Brazil held municipal elections on Sunday, Nov. 15, with a runoff round set to take place Nov. 29. The votes are a helpful way to assess the relative strength of Brazil’s right-wing populist President Jair Bolsonaro, who rode to victory on a surge of push-back against Brazil’s left in 2018.

Four Bolsonaro-backed candidates in the cities of Sao Paulo, Manaus, Recife and Belo Horizonte lost their races, leading Tom Phillips of the Guardian to characterize the results as a “setback” for the firebrand leader. In total the elections saw 5,500 mayors and 57,000 city councilors elected to power.

Despite the President’s son Carlos Bolsonaro winning re-election to city hall in Rio de Janeiro, the overall effect of this election is a resurgence of Brazil’s left-wing parties and a drift from Bolsonaro.

But naysayers should be careful about writing off Bolsonaro just yet, and the upcoming 2022 presidential election is still well within his grasp.

Bolsonaro’s Background

Brazil’s national populist leader — who holds the rank of Captain in the Brazilian Army — has been under sustained attack by mainstream media in the country before and after his 2018 election to lead the 209.5 million-population South American nation. Bolsonaro was almost stabbed to death in the summer of 2018 while running for office during a campaign stop in Juiz de Fora by a mentally ill, left-wing fanatic associated with Brazil’s Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (Socialism and Liberty Party, PSOL).

Bolsonaro lost around half of the blood in his body but survived, going on to win the presidency. He was boosted in part by feelings of solidarity from his sharing of his daily recovery process with voters.

Like US President Donald Trump, Bolsonaro successfully engaged in a process of disintermediation, cutting out the middle man and the polite language of political discourse and communication, instead talking directly in whatever way he wanted through social media and in person. He shouted, swore and said whatever he felt like, ranting against Brazil’s ascendant left, and millions of Brazilians rose up and joined him.

While maintaining a friendly relationship with Trump and attempting to shore up Brazil’s economy from the effects of a coronavirus lockdown, Bolsonaro has been repeatedly smeared in the media and had his outlandish comments on race, homosexuality, crime and his support for extrajudicial killings of communist militants blared across the front page in frantic condemnation. He expressed a desire to punch a reporter for O Globo newspaper in the face this August and recently complained about the cowering attitude of the country in the face of the coronavirus, which Bolsonaro has previously survived.

So far 5.8 million Brazilians have contracted the coronavirus and 165,658 have died of COVID-19-related illness, according to the World Health Organization.

Brazil is Divided

Brazil is certainly divided between those who tend to be more pro-Lula (former left-wing President Luiz Lula da Silva) and those who favor Bolsonaro, but the country is also losing a lot of middle ground to center parties and a mixture of other candidates. Despite losing almost half of its prefectures, Brazil’s Marxist Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party, PT) and similar left-wing parties still have considerable. Brazil’s 14 percent unemployment and high national debt coupled with hard choices ahead about deep cuts in spending that could be necessary may be keeping Bolsonaro up at night, however at the end of the day he is still in a very strong position.

The runoff round on Nov. 29 will provide a better snapshot, but at this time it’s clear that Bolsonaro can’t “coast.” Nonetheless, he’s still got millions of very energized citizens in his base and is likely to keep showing up for him. Even if Bolsonaro keeps losing power in urban areas, smaller cities and the countryside will – by and large – rally to his side for God and country when push comes to shove and those numbers are sure to add up. After all, as Bolsonaro has exclaimed: “God is Brazilian!”

Support for Bolsonaro Remains High

Although Brazil’s left would like to argue that Bolsonaro is a lame duck slated for the back pond come 2022, the truth is that support for him remains high. His 2018 campaign slogan: Brasil acima de tudo, Deus acima de todos (“Brazil above everything, God above everyone”) still has power to rally many Brazilians to the voting booth. The idea that Bolsonaro’s authoritarian statements and tendencies have alienated voters is far from certain and many still remember the corruption of Lula and past leftist politicians with bitter specificity.

Brazil’s PT party went too far for many citizens under Lula and his successor and former Marxist guerrilla fighter Dilma Rousseff who was impeached in 2016. The PT was seen by many center and right-leaning Brazilians to be too close to instituting a dictatorship and as a deeply corrupt money-laundering apparatus leeching off the nation.

Bolsonaro, despite scandals which have arisen with his sons and certain dealings in government, was widely regarded as a fresh start and a push back against the dominant left of Brazil which is often hard-line and informed by militant Marxist ideology, including parties who are friendly to terrorist organizations such as Colombia’s narco-terrorist Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) group.

Although the state elections won’t have much direct effect on federal proceedings, Bolsonaro will be facing more headaches as his state governments continue to erode to the left and center. In addition, Trump’s apparent loss in the United States, the results of which Bolsonaro questions, puts him in a weaker position. Indeed, Joe Biden has directly threatened to punish Brazil’s government over problems in the Amazon. But to assume these local election results mean Bolsonaro is done in 2022 is far from a sure bet.

L'articolo What do Brazil’s Local Election Results Mean for Bolsonaro Going Forward? proviene da InsideOver.

The criminal world has gone digital. Crime syndicates are sinking their dirty teeth into cybercrime and today it is the fastest growing criminal activity on earth.

Trillions of Dollars are at Stake

Accenture, considered one of the world’s top companies, numbers digital and technology consulting in its stable of services. The firm predicts businesses will lose US$5.2 trillion to cybercrime globally over the next five years.

Cue the mafia and other nefarious organizations. Cyberattacks cost businesses from large to small on average $200,000 annually, according to Hiscock, a commercial liability insurance company. And the little guy is the easiest target.

