Second Round of Elections in Brazil Splits Church
High tensions in the runup to the runoff elections held on October 30th spilled over into the Church and pulpit in Brazil as Jair Bolsonaro courted the Catholic vote.
High tensions in the runup to the runoff elections held on October 30th spilled over into the Church and pulpit in Brazil as Jair Bolsonaro courted the Catholic vote.
CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic social justice organizations which includes the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, issued the following statement after the collapse of a mine waste dam in Brunadinho, Brazil.
The words and actions of Jair Bolsonaro as president-elect and on his first day as president paint a dark picture for Brazil.
The Brazilian small-scale farmers movement led a hunger strike in the first week of December as part of the massive protests against what some have called the most socially regressive austerity package in the world.
On February 16, attorneys general from 15 countries met in the capital of Brazil to exchange information related to the Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht and its involvement in corruption scandals in their countries.
Southeastern Brazil has been devastated by toxic mud due to a dam that burst at an iron-ore mine in November. Brazil is calling it the worst environmental disaster in its history.
Within Brazil, national news programs and newspapers dedicate extensive coverage to several corruption scandals, which has contributed to growing anger toward President Dilma Rousseff and her affiliated Workers Party (PT).
While unable to win the World Cup this year, Brazil has become the champion in another, more important area, becoming the country with the largest reductions in the rates of deforestation and carbon emissions.
Dave Kane wrote the following update on Brazil’s debt for the November-December 2013 NewsNotes.
While it was progressive organizations like the Free Pass Movement (MPL) that organized the marches, this year, with complaints about public services, as the protests grew in size, conservative forces tried to take control of the marches to make them appear to be a generalized clamor against President Dilma Rousseff.
February 12 marks the eighth anniversary of the death of Sr. Dorothy Stang, SNDdeN, in Brazil.
The following update was provided by Maryknoll Fr. Dan McLaughlin and was published in the November-December 2012 NewsNotes.