022/11/2 ... election/

[caltrek]

Brazil’s Lula Picks Amazon Defender for Environment Minister
December 29, 2022

Introduction:

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) —Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced Thursday that Amazon activist Marina Silva will be the country's next minister of environment. The announcement indicates the new administration will prioritize cracking down on illegal deforestation even if it means running afoul of powerful agribusiness interests.

Both attended the recent U.N. climate conference in Egypt, where Lula promised cheering crowds “zero deforestation” in the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest and a key to fighting climate change, by 2030. “There will be no climate security if the Amazon isn't protected,” he said.

Silva told the news network Globo TV shortly after the announcement that the name of the ministry she will lead will be changed to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

Many agribusiness players and associated lawmakers resent Silva. That stems from her time as environment minister during most of Lula's prior presidency, from 2003 to 2010.

Lula also named Sonia Guajajara, an Indigenous woman, as Brazil’s first minister of Indigenous peoples, and Carlos Fávaro, a soybean producer, as agriculture minister.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/brazils ... minister/

[caltrek]

Jair Bolsonaro Leaves Brazil for Florida Ahead of Lula’s Inauguration
by Camilo Rocha
December 30, 2022

Introduction:

(CNN) São Paulo, Brazil — Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States on Friday, according to CNN Brasil, two days before the inauguration of his successor, President-elect Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva.

Bolsonaro took off from Brasília’s air base in a Brazilian Air Force plane. He was accompanied by advisers and first lady Michelle Bolsonaro, CNN Brasil reported.

“I’m on a flight, I’ll be back soon,” Bolsonaro told CNN Brasi

His decision to leave comes 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.

While it is unclear when Bolsonaro plans to return, his trip to the US may break with Brazilian convention of outgoing leaders being present at their successors’ inauguration ceremony. Lula da Silva is due to be inaugurated on Sunday.

Read more here: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/30/america ... ndex.html

[weatheriscool]

Lula sworn in as president to lead polarized Brazil
Source: AP

By DIANE JEANTET and CARLA BRIDI 6 minutes ago

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been sworn in as president in the capital, Brasilia, assuming office for the third time after thwarting outgoing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro’s reelection bid.

Lula was president from 2003-2010, and his return to power marks the culmination of a political comeback that is both thrilling supporters and enraging opponents in a fiercely polarized nation.

His presidency is unlikely to be similar to his previous two mandates, coming after the tightest presidential race in more than three decades in Brazil and resistance to his taking office by some of his opponents.

The leftist defeated far-right Bolsonaro in the Oct. 30 vote by less than 2 percentage points. For months, Bolsonaro had sown doubts about the reliability of Brazil’s electronic vote and his loyal supporters were loath to accept the loss.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsona ... osition_05

[R8Z]

The tranquility of taking the lead of country knowing that every single opposition you have is serving jail time or being prosecuted plus either banned or suspended from social networks. The only exceptions that aren't on the jail-list are the ones that fled the country to the US.

I will update this forum in the next 4 years on how "good" another communist-like leader is going to be for a Latam country like Brazil (like we don't really know what's going to happen to the economy).

[erowind]

.

[caltrek]

^^^Perhaps one of you would care to offer a definition of the word "communist." Personally, I would actually offer two. One for "communist" and the other for "Communist." The definitions would be radically different from each other. In this case, the capitalization of just one letter makes a huge difference. What I came here to post.


Brazil: Lula Swears In Cabinet Members, Inks First Decrees
by Pedro Rafael Vilela
January 3, 2022

Introduction:

(Eurasia Review) President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday (Jan. 1) swore in 37 cabinet members and signed the first acts of the new administration. At the ceremony, held at the Planalto presidential palace, 13 documents were inked, among which decrees and provisional measures.

The first measure brings a new structure to the president’s cabinet. Another makes it possible to keep the allowance under income transfer program Bolsa Família at a monthly BRL 600 per person, plus BRL 150 per child aged up to six. A major campaign promise made by the president, the move was only feasible after Congress passed a bill excluding the welfare program from the cap on public spending.

Lula also signed a measure that maintains the exemption of federal taxes on fuels, in addition to a decree on weapons. According to the new president’s office, this is the beginning of a revamp in Brazil’s arms control policy. Lula also inked an order granting the Office of the Comptroller-General 30 days to reconsider the undue secrecy imposed on public administration matters.

In the environmental arena, a number of decrees were signed, including documents that reinstate efforts to fight deforestation and illegal mining in the Amazon, and another that restores the Amazon Fund, with BRL 3 billion in international donations to combat environmental crime.

Other acts signed by Lula on his first day in office direct ministers to have government-run companies such as oil giant Petrobras, national post office company Correios, and public broadcasting organization EBC removed from privatization plans. Another stipulates that his secretariat should draft proposals to recreate a program to support collectors of recyclable materials.

Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/03012023 ... -decrees/

[wjfox]

Bolsonaro supporters storm Brazilian Congress

2 minutes ago

Supporters of Brazilian far-right ex-President Jair Bolsonaro have stormed Congress in the capital.

The dramatic scenes came a week after left-wing veteran Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's inauguration.

Supporters of Mr Bolsonaro - who refuse to accept that he lost the election - broke through barriers and entered the building in Brasília.

Police used tear gas but failed to repel the demonstrators, some of which smashed windows.

It is unclear if they are still in the building.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64204860