Most Businesses Woefully Unprepared for Cyberattacks

Small businesses account for almost half of online attacks – 43 percent – but they are woefully unprepared to stave off breaches because only 14 percent have the technology shield to counter the assaults.

“Modern IT infrastructures are more complex and sophisticated than ever and the amount of virtual ground that we’ve got to safeguard has also grown exponentially,” said Jesse Rothstein of security provider ExtraHop. “…(C)yber criminals can launch thousands of digital attacks designed to compromise our operations at every turn, only one of which ever needs to connect to cause serious disruptions.”

But while large companies are the prime organized crime targets, individuals do not escape notice and while the coronavirus pandemic is a plague to most, to syndicates like the mafia it is a blessing, presenting an opportunity to defraud. From March to May in Canada this year, organized crime swindled individuals out of CAN$1.9 million.

The most common method of bilking people is through email or text messages where the recipient clicks on a link to collect the $2,000 a month the federal government offers to those who have lost jobs to the pandemic. The link takes individuals to a phony website asking for financial information, or it could allow the intrusion of malware that can steal, encrypt, delete or hijack data, leading to financial theft.

Cosa Nostra Goes Online

Italy has had its share of cybercrime courtesy of the world’s most infamous crime syndicate.

In May of this year, 91 suspected mobsters were collared by police probing money-laundering and extortion. Authorities were attempting to stop Sicily’s Cosa Nostra from bilking people who were suffering financially due to the coronavirus.

In one conversation recorded by police, a man said “look, we pay cash” for businesses hard hit by the pandemic. The mob was trying to buy legitimate businesses at bargain basement prices so as to illegally launder dirty money gleaned from extortion and drug trafficking.

Gangs also hold businesses for ransom – hence the name ransomware, a malicious software that infects a computer and restricts access until money is paid to unlock it.

In Israel, the chip wear maker Tower – the computer chip used for processors, memory and other information functions – came under ransomware attack and had to shut down some production systems and its IT systems were damaged, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported in August. A publicly-traded company with second-quarter earnings of US$310 million, one day of lost work would cost the company an estimated $3.4 million.

Hackers demanded money and Tower’s insurance company said pay up.

Insurance Company Advises Firm To Pay Ransom

“Its insurance company encouraged paying the ransom, which is estimated at several million dollars,” Einat Meyron, who advises companies on cybersecurity and is well acquainted with this attack, as reported by Haaretz. “It definitely wasn’t $250,000, as has been reported in several places.”

The mafia is becoming so pervasive in cyber crime that its involvement is now known as the “New Mafia.” The mafia has hired cybersmart engineers to hack and uncover where shipments of specific goods are being readied for shipment, then sends in drivers in their own trucks to haul the goods away.

The Internet is also used to help facilitate and plan various crime operations.

Brazilian Gangsters Running Drug Networks from Jail Cell Computers

In Brazil, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), Sao Paulo’s mafia corporation is using smart phones so members of its council can call the shots from their prison cells. Sao Paulo prosecutors seized two laptops of senior syndicate members and discovered Excel spreadsheets showing the entire cocaine distribution network for the metropolitan area.

Included was the identity of those marked for punishment – and sometimes death – due to embezzlement or not fulfilling their promised participation in crime.

An Expanding Crime Network

In 2018, 30,000 people were members of the PCC and new recruits were joining each day, reported Rolandburger.com, a respected American-based management consulting firm with 50 offices in 39 countries. The PCC is spreading to other South American countries.

Perhaps Malwarebytes, the ubiquitous anti-virus Internet security company, best sums up today’s evolving criminal use of the internet. “What was once the reserve of hobbyists and enterprising individuals has taken a more sinister turn as the world has become more interconnected.

“In the last decade, cybercrime has evolved from computer viruses that commandeered a select number of PCs to spectacular security breaches and cyberattacks that exceed the imagination. The Internet has allowed criminals to send tentacles out all over the world while sitting in comfort thousands of miles away. A new day has dawned for organized crime.

L'articolo The “New Mafia” Takes Crime Online proviene da InsideOver.

South America has seen a sharp rise in the number of new COVID-19 cases for the past few weeks, even while countries in Europe and Asia have begun to relax their lockdown measures.

On Sunday June 28, Latin America and the Caribbean recorded 2,432,245 infections (1,319,274 of which are in Brazil) with 110,6821 deaths and 1,373,504 cases in recovery.

The surge in the COVID-19 figures is due to the loose lockdown, non-synchronized responses from governments and worsened by massive economic inequality.

Brazil Has the Second-Highest Number of COVID-19 Cases in the World

Brazil — the largest country in the region — has recorded the world’s second-highest numbers of COVID-19 infections behind the U.S. As of Monday, June 29, Brazil had 1,345,254 cases, with 733,848 cases in recovery and 57,658 deaths.

The alarming amount of COVID-19 cases in the country are at least partly due to the mishandling by President Jair Bolsonaro, who underestimated the virus from the beginning, claiming it was a “little flu”. COVID-19 has symptoms similar to common flu such as cough and sore throat but is potentially much more serious.

The former army captain also ignored health protocols by not wearing a face mask and shunning physical distancing while attending a mass rally. He opposes lockdown measures for the sake of sustaining economic activity. Bolsonaro’s responses to the pandemic led to the resignation of the country’s health minister, Nelson Teich, who served for just one month.

‘We’re Fighting Against the Coronavirus and Against the Bolsonaro Virus’

Teich replaced Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who was fired by the president after calling on all citizens to stay at home to prevent the further spread of the virus. Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic also triggered a stand-off with Brazil’s state governors, with one of them calling the president’s approach the “Bolsonaro virus”.

