Thread: Lula may clinch Brazil election on Sunday

• Lula sacks head of Brazilian army after far-right insurrection

The head of the Brazilian army has been sacked by the country’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, after claims the commander tried to shield rightwing rioters from arrest after the 8 January insurrection in Brasília.

Gen Júlio Cesar de Arruda, who only took up the role in late December, was removed from his position on Saturday, nearly two weeks after supporters of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro brought havoc to Brazil’s capital in what Lula’s administration called a botched coup attempt.

Arruda, who some of Lula allies reportedly suspect is politically aligned with Bolsonaro, reportedly stopped police detaining suspected rioters who took refuge at an encampment outside Brasília’s army headquarters on the night of the attack.

“You are not going to arrest people here,” Arruda allegedly told Lula’s justice minister, Flávio Dino, according to the Washington Post.

That highly controversial decision is thought to have allowed scores of rightwing criminals to avoid capture after they ransacked Brazil’s presidential palace, supreme court and congress. And it has reinforced widespread suspicions that the uprising had at least some level of backing from members of Brazil’s armed forces.

Bolsonaro, a pro-gun former army captain who has spent decades cultivating ties with Brazil’s security forces, enjoys significant support among military and police officials. A number of military officials are reported to have encouraged and participated in the pro-Bolsonaro insurrection while Lula has said he suspects the rioters received inside help that enabled them to invade the presidential palace.

“Many people were complicit in this … many people in the military police were complicit. There were many people in the armed forces here inside [the palace] who were complicit,” the leftist political veteran told journalists in Brasília four days after the attack.

“This chap has managed to pollute the entire armed forces,” Lula added of Bolsonaro, who flew to the US on the eve of the 1 January inauguration and has refused to publicly concede defeat in last October’s election.

Lula has removed at least 80 military officials from their jobs in his administration in the last five days, according to the newspaper O Globo, in an apparent attempt to root out hardcore Bolsonaro backers.

Arruda will be replaced by Gen Tomás Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, the 62-year-old head of the south-eastern military command in São Paulo.

In a speech posted on social media on Friday, Ribeiro Paiva urged troops to respect the result of last October’s election, which Lula won by about 2m votes.

“It doesn’t matter [what the result of an election is], it must be respected … It might not always be what we want, but that doesn’t matter,” Ribeiro Paiva said, insisting the military would fulfil their mission whoever their commander-in-chief was.

One prominent Brazilian journalist, Lauro Jardim, claimed the immediate trigger for Arruda’s removal was his refusal to obey an order from Lula to sack Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp, Lt Col Mauro Cid, who who was put in charge of a specialist army battalion near Brasília in the dying days of Bolsonaro’s presidency.

“As the supreme commander of the armed forces, there was nothing else Lula could do,” Jardim wrote. “Either he sacked Arruda, or he could never again hope to have control of the armed forces.”

• Lula accuses Bolsonaro of genocide against Yanomami in Amazon

razil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has accused Jair Bolsonaro’s far-right administration of committing genocide against the Yanomami people of the Amazon, amid public outrage over a humanitarian catastrophe in the country’s largest Indigenous territory.

Lula visited the Amazon state of Roraima on Saturday to denounce the plight of the Yanomami, whose supposedly protected lands have been plunged into crisis by government neglect and the explosion of illegal mining.

“More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was a genocide. A premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government impervious to the suffering of the Brazilian people,” Lula tweeted on Sunday, one day after visiting an overcrowded clinic for Yanomami patients in Roraima’s capital, Boa Vista.

Lula’s justice minister, Flávio Dino, said he would order a federal police investigation into “strong indications” the Yanomami had suffered crimes including genocide – meaning the deliberate attempt to partially or completely destroy an ethnic, national, racial or religious group.

Horrifying photographs of emaciated Yanomami children and adults emerged on the eve of Lula’s trip, laying bare the scale of the health crisis facing the territory’s estimated 30,000 Indigenous inhabitants.

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In other news

• Brazil's Lula Works To Reverse Amazon Deforestation

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.

Wonder why. KFC?

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• Bolsonaro wants to extend his stay in Florida

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro wants to be a Florida man for a little longer.

Bolsonaro is seeking to extend his stay in Florida as authorities in his home country investigate him for alleged wrongdoing, including whether he inspired his supporters to storm government buildings in Brasilia.

Felipe Alexandre, co-founder of the law firm AG Immigration, said in a statement that he’s representing Bolsonaro in his visa application and that the former Brazilian president wants to stay in the U.S. for at least another six months.

The Financial Times reports that Bolsonaro is on an A-1 diplomatic visa, which is reserved for diplomats and heads of state.

Bolsonaro left Brazil for Florida in late December after he lost reelection to leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and has been staying at a home near Disney World in Orlando. Fans and supporters have frequently waited outside his Orlando-area residence to catch a glimpse or to greet him with food and words of praise. He was also spotted wandering around a local grocery store and eating at a KFC, sparking online jokes on Twitter.

But in early January, thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings in Brazil to protest the country’s October election results. The scene was eerily similar to the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol.

In the aftermath of the Brazilian protests, lawmakers in the U.S. called for Bolsonaro’s ouster from America.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.-N.Y.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) both called on the Biden administration to kick Bolsonaro out of the country while Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) told POLITICO the U.S. should comply with any valid extradition request to return the former Brazilian president.

In a letter dated Jan. 12 to President Joe Biden, almost 50 U.S. House members called on the president to examine whether Bolsonaro can legitimately stay in the country. The lawmakers also asked Biden to prevent Bolsonaro from taking refuge here.

“His peddling of disinformation, his failure to call on supporters to accept the results of the election, and his active calls to mobilize against democratic institutions incited thousands of protestors to storm government buildings and to participate in the violent acts on January 8 against Brazil’s pillars of democracy,” the letter stated.

