Brazil regulator rejects Sputnik vaccine; Russia cries foul

April 27, 2021

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's health regulator cited safety concerns while rejecting several states' requests to import almost 30 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, prompting criticism from the Russian government.

The five-person board of the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency unanimously decided late Monday that consistent and trustworthy data required was lacking for approval of the requests from 10 states, according to a statement. Another four states and two cities have also sought authorization to import the vaccine.

The agency, known as Anvisa, said there were faults in all clinical studies of the vaccine’s development, as well as absent or insufficient data. The agency statement said that analysis indicated that the adenovirus on which the vaccine is based has the capacity to replicate, which could cause sickness or death, particularly among those with low immunity or respiratory problems. The Russian fund overseeing the vaccine's marketing globally denied the claim.

“We will never permit, without the existence of due proof required, millions of Brazilians to be exposed to products without the due proof of their quality, safety and efficacy or, at minimum, in the face of the grave situation that we’re living through, a favorable cost-benefit relationship,” Anvisa’s president Antônio Barra Torres said in the statement.

Anvisa’s decision doesn’t affect a separate request from Brazilian company Uniao Quimica for emergency use authorization of Sputnik V produced locally, according to an emailed statement from Anvisa’s press office.

Still, it came as a blow to Russia’s efforts to promote worldwide adoption of the vaccine, whose exports have helped it regain diplomatic footholds in countries where relationships had languished. “We need additional information on what this lack (of data) means, because there’s already more than enough data," Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a daily briefing.

“The contacts (with Brazil) will continue. If some data is lacking, it will be provided,” he added. The Russian Direct Investment Fund said in a three-page statement that “no replication-competent adenoviruses were ever found in any of the Sputnik V vaccine batches produced.”

It was also more pointed in its criticism, saying that dozens of national health regulators have approved Sputnik V and Anvisa's decision was “of a political nature and has nothing to do with the regulator’s access to information or science.”

The fund pointed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2020 annual report, which said in a section titled “Combatting malign influences in the Americas” that it had convinced Brazil to not to buy the Russian shot. The U.S. Embassy in Brazil has denied exerting any pressure regarding vaccines approved by Brazil’s health regulator, and Brazil's foreign ministry has denied being contacted.

Daniel Dourado, a Brazilian doctor and lawyer who is a researcher at the University of Sao Paulo, said on Twitter that he doubted politics played any role in Anvisa's decision, as that would have required its directors to lie in their analysis. He added that, while the state governors’ hurry is understandable, Anvisa is correctly fulfilling its duty.

Brazil hasn't lived up to its proud tradition of mass vaccination programs in this pandemic, with the Health Ministry ignoring early opportunities to purchase shots and facing shortages locally of vaccines it did acquire. The country has the world's second-highest death toll, and will surpass the milestone of 400,000 deaths this week. The majority of that staggering tally came in just the last four months.

One of Anvisa’s directors, Cristiane Rose Jourdan Gomes, acknowledged the sensitivity of its decision since making available an array of vaccines is a priority in fighting COVID-19. She said she hopes Sputnik V can bring its information in line with requirements.

Denise Garrett, vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute that advocates for expanding global vaccine access, and who is Brazilian herself, also voiced support of Anvisa on Twitter. “There is no way to approve Sputnik V with the information available at the moment,” she said.

AP reporter Daria Litvinova contributed from Moscow.

UK bans travel from South America over Brazil variant fears

January 15, 2021

LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom is banning travel from the whole of South America and Portugal amid concerns over a new variant of the coronavirus in Brazil, authorities announced Thursday. British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that as of 4 a.m. Friday, arrivals from more than a dozen countries, including Argentina, Chile and Peru, will be halted “following evidence of a new variant in Brazil.” Outside South America, the Cape Verde islands off the west coast of Africa and Panama in Central America were also slapped with travel bans.

And in a move that prompted consternation in Portugal, Shapps said travel from that country would also be halted because of its close links with Brazil, though there are exemptions for truck drivers from Portugal transporting essential goods. He said on Twitter that the move is "another way to reduce the risk of importing infections.”

The restrictions also apply to the Portuguese archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores. The ban does not apply to British and Irish nationals and third country nationals with residence rights in the U.K. However, anyone returning from the banned destinations must quarantine themselves for 10 days with their households.

