This year, the country didn’t deliver on everything international observers thought the country had promised, but Brazil still remains one of the 21st century’s most remarkable success stories. 2013 could be decisive. For those paying attention to Brazil headlines, 2012 was mostly a bad year. For some, it was enough to re-evaluate the status as(…)
Arquivo - Tag: Crime
Brazilian Justice – front and center
Joaquim Barbosa, the new authority in Brazilian justice. Mensalão, The PCC, and Caso Bruno – the messy reality of Brazil’s justice system has dominated news recently. Despite obvious problems, some things seem to be improving. Last week, the Brazilian Minister of Justice said he would rather die than do time in the Brazilian prison system.(…)
What it feels like to take over a favela these days
Dom Phillips reports on the tension, cautious optimism, and small media circus involved in the recent invasion of the Manguinhos favela, one of the latest to be re-taken by the state. By Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro 2,000 heavily armed police and marines, with 13 armoured cars and helicopters, set off at dawn Sunday(…)
Comando Vermelho leader seeks voluntary amnesty program
I recently interviewed Marcelo Piloto, head of the Comando Vermelho drug-trafficking criminal faction in the Mandela favela in Northern Rio de Janeiro. In the interview, he asked me to announce that he and many others want to give themselves in and turn over their weapons and territory in return for amnesty. This was going to(…)
Eike Batista’s fall – what does it mean for Brazil?
Eike Batista, the man who very famously loved being Brazil’s richest, has now famously become a symbol of the problems in Brazil’s economy. Should that be the case? In this profile I did for the Los Angeles Times, sources explain that his catastrophic losses this year were in part related to his, erm, shall we(…)
How many more lives will the US-led “war on drugs” take?
Denis Russo Burgierman wrote a very interesting piece in today’s Folha de S.Paulo. I’m reproducing it below in full. These words are not mine – I’m just the translator. VB Heads of state from all the countries in the Americas will spend the weekend in the beautiful city of Cartagena das Índias, on the Colombian(…)
Thor Batista – how foreigners see Brazil
What does the case of Wanderson Pereira dos Santos tell us about Brazil? What does it mean that he was killed on his bicycle, struck by the car of the son of Brazil’s richest man? It depends where you’re from. An article by Simon Romero at the New York Times offers an insight into the(…)
Everything golden again for Brazil’s richest man
Things are looking a lot better for Eike Batista. Last week the world’s 8th-richest man was still helping defend his son, Thor, against charges he was at fault in a car accident that claimed the life of a cyclist. Neither Thor nor Eike denied that the 20-year old’s Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren struck 30-year old Wanderson Pereira(…)