Lula’s team seeks to recover investment grade by the end of 2026

While there are several alternatives on the table to replace Brazil’s main fiscal rule, a cap that limits public spending growth to the rate of inflation, the new Treasury chief said the main condition for the future fiscal anchor is that it open budget space for social investment while generating primary fiscal surpluses (which do not take interest payments into account).

“Reforms play an important role in bringing Brazil back to investment grade”said Ceron in an interview with BloombergNews and a local media outlet. “We are not that far from investment grade.”

Brazil lost its investment grade status, a seal granted by rating firms that certify a low probability of default, when Fitch Ratings downgraded the country to speculative grade in December 2015, three months after a similar move S&P Global.

The decisions came after the president Dilma Rousseff he relaxed the goals of fiscal savings in the midst of an economic crisis and the risk of his impeachment, which occurred the following year.

But Brazil has now taken a different direction, says Ceron.

Although Lula will keep his promise to boost social spending, the current spending that is required for the normal functioning of the Government will be reviewed “more rigorous” and public revenue should rise to 19% of gross domestic product (GDP), roughly the same level it was at in 2022 before a series of tax breaks granted by the Jair Bolsonaro Administration.

An income tax reform is another way to give credibility to Brazil’s finances without ignoring social demands, Ceron said. Discussion of that reform, which Haddad plans to bring to lawmakers in the second half of the year, could include the dividend tax, a proposal that the previous government tried but failed to pass in Congress.

The secretary also said that the Treasury is moving forward with a plan to issue sovereign bonds linked to ESG (environmental, social and corporate governance) projects.

“We are closely watching the ESG-linked issuance and evaluating that possibility,” Ceron said, adding that the plan is for the government to issue such bonds, helping private companies in sectors such as energy to raise funds in international markets.

In the domestic debt market, the Treasury’s strategy remains to lengthen maturities as a way to reduce risk, he said. Extending the maturity of public debt also reduces the impact of changes in the central bank’s reference interest rate on the cost of public debt.

• Bolsonaro attended meeting about plot to keep him in power, senator says

A close ally of Jair Bolsonaro has turned against Brazil’s former president, claiming that an aide to the far-right leader tried to “coerce” him into joining a conspiracy to annul the October elections and keep Bolsonaro in power.

Senator Marcos do Val claimed at a news conference on Thursday that he was invited to a meeting on 9 December with the then president by a fellow member of congress, Daniel Silveira, to discuss a plan to “save Brazil” .

At the meeting, Silveira allegedly asked Do Val to try to induce the country’s top electoral authority, the supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes, into making compromising comments in a taped telephone conversation.

The recording would then be used to have De Moraes arrested, and prevent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from taking over as president on 1 January, Do Val claimed.

Bolsonaro “sat in silence” while Silveira laid out the plot, said Do Val, who claimed that he had refused to join the conspiracy.

The explosive allegations came as Silveira was arrested in the state of Rio de Janeiro on Thursday morning on De Moraes’s orders, having lost his parliamentary immunity with the end of his term a day earlier.

De Moraes accuses Silveira, a hardcore Bolsonaro supporter who has previously been detained for threatening the electoral officials, of disobeying court orders and “complete disrespect and mockery” of the judiciary.

De Moraes has ordered Do Val to testify before federal police within five days as part of the investigation into the former president’s alleged attempt to subvert democracy, Reuters reported.

Do Val’s allegations add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that Bolsonaro sought to overturn the results of the October elections, which Lula won by a slim margin. Bolsonaro has still not officially conceded.

These attempts seemingly culminated in the 8 January attack on the capital, Brasília, in which thousands of Bolsonaro supporters ransacked government buildings in what is being treated as an attempted power grab.

In the days following the insurrection, police found a draft decree in the house of Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro’s former justice minister and the Brasília security chief at the time of the attacks. Analysts say the document could have been used to pave the way for a military coup. Torres is under arrest and due to give evidence to the police on Thursday.

Bolsonaro himself is being investigated as a possible “intellectual author” of the attacks, while authorities are also scrutinising the role of the security forces, amid widespread evidence of collusion with the 8 January rioters.

Do Val initially made the allegations during a Instagram live on Wednesday night, and an account of the alleged plot was published by the rightwing magazine Veja on Thursday, before Do Val gave his press conference.

Under the headline “Indecent Proposal” Veja reported that Bolsonaro told Do Val that the national intelligence agency and presidential security cabinet were on board with the plan to entrap De Moraes.

Do Val gave a different account at the press conference on Thursday, saying that Silveira did all the talking in the meeting and that there was no mention of the two security agencies.

A military officer and trainer of elite security teams with a strong social media presence, Do Val was elected for an eight-year term as senator in 2018 riding the conservative wave that brought Bolsonaro to power.

He was a staunch ally of the previous government in congress. Following his allegations on Wednesday night, he said on social media that he planned to “definitively” leave politics.

Do Val is so far the closest Bolsonaro ally to have turned against the former president – a sign of his growing isolation. The far-right leader is holed up in Orlando, having fled to the US before Lula’s inauguration, and recently applied for a six-month tourist visa.

At a fundraising event in Florida on Wednesday, Bolsonaro told a crowd of supporters that he plans to remain involved in Brazilian politics. According to political commentators in Brazil, however, members of his Liberal party believe he has lost any chance of trying to return to the presidency at the next election, in 2026.

In a further indication of Bolsonaro’s diminished political clout, his candidate for the senate presidency, Rogério Marinho, lost to the Lula-backed Rodrigo Pacheco in an internal election on Wednesday.

Police plan to take Do Val’s testimony as part of their investigations into the 8 January insurrection. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president’s eldest son, said in congress on Thursday that the meeting described by Do Val “does not constitute any type of crime”.

In a statement later, Flávio Bolsonaro said there was never any coup attempt and that his father is a “defender of law and order and has always played within the four lines of the Constitution.”