The announcement comes just a few weeks after many countries banned travel from the U.K. following the discovery of another variant of the virus around London and southeastern England, which has been blamed for a sharp in new coronavirus infections and deaths related to COVID-19.

Brazil, for example, temporarily suspended flights from or via the U.K. as of Dec. 25 over concerns over that variant, which is believed to be around 50% more contagious. Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva called the U.K. decision “absurd” and “without logic” and said he would seek clarification from his British counterpart.

In an interview with news agency Lusa published online by the newspaper Diario de Noticias, he said there was no evidence the variant found in Brazil had reached Portugal and stressed that all passengers traveling from Brazil to Portugal must be tested for the coronavirus within 72 hours of their departure.

“Suspending flights from Portugal with the argument of the connections between Portugal and Brazil is, with all due respect, completely absurd,” the foreign minister was quoted as saying.

Serbia eyes restrictions; virus spreads in US, Brazil, India

July 09, 2020

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — The European nation of Serbia mulled how to curb accelerating coronavirus infections following two nights of clashes involving anti-lockdown demonstrators, while the virus showed no sign of slowing Thursday in the countries with the highest caseloads — the United States, India and Brazil.

The three nations on separate continents are accounting for more than 60% of new confirmed cases, according to recent tallies from Johns Hopkins University. India on Thursday reported 25,000 new cases; the United States on Wednesday reported just short of the record 60,000 cases set a day earlier, and Brazil reported nearly 45,000.

Much of Europe appeared to have put the worst of the crisis behind it, at least for now. But Serbia has emerged as a new focus of concern — and of unrest. The country's crisis team was expected to reimpose a ban gatherings in the capital, Belgrade and to limit the cafe and night club operations following a spike in infections that officials say threatens the Serbian health system.

It wasn't clear whether officials would reintroduce a weekend curfew, the initial announcement of which triggered violent protests in Belgrade and other cities. Critics accuse President Aleksandar Vucic of letting the crisis spin out of control by lifting an earlier lockdown to allow for an election that tightened his grip on power.

Rock-throwing demonstrators this week fought hours-long running battles with special police forces who used tear gas to disperse them. Vucic said in an Instagram post on Thursday that the government would control the unrest.

Flare-ups of new virus cases are causing concern in several parts of the world, and in some cases leading to the reintroduction of restrictions on public activity. In France and Greece, officials warned that residents were too frequently ignoring safety guidance. The French government's leading coronavirus adviser, Jean-Francois Delfraissy, lamented that “the French in general have abandoned protective measures.”

“Everyone must understand that we are at the mercy of a return (of the virus) in France,” Delfraissy said. “It suffices to have one super-spreader in a gathering and it will take off again.” Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said authorities were “determined to protect the majority from the frivolous few.” He said the government may announce new restrictions, if needed, on Monday.

Pestas said authorities were focused on the rising number of cases in nearby Balkan countries and tourists who traveled to Greece over the land border with Bulgaria. In Australia, which had initial success containing the outbreak, authorities on Thursday reported 179 new cases, most in Melbourne, where authorities are battling a resurgence and have imposed a new six-week lockdown.

Victoria state Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said six new cases were from a Melbourne high school which has become the state’s largest known cluster, with 113 people infected. More than 2,000 students and hundreds of staff are in quarantine.

Tokyo confirmed more than 220 new cases Thursday, exceeding its record daily increase from mid-April and prompting concerns of widening of the infections. Tokyo’s more than 7,000 cases are about one-third of Japan's total.

“It’s a wake-up call,” Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike told reporters. “We need to use extra caution against the further spread of the infections.” Experts on Tokyo’s virus task force said the majority of recent cases were linked to night clubs but rising infections from households, workplaces and parties raised concerns the virus is spreading in the wider community.

Hong Kong moved to tighten social-distancing measures after it reported 42 new infections on Thursday. Rules for restaurants, bars and fitness centers will be tightened for two weeks starting Saturday.

In India, research by the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai shows that the reproduction rate of the virus ticked up in the first week of July to about 1.2 after it had steadily fallen from a peak of 1.8 in March. The rate needs to be below one for new cases to start falling.