“We’re fighting against the coronavirus and against the Bolsonaro virus,” said Joao Doria, governor of Brazil’s densely-populated state Sao Paolo, adding that Bolsonaro’s has taken “incorrect, irresponsible positions,” in dealing with the pandemic.

Brazil’s states and cities have adopted their quarantine measures, different from the president’s policy. Also, there is a rising concern over the spread of the virus in slum areas, indigenous communities, and areas with a lack of testing capacity.

Research from The University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation estimated the death toll over COVID-19 in Brazil could exceed 125,000 in August.

Chile’s Health Minister Resigned Over COVID-19 Data Discrepancy

On Sunday, June 28, Chile’s total COVID-19 cases reached 271,982, with 232,210 cases in recovery and 5,509 deaths, according to official data.

Chile is one of the countries in the region that took early anticipatory measures to slow down the outbreak, such as the closure of borders and extensive testings. However, the quarantine policy did not help to control the number of new cases as the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases surged in May.

In the middle of June, Chile’s then-health minister Jaime Manalich resigned amid the controversy over the numbers of COVID-19-related deaths.

Previously, Chile’s Sebastian Pinera government informed the public that the COVID-19 had taken over 3,000 lives since the first case emerged for the first time on March 3.

However, a report from an investigative journalism organization (CIPER) exposed that the government informed the World Health Organization (WHO) that the COVID-19-related death toll had exceeded 5,000. The organization got a copy of the country’s health ministry document handed over to the United Nations (U.N) health body, CNA reported.

Chileans took to the streets demanding food aid during the lockdown measures, which led to chaos. President Pinera promised to deliver support to the most vulnerable groups of people.

Peru Scrapped Lockdown Despite Rising Infection Numbers

As of Monday, June 29, Peru has 279,419 COVID-19 cases, with 9,317 deaths and 167,998 cases in recovery.

“Although the number of cases in the country is still high, there has been a decrease in infections in recent weeks,” the country’s health minister Victor Zamora said, cited in Menafn.

After imposing social restrictions for about three months, Peru decided to end the policy on June 30 despite the rising numbers of new COVID-19 cases. The Andean nation has gradually reopened its economy. The pandemic has worsened the economy as at the end of this year, Peru is estimated to lose 4.2 million of jobs.

Other Countries in South America are Performing Relatively Well

Uruguay, the tiny nation in the region, has successfully dealt with the pandemic as the country had only 847 COVID-19 cases, with 23 deaths as of June 14.

The country’s president Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, never issued a lockdown measure, but Uruguay quickly imposed a social distancing policy and conducted a massive testing program, as BBC reported. Uruguay’s long history of less income inequality and trust in political institutions has been one of the most important keys to its successful tackling of the pandemic.

Uruguay’s larger neighbor Argentina slapped a quarantine on March 20, and citizens complied with the social restrictions. The Alberto Fernandez government provided financial aid to low-wage workers to help them survive the crisis, as Reuters reported. Even though the policy could trigger inflation and will increase the government’s debt, at least Argentina prioritizes its people during the health crisis.

Shining Star: Cuba

Cuba has been the leading example of how a country should deal with the pandemic. The communist state is widely known for its excellent healthcare and qualified medical workers, who have done extensive work to visit residents and interview them to discover and document new COVID-19 cases.

The country even sent its doctors to some of the hardest-hit nations around the world, such as Italy. Cuba guarantees that every citizen has access to healthcare. Despite people in the country making a monthly wage of around only $20 USD, the government works to ensure their wellbeing. 

The ratio is one doctor for ever 150 Cubans, which is an outstanding figure compared to other developed nations. The United States, for example, with its private healthcare system has only 0.4 doctors per 150 people. Therefore, Cuba’s success story during this pandemic — while richer nations are still struggling deeply — should come as no surprise.

L'articolo Latin America Sees Alarming Rise in COVID-19 Cases proviene da InsideOver.

Brazil is now second in the world for the number of coronavirus cases after the United States. The South American developing nation of over 209 million now has more than 25,700 recorded fatalities from the virus. Specifically, Brazil now has over 414,000 recorded cases of COVID-19 and some experts have projected this number is likely to be five times higher by August. According to a report cited by Reuters last month, Brazil likely has up to 12 times more coronavirus cases than the amount being officially recorded. So far testing has been minimal with only approximately 560,000 tests performed (less than .5% of the population), although the Brazilian government aims to test 46 million citizens (22 % of the population) by this December.

At this point Brazil is the epicenter of the coronavirus in Latin America and a surging global hot spot. US President Donald Trump recently blocked all Brazilians and foreigners currently in Brazil from entering the United States.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has long been one of the biggest skeptics of COVID-19, dismissing it early in the pandemic as a “little flu” and stating that the crisis was being exploited by his enemies to remove him from power and intentionally crash Brazil’s economy. Conflicts between Bolsonaro and state governors who wanted stricter lockdowns such as the Governor of Goiás Ronaldo Caiado have caused division and political turmoil in the geographically massive Latin American nation.

Brazil’s Raging Political Firestorm

In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, Brazil has also been embroiled in an intense political showdown.

Bolsonaro fired the head of Brazil’s federal police last month and other key officials after learning they were investigating his son Flavio Bolsonaro and Carlos Bolsonaro for corruption and disinformation offences. A video showed Bolsonaro saying he would go up the government ranks as far as necessary to fire anyone who tried to “screw” with his family. The firing led Bolsonaro’s key partner and justice minister Sergio Moro to resign in protest at Bolsonaro’s executive intervention.