During the inaugural session of the supreme court on Wednesday, Chief Justice Rosa Weber said:“[This court’s values] will never be touched or crushed by barbarity, and nor will its judges be intimidated by barbarity.”

Originally Posted by OhOh

Lula Won't Send Arms to Ukraine

Oh noes . . . Ukraine is done for.

What makes people like you think it is a for or against statement whether or not entities do one thing or another?

Brazil's Lula to restart housing program for low-income families

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will this month restart the federal housing program "Minha Casa, Minha Vida" for lower income people, his chief of staff said on Sunday.

Rui Costa said on TV GloboNews that the announcement will be made on Feb. 14 in Bahia state as part of several trips by the leftist president until March to initiate programs that boost the economy and quickly benefit the population.

The focus of the housing program, which means "my home, my life", would be on the resumption of unfinished works and on one that involves greater government subsidy, Costa said.

According to Costa, the program had been "extinct" under the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Now, around 120,000 unfinished units will be resumed, he said.

Created in 2009 during Lula's second presidential term, the program offers federal subsidies for home ownership, boosting works carried out by homebuilders such as MRV MRVE3.SA and Tenda TEND3.SA.

Costa also said that the president would visit the state of Sergipe on Feb. 15 to resume a highways program.

• Lula goes to Washington eyeing a ‘new era’ in US-Brazil relations

Brazil’s president will join Joe Biden for talks in US capital Friday amid political turmoil, deep divisions at home.

Newly elected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will seek to “kickstart a new era of relations” with the United States during talks with his US counterpart Joe Biden at the White House, analysts and Brazilian officials say, but ideological differences are likely to persist.

Da Silva, commonly known as Lula, will meet with Biden on Friday in the left-wing leader’s first official visit to the US after he narrowly defeated Brazil’s former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, in an October run-off election.

The visit, which will come just weeks after Lula was sworn in at the beginning of January, underscores “how much importance” the Brazilian president places on his country’s relationship with the US, said Filipe Nasser, a senior adviser to Brazil’s foreign minister.

Speaking during a panel discussion on Tuesday organised by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a US-based think tank, Nasser said the timing of Lula’s trip “reflects how big a moment this is for Brazil-US relations”.

“I think this is an opportunity for the leaders to establish or re-establish a personal rapport between them,” he said.

While in office, Bolsonaro had expressed admiration for former US President Donald Trump, with whom he had close ties and often emulated, earning him the nickname, “Tropical Trump”.

The ex-Brazilian army captain also failed to quickly recognise Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump, who had falsely claimed the US vote was marred by widespread fraud, raising tensions between the two countries.

Before Friday’s talks, the White House said Lula and Biden would discuss “the United States’ unwavering support of Brazil’s democracy and how the two countries can continue to work together to promote inclusion and democratic values in the region and around the world”.

Biden rapidly acknowledged Lula’s victory on October 30, however, describing the vote as “free, fair, and credible” and adding that Washington looked forward to working with the new Brazilian government.

In addition to promoting democracy, the White House said Biden and Lula on Friday also were expected to discuss a range of common challenges, “including combatting climate change, safeguarding food security, encouraging economic development, strengthening peace and security, and managing regional migration”.

Nasser, the Brazilian foreign ministry adviser, noted that while Brazil “is firmly [in] the democratic camp”, Brasilia and Washington do not always see eye-to-eye on how support for democratic ideals should be applied abroad.

“We’re also very cognizant of the need to respect other countries’ national sovereignty and the sacred principle of non-interference in domestic affairs of third countries,” he said during this week’s panel discussion.

Nasser said the US and Brazilian governments can find common ground on many things – from climate change and environmental protection, to the fight against hunger and racial discrimination – while also acknowledging that they will not necessarily see every issue in “the same light”.

“That’s why the leaders are meeting,” he said, “to compare notes and see where they can agree … and where [they can’t].”

Lula wants to mirror Amazon’s lessons in all biomes, but challenges await

Between 2004 and 2012, Brazil was able to slash deforestation by nearly 84% with a series of policies known as PPCDAm, a major instrument in reducing environmental destruction in the Amazon Rainforest.

Built on a three-pronged strategy centered on land-use planning, environmental monitoring and fostering sustainable production, PPCDAm created 44 million hectares (108.7 million acres) of Indigenous lands and 25 million hectares (61.8 million acres) of conservation units, and it also reinforced a crackdown on environmental crime, which led to the issue of more than 41,000 fines totaling $3.9 billion.

Thanks to these measures, deforestation rates in the Amazon fell from 27,772 square kilometers (10,723 square miles) in 2004 — the second-highest rate since monitoring began in 1988 — to 4,571 square kilometers (1,765 square miles) in 2012, the lowest level ever recorded. A study from the University of Brasília found that the implementation of PPCDAm saved a total of 196,000 km² (75,676 mi²) of forest from being cleared between 2005 and 2015, an area equivalent to more than twice the size of Portugal.

Now, Brazil’s new president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and his environmental and climate change minister, Marina Silva, are applying the logic of PPCDAm to all local biomes — the Amazon rainforest, Cerrado savanna, Atlantic Forest, semi-arid Caatinga, Pampas grasslands and Pantanal wetlands — in a new decree that went into effect on Jan. 1.

Silva described the decree in a statement to Monbagay as a “necessary measure for Brazil to face the serious problem of deforestation and, consequently, be able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions as laid down in the Paris Agreement.”

Each biome will have its own action plan to tackle urgent issues such as deforestation, degradation, fires, land regularization, environmental crime and the promotion of sustainable economic development within each region.

“Other biomes suffer from the importance given to the Amazon, and this is an attempt to balance this,” José Augusto Morelli, an environmental analyst who used to run the Air Operations Center responsible for environmental monitoring at Brazil’s environmental agency IBAMA, told Mongabay by phone. “I’m very optimistic about what lies ahead if Brazil is able to effectively implement these plans.”