The head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would be wise to prepare for the worst-case scenario as virus=related deaths passed 12,000 and confirmed cases climbed fast on that continent. A day after confirmed virus cases across Africa surpassed half a million, the total was over 522,000 and climbing. Testing levels are low, so the actual number of cases is unknown.

’We’ve crossed a critical number here,” Africa CDC chief John Nkengasong said of the half-million milestone. “Our pandemic is getting full speed.” In the U.S., the number of confirmed cases has passed 3 million — meaning nearly one in every 100 people has been confirmed as infected — and the death toll in the pandemic is more than 132,000.

U.S. President Donald Trump remains determined to reopen America’s schools despite worries about the virus, and on Wednesday threatened to hold back federal money if school districts don't bring their students back in the fall.

Despite Trump’s pressure, New York City announced that most of its students would return to classrooms only two or three days a week and would learn online in between. A growing chorus of public health experts is urging U.S. officials to reconsider how they are reopening the broader economy, and to prioritize schools. That effort that will likely require closing some other establishments like bars and gyms to help curb the virus spread.

Perry reported from Wellington, New Zealand. Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Associated Press reporters around the world contributed to this report.

Beijing sees drop in virus cases as Brazil passes 1 million

June 20, 2020

BEIJING (AP) — China’s capital recorded a further drop in coronavirus cases amid tightened containment measures while Brazil surpassed more than 1 million confirmed infections, second only to the United States.

Officials reported 22 new cases in Beijing on Saturday, along with five others elsewhere in China. There are no new deaths and 308 people remain hospitalized for treatment. South Korea recorded 67 new cases, the largest 24-hour increase in about three weeks. Most of them come from the densely populated Seoul area, where about half of the country’s 51 million people reside. Many cases have been linked to exposure in nightlife outlets.

The head of the World Health Organization said Friday the pandemic is “accelerating” and that more than 150,000 cases were reported the day before — the highest single-day number so far. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva that nearly half of the newly reported cases were from the Americas, with significant numbers from South Asia and the Middle East.

Brazil’s Health Ministry said the total number of cases had risen to by more than 50,000 from the previous day. President Jair Bolsonaro still downplays the risks of the virus after nearly 50,000 fatalities in three months. He says the impact of social isolation on Brazil’s economy can be more deadly.

The new coronavirus has infected more than 8.5 million people worldwide and killed more than 454,000, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The actual number is thought to be much higher because many cases are asymptomatic or go untested.

South Africa and Ethiopia say they are recommending the limited use of the commonly available drug dexamethasone for all COVID-19 patients on ventilators or supplementary oxygen. South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said “this breakthrough is excellent news for us and we are especially fortunate that it came as we are preparing for our upcoming surge” in cases. South Africa has about 30% of the virus cases on the African continent, or more than 87,000.

French authorities are keeping a close eye on signs of an accelerating spread of the coronavirus in Normandy, a region that’s until now been spared the worst of the outbreak that has hit Paris and the east of France particularly hard.

Britain lowered its coronavirus threat level one notch, becoming the latest country to claim it’s getting a national outbreak under control. Meanwhile, Germany reported the country’s highest daily increase in virus cases in a month after managing to contain its outbreak better than comparable large European nations.

The emergencies chief of the World Health Organization has confirmed that China shared coronavirus sequences from its latest outbreak with the global community and says it appears the virus was imported to Beijing from strains circulating in Europe.

At a press briefing on Friday, Dr. Michael Ryan noted that “strains and viruses have moved around the world” throughout the pandemic. Ryan said that many viruses in New York “were of European origin” but that doesn’t mean Europe necessarily was the original source.

He says analysis of the genetic sequences so far suggests that the virus spread to people in China from other humans instead of jumping from animals directly into humans.

Associated Press journalists from around the world contributed to this report.

Overworked, underpaid Brazil nurses risk lives to care for patients

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (SPX)
Jun 10, 2020

Hans Bossan is 40 hours into his 72-hour work week, but despite his marathon nursing shifts and the pandemic claiming an alarming number of his colleagues' lives in Brazil, he barely looks tired.

Bossan works three jobs to provide for his wife and two-year-old daughter -- at two different hospitals and a mobile emergency unit.