The situation has now escalated, with a series of “fake news” raids carried out May 27, including reportedly targeting Carlos Bolsonaro and what one Sao Paulo paper called his “fake news racket.” The 29 warrants seizing computers and information from Bolsonaro supporters and bloggers has outraged the President, and conservative Brazilian Congressman Douglas Garcia said the raids were nothing less than an attempt to “silence the voices of conservatives on social networks.”

Speaking on May 28, Bolsonaro angrily denounced the “absurd orders” of federal police acting on orders of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF), saying the situation is already “f***ing over” and bringing it back into the spotlight is an attempt to drag back up unfounded allegations and oust him from power. Bolsonaro said that the current fake news crisis is being staged to portray him as a “right-wing pseudo-dictator” and wrest power from him. Bolsonaro has previously expressed support for extrajudicial killings and torture, but indignantly referred to the necessity of upholding liberty and democracy in his May 28 remarks. The president ended his press conference when a journalist tried to ask him a question and walked away with his entourage to leave in a waiting vehicle. 

Bolsonaro Bucks the Trend

Bolsonaro has long claimed there is an agenda to steal his election win through the COVID-19 crisis by collapsing Brazil’s economy and fomenting political chaos. Despite early warning signs from other nations across the globe, Brazil responded relatively late by implementing quarantines and closing public facilities and restaurants. Bolsonaro attended rallies with anti-lockdown protesters, taking selfies with their phones and insisting that a lockdown would be far more harmful as a whole than letting the disease take its course.

Brazil’s former minister of health Nelson Teich quit after one month on the job in the middle of this month after falling out with Bolsonaro. Teich had taken over after Bolsonaro fired the previous Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta for insisting that social distancing was necessary. The new Minister of Health is General Eduardo Pazuello, a military man without medical experience.

The coronavirus hit Brazil relatively late compared to other South American countries, with the first case recorded in Sao Paulo on Feb. 25, 2020 and the first death in Sao Paulo by March 17 from a 62-year-old man who had recently been to Italy. COVID-19 spread in Sao Paulo and other major regions and cities of Brazil but Bolsonaro was cautious about locking down, noting that “the economy has to function because we can’t have a wave of unemployment.”

As state governors exercised authority to lockdown they clashed with Bolsonaro who urged that “life must go on” and made it clear he was still going out shopping. He also promoted hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID-19 and said closing everything would be a surefire path to “breaking Brazil.” By May 16 Brazil’s coronavirus death toll was over 15,000 and is now surging, reaching 21,000 five days later. Cases are particularly prevalent in northern cities like Manaus and crowded, poor favelas in the south which are home to around 13 million densely-packed low-income citizens with minimal access to healthcare. Bolsonaro now says the fight against coronavirus is a “war” but remains disquieted by the prospect of extending the economic standstill.

Death Toll Doubling Every Five Days

The most alarming number so far out of Brazil is that the death toll is doubling every five days at the current time and Brazil has the highest transmission rate in the world. Here in Goiania near the capital the number of cases is still remarkably low with life mostly continuing as normal apart from hand sanitizer everywhere you turn, masked people on the streets and businesses locked down. Locals express frustration with the closure of businesses and question when things can return to normal, while others express fear of the tidal wave of infections in the country and have relatives who are being treated for COVID-19.

COVID-19 Isn’t Just Killing Brazil’s Elderly

As it tears through the favelas of Rio, Sao Paulo and in Brazil’s north, the coronavirus is not just killing Brazil’s elderly. One of the most shocking statistics of the pandemic in Brazil is that the mortality rate for COVID-19 in Brazilians under 35-years-old is 65% higher than in developed nations, as Globo reported. As in other nations, most of those dying from the disease are male but Brazil has more female victims than most other countries as well. While one reason for the higher amount of younger people dying from coronavirus in Brazil could be that comobordities in the elderly are distorting the data, a more worrying possibility is that many younger Brazilians live in close quarters, crowded neighborhoods and lower-income areas.

Brazil’s Class Divide and COVID-19

Brazil’s earliest cases of COVID-19 started among wealthier middle and upper class individuals who could afford to travel and imported it from abroad. Similar patterns occurred around Latin America. The disease has quickly spread in the favelas of Rio and Sao Paulo, with service industry workers often contracting the disease and elderly family members without good access to healthcare services dying. Of course, coronavirus does not look at your wallet before it kills you, but the class divide is certainly also being thrown into sharper contrast by the disease’s pattern of transmission and wider impact.

Reality Check

The situation in Brazil is and should be cause for concern and there is no way to confidently state that the situation will decline in severity in the near future. Nonetheless, the skeptical analyst must take into account that Brazil may not actually be second in the world in COVID-19 cases. For one thing, the real numbers of China’s coronavirus cases and fatalities are clearly much higher than reported, and Iran likewise tapered off accurately reporting its case and death count. Turkmenistan, as another example, is forbidden from public statements on COVID-19 and doctors are not permitted to officially treat the disease. So when Turkmenistan reports “no cases” and Brazil reports hundreds of thousands we need to understand the exponential influence of political censorship on numerical transparency.

Still, Brazil and Bolsonaro are in for a tough fight.

The truth is that Bolsonaro is both the object of strong and targeted political opposition and has also contributed to a uniquely chaotic governance scenario that intensifies Brazil’s lack of readiness to effectively fight the virus. Although the actual benefits of full lockdown on transmission and fatality rates from the disease are fair to question there’s no doubt that Brazil’s approach so far has been far behind much of the world.

L'articolo Bolsonaro vs. COVID-19: What’s Really Going On in Brazil? proviene da InsideOver.