The Permanent Interministerial Commission for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation and Burning, chaired by Lula’s cabinet chief and composed of representatives from 19 ministries of the federal government, is responsible for ensuring the plans are implemented. The commission met officially for the first time on Feb. 8 to establish working subgroups, which have 45 days to present the strategy to reduce Amazon deforestation and 90 days to define the plans for the other biomes. The goal of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change is to have all sectoral plans in place by August.

• ‘A war society doesn’t see’: the Brazilian force driving out mining gangs from Indigenous lands

For the last four years Brazil’s rainforests bled. “They bled like never before,” said Felipe Finger as he prepared to venture into the jungle with his assault rifle to staunch the environmental carnage inflicted on the Amazon under the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

Moments later Finger, a mettlesome special forces commander for Brazil’s environmental protection agency, Ibama, was airborne in a single-engine helicopter, hurtling over the forest canopy towards the frontline of a ferocious war on nature and the Indigenous peoples who lived here long before Portuguese explorers arrived more than 500 years ago.

The group’s objective was Xitei, one of the most isolated corners of the Yanomami Indigenous territory on Brazil’s northern border with Venezuela. Tens of thousands of illegal miners devastated the region during Bolsonaro’s environmentally calamitous 2019-2023 presidency, hijacking Indigenous villages, banishing health workers, poisoning rivers with mercury, and prompting what his leftist successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has called a premeditated genocide.

As Finger’s aircraft swooped down into a muddy clearing beside a Yanomami village, a handful of those miners scurried into the forest in their wellies in an attempt to avoid capture.

The motors fuelling their clandestine cassiterite mining operation were still growling as members of his six-strong unit leapt from their helicopters and fanned out across an apocalyptic landscape of sodden craters and fallen trees.

“Illegal mining on Yanomami land is finished,” declared Finger, a camouflage-clad forest engineer turned rainforest warrior whose team has been spearheading efforts to evict the prospectors since early February.

The raid in Xitei was part of what has been hailed by the government as a historic drive to expel miners from Yanomami lands and rescue the Amazon after four years of chaos, criminality and bloodshed such as that which saw the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira murdered last June.

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Related

• Brazil launches operation to drive illegal miners from Yanomami lands

The Brazilian government has launched its campaign to drive tens of thousands of illegal miners from the country’s largest Indigenous reserve, with special-forces environmental operatives destroying aircraft and seizing weapons and boats during an operation deep in the Amazon’s Yanomami territory.

Members of Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama – with support from the Indigenous agency Funai and the newly created ministry for Indigenous peoples – launched the long-awaited operation on Monday, with troops establishing a base along the Uraricoera river. Wildcat tin ore and gold miners use the waterway – as well as dozens of illegal airstrips – to reach and supply their illegal outposts in Yanomami lands.

In a statement on Wednesday lunchtime, Brazil’s government said the environmental squad had destroyed a helicopter, an airplane and a bulldozer used by mining mafias to drive clandestine roads through the region’s jungles.

Footage of the raid showed the chassis of a helicopter smoldering near a patch of rainforest after it was torched by Ibama agents in order to prevent it being used again.

In December, the Guardian documented the existence of an illegal 75-mile “road to chaos” through Yanomami lands during a flyover with the Indigenous activist Sônia Guajajara, who weeks later was made Brazil’s first ever minister for Indigenous peoples.

On Tuesday evening, Guajajara said the new government of leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was determined to protect the nearly 30,000 Yanomami people living in Brazil from what authorities have called a “genocide”.

“The Yanomami want peace – that is all they want,” Guajajara told the television network GloboNews. “And this is what we are going to give them.”

Illegal goldminers known as garimpeiros began pouring on to Yanomami lands in the 1970s and 80s, after the 1964-85 military dictatorship urged impoverished Brazilians to populate a region they claimed foreign powers sought to seize.

A global outcry – which included Prince Charles condemning the “collective genocide” of the Yanomami – prompted government action. Tens of thousands of miners were removed from Yanomami lands in the early 1990s during a security operation called Selva Livre (Jungle Liberation). Brazil’s then president, Fernando Collor de Mello, created a supposedly protected 9.6m-hectare territory for the Yanomami which exists to this day.

However, the assault rekindled after the 2018 election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who publicly railed against how such a large expanse of mineral-rich land had been set aside for the Indigenous group.

During Bolsonaro’s four-year administration – during which Amazon deforestation soared and the environmental and Indigenous agencies were enfeebled – at least 25,000 miners are estimated to have flocked in to the Yanomami territory near the border with Venezuela, bringing violence and disease.

“It was a government of blood,” the Yanomami leader, Júnior Hekurari, said in a recent interview.

Lula’s new government, which began on 1 January, has vowed to reverse Bolsonaro era policies that caused havoc for Brazil’s environment and Indigenous communities.

“We will put a complete end to any kind of illegal mining. This can’t be simply through a law – it must be almost a profession of faith,” the veteran leftist told the Guardian during last year’s election campaign.

Is Lula just another corrupt scumbag?
Next elections please

Record deforestation in Brazil's Amazon for February: Agency

Brazil's National Space Agency data shows 62% increase compared to February 2022

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/environment...agency/2842686

Iranian Warships Docked In Brazil Bring Out The Monroe Doctrine

The Islamic Republic’s activities in the Americas have stirred new concerns amidst the recent landing of its warships in Brazil, making Iran’s presence a little too close for comfort to the Biden administration.
The international community hoped the US to invoke consequences to the evident show of force from Iran, using The Monroe Doctrine, a foreign policy position from the first half of the 19th century, stating that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers is considered a potentially hostile act against the United States.

Iranian Warships Docked In Brazil Bring Out The Monroe Doctrine

Lula can not be trusted!!!

