The situation in Brazil has changed radically since I wrote this a week ago. Most obviously, the protests are much bigger, perhaps around 200 times bigger. Importantly, many of the 5,000 people I was on the street with last Thursday no longer have much do with what we’re seeing on the streets, and the original(…)
Arquivo - Tag: Politics
Video part 4 – Rio de Janeiro
Dom Phillips has returned to Rio de Janeiro, and sent in this video of protests there last night. He says the group there was more diverse, less dominated by the upper middle class than the protests in São Paulo – in Rio it was “the povão – periferia, favela, middle class, everyone.”
São Paulo protests: the wind changes direction
Since Claire Rigby grippingly described the nightmare scenes on the street in São Paulo a week ago, things have changed. Last night’s demo had a festive atmosphere, a multiplicity of often confusing demands – and a small group attacking the left-wing parties that had formed the core of the smaller protests last week. By Claire Rigby(…)
Videos 2 and 3 – Protests explode, São Paulo
After the excellent video Dom Phillips and Otavio Cury sent in to From Brazil on Monday’sprotest, we have two more. All with English subtitles. Above, an extended interview with a lower middle class protester, and below, as the New York Times Lede Blog called it, a wordless glimpse of the energy on São Paulo’s(…)
Video – Protests explode, São Paulo
Dom Phillips and Otavio Cury were at the protests here in São Paulo last night (June 17), taking in the scenes and exploring the diverse reasons people took to the streets. In Portuguese, with subtitles in English.
Luís Barroso, new man on Brazil’s supreme court
Dom Phillips spoke to Barroso in March and found him an impressively clever and composed man. He is a critic of Congress, which is in a power struggle with the Court, relatively liberal on social issues, and pro-market. By Dom Phillips New Supreme Court judge Luís Barroso, 55, landed in a hot seat when he was(…)
Virada Cultural – pride of São Paulo
São Paulo’s Virada Cultural, a 24-hour mega-party featuring more than 900 acts, put the best and the worst of São Paulo on display last weekend. Despite headlines dominated by crime, Claire Rigby had a great time, alongside millions of others, and argues that these kinds of events should be a source of pride for the(…)
Against Feliciano, an extraordinary human rights commission
Marco Feliciano, a man accused of homophobia and racism, has bizarrely managed to take over as Brazil’s human rights commissioner. So the progressive movements coalescing on the streets of downtown São Paulo set up their own commission, above. By Claire Rigby ‘Life’s too short to live in São Paulo’. So says a piece of graffiti currently(…)
Congress vs. the Supreme Court
After months of conflict, some in Congress (above) proposed a surprising bill to limit Supreme Court powers. It was quickly laughed aside, but we do still have an interesting fight over Brazil’s messy democracy on our hands. A battle has been heating up between two branches of Brazil’s government. So far, it’s culminated in legislative(…)
Last weekend’s municipal elections – win for Lula, and a messier party system
Fernando Haddad, Lula and Dilma’s man, will run São Paulo. But across the country, the sprawling multi-party system became even more complicated. By last Sunday every city in Brazil had selected a new mayor. This will affect everyone here differently, as they will be governed at the local level by one of the 19 –(…)