Brazil now has 9,056 confirmed Covid-19 cases and the virus has affected famous singers, actors, government ministers and even Brazilian President Jair Bolosonaro’s press secretary Fabio Wajngarten.

However, Bolsonaro is refusing to take this crisis seriously. He leads a country of 210 million people and so far he has distributed 54,000 tests, which is an underwhelming response to the situation.

Brazil’s Vulnerability to Covid-19

Yet Brazil’s own lockdown proved to be difficult to implement and the President was keen for it to last for a short period of time. Many Brazilian workers complained about income losses and others struggled to self-isolate. Long-term lockdowns are economically devastating and tend to hit the poorest citizens the hardest, which is why it is in the President’s best interests to get the Brazilian economy moving again.

Considering Brazil’s population size of 209 million, the 359 deaths so far are a relatively much smaller amount than other nations like the United States, but that does not mean the number of Covid-19 deaths may not rise rapidly in a short space of time.

Albert Ko, who is a professor of epidemiology and a department chair at the Yale School of Medicine, told The Guardian that widespread testing ensured that Taiwan, South Korea and Germany were able to prevent the pandemic’s rise.

Why Has Brazil’s Medical Sector Failed to Prepare for Covid-19?

Many nations like the UK are beginning to ensure that there is widespread Covid-19 testing and even US President Donald Trump is starting to take the virus more seriously. Bolsonaro’s laissez-faire attitude to the coronavirus is not the main reason why the Brazilian Government has got its response to the disease so wrong, however.

Brazil’s healthcare industry has always faced numerous problems and shortcomings. Brazil has suffered from outbreaks of Zika, dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever in recent years. However, the past three presidents, whose political allegiances have varied, have cut funding for science and technology. Therefore, the decline of the Brazilian healthcare system cannot be blamed on one particular party. As a result, the country is now competing in international markets to purchase the test ingredients that it needs.

Brazil’s health ministry stated in an email that 15 million molecular tests are necessary to test much of the country’s population, yet so far they have confirmed that only 40,000 more were being delivered.

As Bolsonaro recently ordered people to “get back to work,” people are seeking more reliable information from sources like Brazil’s largest newspaper, the Folha de S Paulo, which has experienced a 70 million readership surge since the Covid-19 outbreak. Clearly many Brazilians want to be informed about the best ways to beat this disease.

14 million Brazilians live in densely populated poor neighborhoods called favelas where there is no basic sanitation and very limited medical coverage. This leaves many people vulnerable to diseases like coronavirus. According to Sky News, Brazil’s Senate passed a bill guaranteeing some of the country’s poorest citizens an income of 600 Rials ($112 USD) per month for three months, which would cost the country about 50 billion Rials. These measures will not help those people who need access to more sanitation, however, lifting them out of poverty in the long-term will.

What Can Brazil Do in the Future to Prevent Pandemics?

Many governors are taking matters into their own hands. Bolsonaro lashed out at Rio de Janeiro’s Governor, Wilson Witzel, who defied Bolsonaro’s relaxation of restrictions and ordered the province’s 17 million citizens to stay away from beaches. Closing down avenues where people are likely to gather, particularly in the warm weather, has always been the best response to prevent the disease from spreading. The President has gone too far in interfering with the way states have responded to Covid-19 and putting the market above public health.

Poor sanitation, poverty and an inadequate healthcare system are the three main reasons why Brazil has failed to stem the number of Covid-19 cases. If Bolsonaro is serious about preventing another wide-scale pandemic again, he must reform the nation’s healthcare industry and lift more citizens out of poverty. That will be the test for his leadership once this crisis is over.

L'articolo Has Bolsonaro Got Brazil’s Coronavirus Response All Wrong? proviene da InsideOver.

Setting aside their differences at the World Trade Organization and other economic forums, India and Brazil are gearing up to enter into a new era of business relationships, which is in the larger interests of both the nations. “Our bilateral relations are based on a common global vision, shared democratic values, and a commitment to foster the economic growth of both countries. Bilateral relations were elevated to a Strategic Partnership in 2006, heralding a new phase in India-Brazil relations,” said the Ministry of External Affairs’ statement announcing Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro’s visit as the chief guest of the Republic Day celebrations from January 24-27.

According to government officials, India and Brazil will sign a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) and will also exchange a Social Security Agreement (SSA) to permit investments in each other’s pension funds and encourage the flow of investment to help business processes. About 20 arrangements are set to be exchanged, like a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) on criminal matters, bio-energy or ethanol production and agreements on double taxation avoidance, health, cybersecurity, mining, oil & gas exploration, investment, and animal husbandry.

Considering “nationalist” Modi’s control over India’s foreign policy and the rise of right-wing leadership in Brazil, the two countries hope to build on the relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Bolsonaro, who met twice in 2019. Amidst the specter of protests in India over Brazil’s complaint at the World Trade Organization against New Delhi’s subsidies to sugarcane farmers, the two countries are keen to increase defense cooperation, technology sharing, and a logistics agreement. It may be recalled that Brazil is the largest producer and exporter of sugar and Brazil stated that Indian subsidies are a violation of global trade rules.

According to trade observers, both countries have matching interests and technical expertise that could be explored in the fields of nuclear, renewable energy (eg, ethanol), defense, and space technologies. Brazil and India have expanded South-South cooperation in Africa through the South African connection in BRICS and IBSA. The countries also have common interests in the maritime governance of the South Atlantic-Indian Ocean nexus.