JERUSALEM, March 2 (Reuters) - Israel on Thursday criticised Brazil's decision to grant berth to two Iranian warships in the face of U.S. pressure, and urged President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government to send them away.
The vessels docked in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. Reuters reported that Brazil had declined to admit them in January, in a goodwill gesture from Lula as he flew to Washington to meet U.S. President Joe Biden.

Israel urges Brazil to undock Iranian warships | Reuters

• Amazon deforestation drops 34% in first six months under Lula

After four years of rising destruction in Brazil’s Amazon, deforestation dropped by 33.6% during the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s term, according to new government satellite data.

From January to June the rainforest had alerts covering 2,650 sq km (1,023 sq miles), down from 4,000 sq km during the same period last year under former president Jair Bolsonaro. This year’s data includes a 41% plunge in alerts for June, which marks the start of the dry season when deforestation tends to jump.

“The effort of reversing the curve of growth has been reached. That is a fact: we reversed the curve; deforestation isn’t increasing,” João Paulo Capobianco, the environment ministry’s executive secretary, said during a presentation in Brasilia.

Capobianco noted that full-year results will depend on a few challenging months ahead. Still, the data is an encouraging sign for Lula, who campaigned last year with pledges to rein in illegal logging and undo the environmental devastation during Bolsonaro’s term.

The far-right leader weakened environmental authorities while his insistence on development of the Amazon region resonated with landgrabbers and farmers who had long felt maligned by environmental laws. They were emboldened, and Amazon deforestation surged to a 15-year high.

Thursday’s deforestation data comes from a system called Deter, managed by the National Institute for Space Research, a federal agency. It is an initiative mainly focused on detecting real-time deforestation. The most accurate deforestation calculations come from another system called Prodes, with data released only annually.

“Bottom line, we are prioritizing environmental law enforcement,” Jair Schmitt, head of environmental protection at Ibama, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

However, the continued shortage of personnel means the task hasn’t been easy, he said. Many Ibama agents retired and weren’t replaced during Bolsonaro’s administration, reflecting his effort to defang environmental authorities. Lula has committed to restoring the workforce, but the number of Ibama’s enforcement agents remains at its lowest in 24 years. For the entire country that is bigger than the contiguous U.S., there are just 700 agents, with 150 available for deployment.

Ibama has also strengthened remote surveillance, where deforestation is detected through satellite imagery, according to Schmitt. By cross-referencing with land records, it is possible to identify the owner of the area in many cases, leading to an embargo that restricts access to financial loans and imposes other sanctions.

Another strategy has been to seize thousands of illegally raised cattle within embargoed areas. It is effective because it inflicts immediate punishment, whereas fines are rarely paid in Brazil due to a slow appeals process, Schmitt said.

Rodrigo Agostinho, the head of Ibama, noted in the presentation Thursday that the value of fines imposed in the first half of the year jumped 167% from the 2019-2022 average, and the agency embargoed 2,086 areas — up 111%.

Improved deforestation data also reflect the change in rhetoric coming from the top, said Schmitt. Whereas Bolsonaro openly criticized Ibama and advocated for the legalization of deforested areas, Lula has said he will rebuild law enforcement and promised to expel invaders from protected areas.

It may be premature to celebrate the reversal in deforestation’s trend, however. According to satellite monitoring, there were 3,075 fires in the Amazon in June alone, which marks the beginning of the dry season — the most since 2007. The jump is due to the clearing of areas deforested in the second half of 2022, Schmitt said.

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Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

As of now, Bolsonaro has neither conceded nor congratulated his opponent.

• Amazon deforestation falls over 60% compared with last July, says Brazilian minister

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by at least 60% in July compared to the same month last year, the environment minister, Marina Silva, has told the Guardian.

The good news comes ahead of a regional summit that aims to prevent South America’s largest biome from hitting a calamitous tipping point.

The exact figure, which is based on the Deter satellite alert system, will be released in the coming days, but independent analysts described the preliminary data as “incredible” and said the improvement compared with the same month last year could be the best since 2005.

The rapid progress highlights the importance of political change. A year ago, under the far-right then president, Jair Bolsonaro, the Amazon was suffering one of the worst cutting and burning seasons in recent history. But since a new administration led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took power at the start of the year, the government has penalised land grabbers, mounted paramilitary operations to drive out illegal miners, demarcated more indigenous land and created more conservation areas.

The results will bolster Lula, Marina and other Brazilian hosts of an Amazon summit designed to strengthen regional cooperation that will take place in Belém on 8-9 August with the participation of eight rainforest nations: Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname.

Silva said the acute threat of the climate crisis, which has brought record heat to many South American countries, meant the summit had to be more than a show of unity; it needed to produce concrete and continuous results to ensure the Amazon did not reach a point where it starts to dry up and die off, which scientists have warned is drawing closer.

Silva cautioned that a single month based on preliminary satellite data does not represent a trend. A clearer picture may take a couple of years because the government’s annual tally runs from August to July, which means this year’s total will include the devastating last five months of Bolsonaro’s administration.

Amazon deforestation at six-year-low in Brazil after plunging 66% in July

Amazon rainforest nations gather in Brazil to forge shared policy

Leaders of the eight Amazon rainforest countries are gathering on Tuesday for the first time in 14 years, with plans to reach a broad agreement on issues from fighting deforestation to financing sustainable development.

The summit of Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (Acto) members in the Brazilian city of Belem could lead to a regional pact to stop deforestation by 2030, end illegal gold mining and cooperate on cross-border policing of environmental crime. The leaders are expected to announce the final agreement, known as the Belem Declaration, late on Tuesday afternoon.

Presidents from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Peru and Venezuela will attend, while Ecuador and Suriname will send other representatives.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged on the campaign trail in 2022 to convene the summit, as part of his bid to restore Brazil’s environmental leadership after deforestation soared under his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

A Brazilian government source, who was not authorised to speak to the media, said the Belem Declaration will likely include financing mechanisms for sustainable development, provisions for including Indigenous leaders in policymaking and shared strategies for tackling deforestation.

