Violence Against Press Increasing in Brazil
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – Rodrigo Neto, a Minas Gerais crime reporter has become the third journalist to be killed so far this year. The killing of the crime reporter from Ipatinga, is the latest in what watchdogs say is a deeply worrying spike in violence toward journalists. Neto, who was [...]
Land Dispute Deaths Up Ten Percent
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – The number of people murdered in Brazil over land and environmental disputes rose by more than ten percent in 2012, to a total of 32 deaths, according to a land rights watchdog. Rio de Janeiro state saw a sharp rise in killings, from an average of [...]
Forced Treatment for Brazil Crack Addicts
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – In an attempt to tackle Brazil’s growing crack epidemic, the city of Rio de Janeiro has begun a program of involuntary hospitalization for users, one month after Brazil’s biggest city São Paulo began a similar program. At least 99 addicts have been hospitalized, 29 involuntarily, since [...]
Lula Backs Rousseff for Second Term
By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has reiterated his support for Brazil’s incumbent president, Dilma Rousseff, to run for a second term in office in the 2014 presidential elections. Lula told friends that he has no intention of running in an attempt to [...]
Brazil Reacts as Benedict XVI Resigns
By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The announcement of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation shocked the Catholic world this week, and almost immediately speculation started over who would be his successor. Given Brazil is home to the largest population of the world’s estimated 1.2 billion Catholics, many are asking whether the [...]
Carnival 2013 Arrives in Rio de Janeiro
By Fiona Hurrell, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The anticipation is finally over and Carnival 2013 has arrived with Rio embracing yet another of its most popular and important annual traditions. Having received a reported 1.1 million people at Carnival 2012, experts predict an increase in numbers this year, bringing even more [...]
Deadly Fire May Bring Regulation Change
By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A fire that claimed the lives of 235 people in a nightclub in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul state in Southern Brazil, has led to an investigation into whether fire prevention regulations under Brazil’s health and safety laws are fit for purpose, and [...]
Brazil Focuses on Policing its Borders
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – President Dilma Rousseff said Monday that the government had made strides in stemming the flow of drugs, arms and other contraband through Brazil’s long and porous border. During the past year and a half, 360 tons of drugs, 2,200 guns, 280,000 rounds of ammunition and twenty [...]
Brazilians Support Bolsa Família Welfare
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – New research shows nearly three-quarters of Brazilians are in favor of continuing the Bolsa Família, an anti-poverty program that gives cash to families in return for ensuring their children attend school and are vaccinated. Most Brazilians, sixty percent, would rather pay more taxes and have better [...]
Brazil Drought May Bring Power Rationing
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – For the first time since 2002 Brazil may be forced to introduce power rationing, as high temperatures and a relentless drought in the Northeast have severely diminished reservoir levels. President Dilma Rousseff has called an emergency meeting to discuss energy shortages on Wednesday in Brasília, reported [...]
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