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 [...]
Brazil 2013 Foreign Policy Outlook
By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Six of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s overseas trips in 2013 have already been announced and appear to show greater attention to Africa and the BRICS group of emerging nations. As with the fifteen countries she visited in 2012, there will be a clear focus on economics [...]
Brazil 2012: Reviewing the Year in Politics
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – From municipal elections to the mensalão, from dams to deforestation, for the slowing economy and the booming middle class, 2012 was big for Brazil. The year began with devastating building collapses in Rio de Janeiro, and ended with a farewell to world-renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer. In [...]
Brazil to Open First Public-Private Prison
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – A prison in the state of Minas Gerais will be the country’s first public-private partnership (PPP) jail when inaugurated in January, Globo reported. The Ribeirão das Neves penitentiary, along with another PPP prison in Pernambuco under construction, have rekindled the debate about private sector involvement in [...]
Police in Spotlight After São Paulo Violence
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – At least fourteen São Paulo police officers have been detained since Saturday on suspicion of killing or attempting to kill civilians. The arrests are likely to raise questions over police brutality in the wake of a wave of murders in São Paulo that some experts have partially [...]
Working Mothers Earn 11% Less in Brazil
By Lucy Jordan, Senior Contributing Reporter BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – Brazilian working mothers earned, on average, eleven percent less than women without children in 2009, according to new research. The ‘motherhood penalty,’ as sociologists call it, has increased considerably in recent years: in 1992 working mothers earned four percent less than their childless peers. The unpublished [...]
200,000 Protest in Rio for Oil Royalties
By Ben Tavener, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – An estimated 200,000 people have taken to the streets of Rio in a mass protest demanding Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff veto a bill which would change how oil royalties are shared throughout the country. The bill is designed to take revenue away from the [...]
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