Whether an agreement can be reached on ending deforestation by 2030 will likely hinge on Bolivia, where destruction has soared recently due to fire and rapidly expanding farming.

The agreement is also likely to outline channels for sharing technology and for municipal governments to exchange best practices, the source said.

Acto executive director Carlos Lazary said the final agreement may include Brazil’s plans for a regional centre in Manaus where Amazon countries can coordinate police operations.

The final agreement is likely to protest what the region sees as unfair trade barriers implemented in the name of environmental protection, CNN Brasil reported, citing a leaked draft of the declaration. The European Union recently passed a law prohibiting companies from importing beef, soya, cocoa and other products linked to deforestation.

On Wednesday, Amazon country officials will meet leaders of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Indonesia, looking to issue a joint statement from the world’s three major rainforest basins. Norway and Germany, which have funded Amazon preservation, and France, which controls the Amazon territory of French Guiana, will also participate.

Catching up with Lula, the Amazon and other rainforests related news

• Brazilian president Lula pledges ‘new Amazon dream’ at rainforest summit

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has vowed to haul the Amazon out of centuries of violence, economic “plundering” and environmental devastation and into “a new Amazon dream”, at the start of a major regional summit on the world’s largest rainforest.

Addressing South American leaders gathered in the Brazilian city of Belém, Lula offered a bold blueprint for the future of the Amazon, a 6.7m sq km region that is home to nearly 50 million people spread across eight countries and one territory.

The Brazilian leftist promised to repair his country’s environmental and international reputation after four “disastrous” years under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, during which the rainforest and Indigenous communities came under growing attack. “Thankfully … we have managed to turn this sad page in our history,” said Lula, who took power in January after thwarting Bolsonaro’s re-election plans.

Lula pledged to promote an ambitious model for the rainforest region – 60% of which lies within Brazil – in which environmental protection was accompanied by desperately needed social inclusion, economic growth and technological innovation.

“The rainforest is neither a void that needs occupying nor a treasure trove to be looted. It is a flowerbed of possibilities that must be cultivated,” Lula told the audience, which included the presidents of fellow Amazon nations Bolivia, Colombia and Peru, as well as the prime minister of Guyana and Venezuela’s vice-president.

Pledging to achieve zero deforestation by 2030, Lula said: “The Amazon can be whatever we want it to be: an Amazon with greener cities, with cleaner air, with mercury-free rivers and forests that are left standing; an Amazon with food on the table, dignified jobs and public services that are available to all; an Amazon with healthier children, well-received migrants [and] Indigenous people who are respected … This is our Amazon dream.”

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• ‘Nature needs money’: Lula tells rich countries to pay up and protect world’s rainforests

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has told developed countries to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to protecting the world’s remaining tropical forests, as major rainforest nations demanded hundreds of billions of dollars of climate financing and a greater role in how those resources are spent.

“It’s not Brazil that needs money. It’s not Colombia that needs money. It’s not Venezuela. It’s nature,” Lula told journalists on the second day of a major environmental summit in the Amazon city of Belém.

For two centuries, industrialized nations filled the world’s atmosphere with pollution, Lula declared, “and they now need to pay their bit to restore part of that which was wrecked”.

“It’s nature that needs money. It’s nature that needs financing,” added the 77-year-old leftist.

Lula’s appeal came after hours of meetings between the leaders of the Amazon’s eight nations and representatives of fellow rainforest nations, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Indonesia. Brazil, Indonesia and the DRC are home to 52% of the world’s remaining primary tropical forests, vast carbon sinks which play a critical role in efforts to control climate change.

Lula said the fledgling rainforest bloc had a simple message to those “rich countries” in the lead up to November’s Cop28 summit in Dubai: “If they want to effectively preserve what is left of the forests, they must spend money – not just to take care of the canopy of the trees but to take care of the people who live beneath that canopy and who want to work, to study and to eat and … to live decently.”

“It’s by taking care of these people that we will take care of the forest,” Lula added.

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• Amazon leaders fail to commit to end deforestation by 2030

Amazon leaders have called on rich countries to help them develop a Marshall-style plan to protect the world’s largest rainforest – but stopped short of committing to zero deforestation across the biome by 2030 amid divisions over oil extraction.

In a joint declaration at the end of a two-day summit in the Brazilian city of Belém on Wednesday, the eight South American countries that are home to the Amazon rainforest said ensuring its survival could not be solely up to them, as resources from the forest were consumed globally.

Members of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization did not agree a shared commitment to end deforestation this decade, which had been hoped for in the run-up to the regional meeting.

The countries were unable to agree a united position on the role of extractive industries in the region such as beef, oil and mining, which are the primary drivers of its destruction.

But they signalled they would work together to ensure the forest’s survival through sustainable economic development, appealing for extra resources from industrialised countries to do so before Cop28. Brazil and Colombia have reported falling deforestation rates under new leadership in the past 12 months.

In the declaration, Amazon leaders called for debt relief in exchange for climate action, agreed to strengthen regional law enforcement cooperation to crack down on human rights violations, illegal mining and pollution, and urged industrialised countries to comply with obligations to provide financial support to developing countries.

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, told delegates at the closing of the summit: “The forest unites us. It is time to look at the heart of our continent and consolidate, once and for all, our Amazon identity.

“The Amazon is our passport to a new relationship with the world, a more symmetric relationship, in which our resources are not exploited to benefit few, but rather valued and put in the service of everyone.”
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• Lula's plan to expand internet access in Amazon region takes shape

Three million Brazilians who live in the Amazon region now have internet access thanks to an underwater fiber optic cable that's part of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's plan to expand connectivity in remote areas.

Details: Lula said on Monday that the fiber optic cables are part of a proposal to "care for the jungle, water and fauna, but also for the people" who call the rainforest home, Marina writes.