A win-win situation for both

In addition to being India’s largest Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) partner, Brazil is a significant regional market, with substantial natural resources and strong expertise in strategic sectors, such as oil extraction, aerospace & defense, nuclear and renewable energy. India’s food security and energy concerns have driven it towards Brazil, especially in the case of biofuels, like ethanol. Brazil has realized the need to reorient its foreign policies towards Asia. In 2016, for the first time, Brazil openly supported India’s bid for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Bolsonaro, too, confirmed plans for introducing visa-free entries to Indian and Chinese tourists and business persons visiting Brazil to improve intra-BRICS cooperation. India, also, is eager to improve relations with Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) for its strategic footprint.

Following Bolsonaro’s visit, Brazil is likely to expand its global footprints through the ‘Made in India’ platform. Brazil and India hold strategic defense and technological relationships with Israel, France, and the US, opening several opportunities to strengthen Indo-Brazilian research & development and defense manufacturing. Brazil stands to gain from Indian technical cooperation concerning space technology. India is emerging as a global hub in production and satellite launching; Brazil and other LAC countries have strongly relied on Chinese expertise and satellite launching vehicles. Indo-Brazil tie-up could open cheap space satellite launching options to the LAC nations.

From vying as leaders of the third world to a stronger India-Brazil tie, the bonhomie between the two could affect the world order, given the potential of resource-rich Brazil and the demands of a “rising” India. These two countries have long shared common worldviews.

L'articolo India and Brazil to Sign a Bilateral Investment Treaty proviene da InsideOver.

Volunteers cleaning up the oil spill in Brazil are getting sick. The mysterious spill has polluted more than 130 Northeastern beaches in Brazil for nearly two months.

Volunteers, without proper equipment, have been cleaning up the toxic sludge with their bare hands and feet. More than 2,000 kilometres of the coastline has been covered, as volunteers work without boots and gloves to protect themselves from the fumes.

“I had nausea and diarrhoea the next day, and a splitting headache,” Vera Lucia Silva, a local government clerk said. Ms. Silva, who volunteered on the Itapuama Beach, South of Recife, said that she and her friend collected 80 kilograms of oil with their bare hands into plastic bags.

The local infirmary admitted Ms Silva, where she received a drip. According to the volunteer, the government has provided no equipment for the oil clean-up, leaving it up to charity groups to hand out masks and boots to volunteers.

Gerald Graham, a Canadian oil spill response expert, commented, saying:

The government’s response has been really pathetic. They were not there. Why did they take so long to act?

He further advised the authorities to keep volunteers off the beach, stating that were not properly trained and equipped to deal with exposure to the hazardous oil, which could cause injury and even death.

Brazil’s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, claimed that a crude oil “is very likely from Venezuela”. His conclusion came after a study carried out by the state oil company, Petrobras.

“We are not in the presence of a constant leak. If it is the result of a shipwrecked oil tanker, the leaks will continue for the moment. It appears to be criminal. This oil could have been dumped at sea.”

Since September 2, 100 tonnes of oil has been collected from the coastline, although it remained “enormously difficult to contain”, according to Salles. Approximately 500 barrels of oil have been spilt so far.

Petrobras’ chief executive, Roberto Castello, said the oil was far too much to have been from a routine tank cleaning.

“We are not in the presence of a constant leak. If it is the result of a shipwrecked oil tanker, the leaks will continue for the moment,” President Jair Bolsonaro added in a news conference in Brasilia. “It appears to be criminal. This oil could have been dumped at sea.”

On the 21st of October, Brazilian Vice-President Hamilton Mourão announced that 5,000 more troops would be dispatched to clean up the spill. Brazilians, however, have criticised this move as coming too late for any real change to be made.

In April, José Álvaro Moisés, a senior professor of political science at the University of São Paulo, criticised April Bolsonaro’s government for closing parts of Brazil’s national contingency plan for oil spills.

Former Environment Minister, Marina Silva said in a tweet: “The oil spill that’s reached over 132 beaches in the north-east is criminal. Removing the residue from the ocean can take 10 to 20 years. This is a warning that we need to strengthen and not suffocate the environmental monitoring institutions in the country.”

According to the Pernambuco state health department, 19 people have been treated in hospital for intoxication from direct contact with the oil. Some hospitalised volunteers were also intoxicated from the solvents being used to dilute the oil during the clean-up efforts.

Last week, Tourism Minister, Marcelo Alvaro Antonio visited a tourist hotspot in Pernambuco, Porto de Galinhas. In a PR move, the tourism minister dipped his feet in the sea to prove that Brazil’s sea are clean and tourist-friendly, citing that only 10% of Brazil’s beaches has been polluted by the oil.

L'articolo Volunteers Cleaning up the Oil Spill in Brazil are Getting Sick proviene da InsideOver.

The ongoing fires in the Amazon rainforest are unprecedented in scale and intensity. They are also so when it comes to international reaction to them. The fires are just turning from a sheer environmental issue to a political-economic one, threatening Brazil’s relations with its trading partners, especially in Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone to Biarritz, France, to attend the 45th G7 summit, with the Amazon fires in mind. French President Emmanuel Macron said he would raise the issue at the summit. “Our house is burning. Literally,” Macron wrote on Twitter on August 22.

Other European leaders threaten to use trade deals to force the government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro to act to stop the fires. Bolsonaro’s administration is seen as giving the green light for more deforestation in the Amazon for economic development reasons.

Finland said it would propose a ban on Brazilian beef imports in reaction to the fires. Finnish Finance Minister Mika Lintila lamented the destruction of rainforests. She suggested that the EU and Finland, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Council now, consider banning the import of Brazilian beef.