• He said having internet access will help get health clinics online and increase the reach of telehealth to communities otherwise too remote to reach.
• According to Brazil's Communication Ministry, using the rivers for the optic cables will also avoid having to cut down trees to install wires.

The big picture: The project was unveiled Monday, just before leaders from eight nations that border the Amazon rainforest are scheduled to meet for a summit.

• The summit will be the first time since 2009 that the leaders of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela meet specifically to talk about Amazon conservation.
• The leaders are expected to discuss deforestation, illegal mining and threats against Indigenous communities.
• Lula said he plans to pitch extending the internet cables through the other countries' parts of the rainforest.

Brazil has right wing domestic terrorists.

• Far-right fanatic given 17 years for role in Brazil coup attempt

Brazil’s supreme court has sentenced a far-right fanatic to 17 years in prison for his role in the failed attempt to topple the country’s leftwing government on 8 January this year.

Aécio Lúcio Costa Pereira, 51, a sanitation worker from São Paulo, was the first rioter to face trial for January’s dramatic assault on Latin America’s largest democracy.

Hundreds more will find themselves in the dock in the coming months to face charges over what the supreme court’s president, Rosa Weber, called Brazil’s “day of disgrace”.

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Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I am concerned about Bolsonaro's absolute silence for the last two weeks.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Still no public concession.

• Brazilians applaud Lula’s return to diplomacy as he addresses UN general assembly

“Our world is becoming unhinged,” the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned as he kicked off the body’s assembly general on Tuesday.

But many Brazilians felt that in their country’s case at least, sanity had returned as its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, took to the rostrum in New York to proclaim a new dawn after the chaotic term of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro notoriously used his appearances at the UN to push bogus Covid remedies, bash journalists and peddle distortions and lies – behaviour that helped cement the populist’s reputation as an international pariah.

Lula struck a more clearheaded tone – and was repeatedly applauded during a 20-minute address in which he positioned himself as a tenacious and rational champion of the global south and proclaimed: “Brazil is back.”

Lula, who narrowly beat Bolsonaro in last October’s election, told delegates he owed his return to the presidency “to the triumph of democracy” over an era of “hatred, misinformation and oppression” in Brazil.

“Hope, once again, prevailed over fear,” said the 77-year-old, vowing to rebuild and reunite Latin America’s largest democracy after years of political division culminated in the 8 January rightwing riots in Brasília.

“Brazil is reconnecting with itself, with the region and with the world,” the Brazilian leftist said to loud applause.

There was more clapping when Lula celebrated his government’s early efforts to tackle the climate crisis and environmental destruction, which soared during Bolsonaro’s 2019-2023 administration. “Over the last eight months deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has been reduced by 48%,” Lula said.

Later, delegates again applauded as Brazil’s president denounced “the far-right adventurers … who reject politics and tout solutions as simple as they are misguided” and promoted “primitive conservative and authoritarian nationalism”.

Lula’s repudiation of the economic embargo of Cuba also prompted applause.

Pundits and supporters of Lula, who first addressed the general assembly in 2003 – a year after his historic first election – voiced delight at his focus on urgent global issues such as hunger, inequality and the climate emergency.

“Lula delivered a historic address and was interrupted seven times by effusive applause,” tweeted the leftwing news outlet Mídia Ninja.

“Brazil is back … [and] the pride at being Brazilian is back,” celebrated the lawyer Tauat Resende.

Lula has visited 21 countries since taking power in January as part of a push to rebuild Brazil’s international reputation after four years during which Bolsonaro pulverised his country’s respected diplomatic service and antagonized key partners including China, the EU and the US.

More than 10 Brazilian ministers travelled to New York for the UN gathering including Brazil’s first minister for Indigenous peoples, Sônia Guajajara; the human rights minister, Silvio Almeida; and the environment minister, Marina Silva.

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Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

I am concerned about Bolsonaro's absolute silence for the last two weeks.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

As of now, Bolsonaro has neither conceded nor congratulated his opponent.

as if.......

• Bolsonaro met with army, navy and air force heads to discuss coup – reports

Jair Bolsonaro’s former secretary has reportedly told investigators his ex-boss met the heads of Brazil’s army, navy and air force late last year to discuss a “putschist plan” for a military coup.

The claims – reported by two of Brazil’s most important news outlets, O Globo and UOL – prompted calls for the alleged rightwing conspirators to be brought to justice.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain who voices admiration for Brazil’s 1964-85 military dictatorship, won power democratically in 2018 amid an explosion of anti-establishment voter rage. But critics suspect that after failing to win re-election last October, the 68-year-old populist began considering alternative forms of retaining power.

The news website UOL reported that Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp, Lt Col Mauro Cid, had told federal police that one such scheme was brought to Bolsonaro after he lost the election to his leftwing rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The draft document, reportedly shown to Bolsonaro by a former foreign policy adviser called Filipe Martins, allegedly outlined plans to call fresh elections and for political rivals to be arrested. Martins and Bolsonaro reportedly held a “secret meeting” on 18 December 2022.

Cid, who cut a plea deal with police after being arrested in May, reportedly told investigators that Bolsonaro had subsequently floated that plan during a meeting with the military top brass. Bolsonaro’s former aide told police the then commander of the navy, Adm Almir Garnier, voiced support for the “putschist plan”, according to both O Globo and UOL. However, the head of the army high command rejected the idea.

The television network CNN Brasil, which also reported the allegations, said Cid had told investigators the navy commander had advised Bolsonaro “his troops were ready to act [and were] only awaiting his order”.

Lawyers for Bolsonaro, who has previously denied plotting a coup, issued a statement claiming that during his administration he had “never condoned any movement or project that was not supported by law”. In a recent interview the former president appeared to allude to the suggestion that he might have been floating such ideas.

“I can discuss anything, I can think anything, but as long as I don’t put it into practice there’s no problem,” Bolsonaro told a political columnist from O Globo. “A person can say, ‘Let’s rob the Central Bank,’” Bolsonaro reportedly added. “What they can’t do is put that into practice.”

The president of Bolsonaro’s Liberal party (PL), Valdemar Costa Neto, told CNN Brasil: “Bolsonaro never advocated a coup d’etat.”

Garnier and Martins made no immediate comment.

“If this information is confirmed, it proves what we’ve been denouncing since last year ... that a coup d’etat was indeed being planned,” said Juliano Medeiros, the president of Brazil’s leftwing Socialism and Liberty party (PSOL).

“[Bolsonaro] failed – but I have no doubt at all that he was directly involved in this,” Medeiros added. Had the alleged coup plot succeeded, “perhaps we’d be having this conversation in another country, in exile”.

Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, the government’s leader in congress, tweeted: “The justice system must be implacable with the coup-mongers who tried to annihilate the democratic rule of law. There must be no amnesty!”

“It’s time for Jair to get ready for jail!” tweeted the leftwing lawmaker Guilherme Boulos in response to what he called the “bombshell” reports about Brazil’s former far-right leader.

Augusto Heleno, a retired army general who was one of the most hardline members of Bolsonaro’s 2019-2023 administration, denied knowledge of any such plot. “This conversation never went on during president Bolsonaro’s government. From the outset he always talked about playing within the four lines [of the constitution],” Heleno told the news website G1.

Supporters of Lula’s government said the latest revelations reinforced their conviction that Brazilian democracy had come close to catastrophe – and that Bolsonaro was at the centre of the intrigue. “I have absolutely no doubt [Bolsonaro was involved],” Medeiros said.

• Brazilian police raid Bolsonaro ally’s home over illegal spying allegations

Federal police agents have raided the home and offices of Brazil’s spy chief under the former president Jair Bolsonaro as part of an investigation into the alleged illegal monitoring of thousands of people, including two supreme court judges and a key ally of the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Alexandre Ramagem, a former federal police chief who ran Brazil’s intelligence agency, Abin, during Bolsonaro’s 2019-22 administration, was targeted as part of an inquiry into a “criminal organisation” that allegedly used Israeli spyware to track Bolsonaro’s political foes.

Six mobile phones, four laptops and 20 data storage devices were reportedly seized from Ramagem’s flat in the capital, Brasília, including a phone and a laptop belonging to Abin, for which he no longer works. Computers and documents were taken from his office.

Ramagem, 51, a congressman for Bolsonaro’s rightwing Liberal party, made no immediate comment on Thursday’s raids, which Bolsonaro called “relentless persecution”.

Reports in the Brazilian press say the investigation is focused on a secretive unit allegedly set up within Abin during Bolsonaro’s government called the National Intelligence Centre. The centre is said to have been created in July 2020, tasked with gathering intelligence on supposed “threats to state security and stability”. According to Folha de São Paulo, the unit was staffed with federal police agents close to Ramagem and the Bolsonaro family and became known as Brazil’s “parallel intelligence agency”.

Federal police suspect that the group – which investigators have reportedly nicknamed Abin’s “tracking gang” – was using spying software called FirstMile made by the Israeli firm Cognyte to illegally snoop on government opponents.

The website of the Tel Aviv-based company says it specialises in “threat intelligence analytics” and offers “analytics solutions designed to empower investigation & SOC [security operations centre] teams with actionable insights to detect and mitigate threats effectively”.

FirstMile can reportedly be used to track the mobile phones and tablets of targets by inputting their contact numbers into a system.


Cognyte did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. Ramagem’s chief of staff said the politician had yet to issue a statement on the police operation. The chief of staff did not reply when asked if Ramagem denied claims that he had been part of a “criminal” group engaged in illegal monitoring operations.

Speaking to the television network GloboNews earlier this month, the head of Brazil’s federal police, Andrei Rodrigues, estimated that the group had snooped on about 30,000 people without judicial authorisation. Information about the whereabouts of those targets was stored at datacentres in Israel, Rodrigues said.

• Jair Bolsonaro: tens of thousands attend rally in support of Brazil’s former president

Tens of thousands of supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro have rallied in the country’s biggest city, in a show of strength against legal challenges that could put him in jail.

The far-right former president, who called the rally in São Paulo after being targeted by a police raid earlier this month investigating an alleged coup attempt, spoke for about 20 minutes to defend himself, while reminiscing about his time in power.

In the speech he refrained from attacking old foes and the supreme court. Allies expressed concern before the event that any remarks against Brazilian authorities or institutions could get him into even hotter water.

Bolsonaro is seeking to show his base is resilient as he is being investigated by federal police over his alleged role in the 8 January 2023 attacks on government buildings by his supporters over his election loss. He wants the dozens of people still in jail for those incidents to get pardons.

Bolsonaro is also accused of illegally receiving jewels from Saudi Arabia during his presidency.

Six blocks of São Paulo’s Paulista Avenue filled with Bolsonaro supporters, many of whom said that he was being persecuted by Brazil’s supreme court and that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva unfairly won his narrow victory in the 2022 election.

Some also carried Israeli flags as a show of defiance to the current president, who has received widespread criticism at home for comparing Israel’s military offensive in Gaza to the Holocaust.

“What I seek is pacification, it is erasing the past,” Bolsonaro said in a speech as he held an Israeli flag himself. “It is to seek a way for us to live in peace and stop being so jumpy. Amnesty for those poor people who are jailed in Brasília. We ask all 513 congressmen, 81 senators for a bill of amnesty so justice can be made in Brazil.”

Bolsonaro denied that he and his supporters attempted a coup when rioters assaulted the government buildings a year ago.

“What is a coup? It is tanks on the streets, weapons, conspiracy. None of that happened in Brazil,” he said.