“Now we need effective action from the EU… I am ready to raise the issue with my EU finance minister colleagues who will be coming to Helsinki in September, if there is no progress before then,” Lintila said.

Ireland is also talking about suspending trade deals with the South American trading bloc, Mercosur, if Brazil did not take action on the fires. The fires are more intense in Brazil this year, although they are common in the dry season this Latin American country.

According to Brazilian state experts, nearly 77,000 wildfires erupted across Brazil this year, which is 85% over the number of fires reported in the same period last year. The Amazon rainforest is the largest on earth. It covers 40% of South America and is home to more than 30 million people and countless mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles, most of them unique to the jungle.

The Amazon is known as the ‘lungs of the planet’ and in his August 22 tweet, Macron estimated that the rainforest produces 20% of the world’s oxygen. This oxygen is carried around the world in weather systems. Now, however, the fires are pumping out alarming quantities of carbon into the world’s atmosphere, hence the international alarm and reaction.

Bolsonaro is accusing NGOs calling for action from his government of receiving money from European states, such as Germany and Norway, to exaggerate the effect of the fires. Nevertheless, deforestation has rapidly accelerated during the first eight months of Bolsonaro’s rule. The Brazilian leader has worked to silence environment advocates in his country and promoted the opening of the Amazon to mining, farming and logging.

He recently fired the head of Brazil’s space research centre after data was published showing 72,843 fires in the Amazon this year alone, marking an 83% increase over the same period of 2018. This is also the highest number of fires since records began in 2013.

On August 24, Bolsonaro ordered military aircraft and troops to prepare to deploy in the Amazon to fight the fires. Some 44,000 troops are reportedly available for operations to put out the fires. Forces are heading to six Brazilian states that asked for federal help to contain the blazes. But whether these efforts will pay off quickly to end the tragedy in the Amazon rainforest remains to be seen in the coming days.

L'articolo Amazon Fires Raging On, Faint Action from Brazil and Anger from the World proviene da InsideOver.

The cover of the main Brazilian weekly magazine, Veja, printed on July 19 the image of an alleged terrorist who’s threatening the life of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. The alleged terrorist was interviewed and told the magazine about the plans of his organisation.

The so-called eco-terrorist, called Anhangá by the magazine, is a member of the Sociedade Secreta Silvestre (Sylvester Secret Society – SSS), which presents itself as the Brazilian branch of Individualists Tending to the Wild (ITS), a Mexican organisation with alleged presence in Chile, Brazil, Greece, Spain and the UK. The group was founded in 2011 and members refer to themselves as eco-extremist. They have been investigated for promoting attacks on politicians and businessmen in several countries. ITS is a right-wing group vaguely inspired by the Unabomber (Ted Kaczynski), although they say they disagree in terms of strategy.

The Unabomber was a supposedly anarcho-individualist terrorist opposed to science and technology, who had universities as main targets of his letter bombs between 1978 and 1995. The ITS is responsible for a series of bombs sent through mail to businessmen in Mexico – just like the Unabomber – as well as of placing bombs in public places all over the country.

ITS claims to have attacked several targets all over the world, yet there’s no credible evidence proving whether these isolated attacks were indeed perpetrated by a single organised group or if they have a real active cell in Brazil who claims to have detonated a pressure cooker bomb outside a shopping mall in Brasilia in 2016, days before the Olympic Games took place in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

It is unknown if the threats against the President’s life are credible or just a stunt. An inside job similar to the attacks perpetrated prior to the imposition of AI5, Institutional Act No. 5 of December 1968, was carried out by a group of 14 policemen from the former Public Force (as the Military Police of São Paulo was called at the time). The perpetrators executed a series of bombings, at least one bank robbery, among other crimes that ended up being attributed to the left.

The AI5 suspended the mandate of congressmen who oppose the military who seized power in the 1964 Military Coup, and culminated in the suspension of any constitutional guarantees to opponents of the regime, beginning a period of indiscriminate torture by the state.

Brazil has a long history of terrorism, particularly promoted by the state or far-right paramilitary groups. The years of the dictatorship were punctuated by resistance from small left-wing guerrilla groups and, on the right, groups such as the CCC (Command of Hunting Communists) hunted down alleged communists – in addition to state violence, with torture, deaths and disappearances that have not been clarified to date.

During the Dilma Rousseff administration, the anti-terrorism law was approved and soon after its approval, a group of 15 supposedly Islamic State Brazilians supporters were discovered. According to authorities, they were planning to attack during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. They were arrested by the Federal Police within the Operation Hashtag and 8 people were convicted of penalties ranging from 5 to 15 years in jail.

To this day the case is still shrouded in mystery and according to the public defender’s office, the suspects had their rights of defence severely curtailed.

Bolsonaro was stabbed during the electoral campaign and, in an interview in July, he said he was aware of the recent threat against his life. “The Bureau of Institutional Security was aware. The risk of any world leader or me being attacked will always exist”, he said.

According to Veja’s report, the Brazilian Federal Police is also aware of the possible threat posed by the alleged terrorist group and has been hunting down its members who, would have already attempted to carry out at least three attacks in the Federal District, where Brasilia, the country’s capital, is located.

There was an aborted attempt on the president’s life during his inauguration, a bomb placed in front of a Catholic church in the city of Brazlândia, about 50 km distance from the presidential palace (that failed due to an issue with the detonator), on December 2018. Also, in April of this year two cars from IBAMA, an environmental inspection agency, were burned and graffiti was found in the area with death threats to the environment minister, Ricardo Salles.

With poor and flawed English, the SSS published a long note about its activities on the website that is considered the official ITS portal. They describe ITS as not of the left or the right, rather “far beyond politics” and “a nihilist group of an extremist ecological tendency,” denying any links to Bolsonaro and claiming 2016’s attack and complaining about a series of “fake news” about the organisation and its activities.

In January, police said they arrested three suspects for being members of the SSS. The group, however, mocked the police in a statement saying that “you made a mistake, stupid,” adding that “until today, they have never touched one of our fingers: the Secret Society remains free and in touch”. The suspects were later released for lack of evidence.

What is known so far is that only two attacks claimed by the group actually happened, one with burnt IBAMA cars and the pressure cooker bomb. None of them caused victims. All other attacks or attempts have failed and the police seem to have no idea who is responsible – or even if they are actions of the same group.

Experts consulted by InsideOver, however, point to the irresponsibility of Veja magazine in the face of many doubts and a threat to the president’s life, ensuring the group’s spotlight by amplifying its message.

L'articolo Terrorism in Brazil? Obscure Eco-Terrorists Threaten President’s Life proviene da InsideOver.

(Minaçu) – Albertino de Oliveira is a broken man. He has seen seven members of his family die in the past ten years. “My wife, my father, a brother, three uncles, a cousin, “ says the man with white hair at the age of 54. His family members all have something in common: they were all employees of the asbestos mine in the city of Minaçu. 

Albertino has a list of 30 people who suffer from mesothelioma or have spots on their pleura. These are illnesses typical of asbestos workers. Besides some of the names, Alertino writes the letter “F” or “falecidos”, that is, deceased.

From 1973 to 1988, he also worked in the mine, bagging the fibers. “Fifteen years of work in a cloud of dust with pieces of cotton up my nose serving as my only form of protection,” he says. He is not sick yet, but it is a struggle for those who have breathed the fiber for years that are dying today.

Albertino has calculated that in the coming years, around 500 people will develop medical issues related to asbestos, among whom many will be former employees of the mine but also those who simply lived in the area, that up until 1987 were totally immersed in the white asbestos dust. 

In this area of the state of Goiàs, found 400 kilometers north of Brasilia, in the center of Brazil, the former employees don’t have a voice. Some have received settlements, others are trying to years after leaving the company, still without having their illnesses recognised. La Sama, already owned by the most infamous company, even in Italy, Eternit, have almost always obtained extra-judicial agreements with all its victims, so as not to be cited in any penal proceedings. In Minaçu, a city in which around 30 thousand people live, criticising asbestos puts the only local employer in danger. “The town was born with asbestos and it will die with it” says Albertino.

Around 70% of the taxes collected by the local government come from mining activities. WIth a total of 300 thousand tonnes extracted every year, it is the third largest asbestos mine on the planet, ones in Russia and Cananda. 

And the only one still active in Latin America. Around 13% of all asbestos sold around the world comes from Minaçu.

For those form Sama, asbestos is not dangerous, not when it is carefully managed, for example, by limiting the contact between workers and the asbestos dust. 

“The workers were forced to work with masks and uniforms, carefully washing themselves at the end of each shift. The mine extraction sites, today, are sprayed with large volumes of water pumped by out by trucks in order to remove the dust,” explains Adelman Araujo, president of the labour union for the asbestos workers in Minaçu, which knows that asbestos can cause cancer, but denies every case of contamination in the city. “Of the 16 thousand people that have worked in the mine since it opened in 1967, only 2% have become sick as a result on the handeling of asbestos, Minaçu is not a city that causes cancer” the sindicate says. From a number of 396 to 13, and all the while, cancer has already found its victim in a small, humble house warmed by the strong afternoon sun. Maria de Lourdes opens the gate, she takes refuge in the shade and the sweat that covers her tired face dries. On one of the walls, there is a photo of her husband, Claudivino, who died in 2002 at the age of 56. “A mesothelioma killed him, he suffered unbearable pain. “ From 1977 to 1990, he worked in the mine. “At night, when he returned from the site, he threw up endless amounts of blood,” Maria de Lourdes continued. “He had so much pain in his lungs that even drinking water was an ordeal. He knew that this was a sign of something being wrong, they always hid the fact that asbestos kills.”

La Sama has never taken responsibility for the deaths of its workers. The widow has never received any compensation. She has not even had access to the autopsy of her husband. On his death certificate, the doctors of Sama describe the man as a person of fragile health and the cause of death as the excessive consumption of alcohol. “Claudivino never drank a drop of alcohol,” Marina de Lourdes told us. 

There are several similar cases to this in Minaçu. According to a document sent out in August 2012 by the minister of health, between 2000 and 2010 2,400 people died as a result of asbestos related illnesses. The trend is of a rapid increase in the number of cases in the past few years, the study concluded.

Minaçu, “the great mine” in the language of Tupi Guarani, may, however, have its days numbered, as in November of 2018 the supreme court of Brazil prohibited the extraction and the use of asbestos in all domestic territories, but in the following December, Rosa Weber, president of the supreme court, suspended this measure, pending its official publication, which a year later has still not taken place with no future previsions expected. La Sama (Ethernit), today, continues to extract asbestos. 

“If it were to close it would be a disaster for Minaçu, the mine has 500 workers and 400 service providers,” says Adelman Araujo, the sindicate, who continues “it indirectly sustains 15 thousand people If it closes, 70% of residents will flee the city.”

In front of his house, Albertino bends down to take a piece of bitumen raised by the heat. “Here, we walk on asbestos,” he says showing the white misty fiber on the tar. The asphalt, which was recently resurfaced, is made up of rocks derived from the mine. 

In Minaçu, the road from hell is littered with good intentions. 

L'articolo The mine that kills proviene da InsideOver.