Double and triple shifts like his are not unusual in Brazil, where the average salary for nurses, nursing assistants and health care technicians is just 3,000 reals ($600) a month for a 30- to 44-hour work week.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has thrust health care workers into the spotlight around the world, has in Brazil also highlighted the plight of nurses, who often face bad working conditions and are now getting sick and dying from COVID-19 at a startling rate.

"Nursing was always an overworked profession, and this pandemic has just made things worse," said Bossan, 41.

"We're highly undervalued. Nurses deal directly with patients, with the virus, we're on the front lines of the war. But not everyone realizes that," he told AFP at his home in a poor neighborhood on the eastern outskirts of Rio de Janeiro.

Nurses have been hit particularly hard as Brazil has become the latest epicenter in the pandemic, with 39,680 deaths, behind only the United States and Britain.

Around 18,000 nurses in Brazil have been infected with COVID-19, and at least 181 have died -- among the highest numbers in the world, according to the International Council of Nurses.

Last month, nurses protested in the capital, Brasilia, against the poor working conditions they blame for contributing to their colleagues' deaths.

Brazil accounts for nearly one-third of the 600 deaths among nurses and other health professionals registered worldwide by the International Council of Nurses, though the organization says many countries are not doing enough to track the real number.

- 'Anxiety and depression' -

More than 80 percent of Brazil's 2.3 million nurses are women.

Often they work double and triple shifts caring for patients and then go home to care for their own families -- now with the added worry of infecting them.

"It's a time of great anxiety and depression" for the profession, said Nadia Mattos, vice president of Brazil's Federal Nursing Council (Cofen).

When the initial flood of cases hit Brazil's hospitals, health care workers faced shortages of protective equipment and inadequate training on dealing with the new virus, she said.

Although the situation has improved with time, "we're still getting lots of complaints about lack of protective gear or low-quality equipment," she said.

The council has set up virtual psychological counseling for nurses, available 24 hours a day.

The group has also pushed for years for nurses' minimum salary to be increased to $1,200 a month, double the current average.

- Heroes without capes -

One of Bossan's jobs is in the intensive care unit at Che Guevara Hospital in Marica, about 60 kilometers (35 miles) outside Rio.

Working behind a face shield with a mask underneath, he monitored the constantly beeping machines helping to keep his patients alive.

One of them, 56-year-old Eliane Lima, thanked her health care team from behind her oxygen mask.

"The doctors and nurses are excellent here. They take care of us with a lot of love. It's badly needed in a place like this," she said.

Outside, in the semi-intensive care ward, nurse technician Flavia Menezes summed up her profession thus: "It's the art of caring for people."

Source: Terra Daily.
Link: https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Overworked_underpaid_Brazil_nurses_risk_lives_to_care_for_patients_999.html.

Brazil edges toward being next big coronavirus hot spot

April 28, 2020

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil is emerging as potentially the next big hot spot for the coronavirus amid President Jair Bolsonaro’s insistence that it is just a "little flu” and that there is no need for the sharp restrictions that have slowed the infection’s spread in Europe and the U.S.

As some U.S. states and European countries moved gradually Monday to ease their limits on movement and commerce, the intensifying outbreak in Brazil — Latin America's biggest country, with 211 million people — pushed some hospitals to the breaking point, with signs that a growing number of victims are now dying at home.

“We have all the conditions here for the pandemic to become much more serious," said Paulo Brandão, a virologist at the University of Sao Paulo. Brazil officially reported about 4,500 deaths and almost 67,000 confirmed infections. But the true numbers there, as in many other countries, are believed to be vastly higher given the lack of testing and the many people without severe symptoms who haven’t sought hospital care.

Some scientists said over 1 million in Brazil are probably infected. The country is heading into winter, which can worsen respiratory illnesses. Worldwide, the death toll topped 210,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. The number of dead in the U.S. surpassed 55,000 — close to the 58,000 U.S. troops killed during the Vietnam War. Italy, Britain, Spain and France accounted for more than 20,000 deaths each.

In other developments:

— U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that deaths in the United States from the coronavirus could reach as high as 70,000, after putting the number at 60,000 several times earlier this month.

— The Trump administration worked to draw up new guidelines for how restaurants, schools, churches and businesses can safely reopen. The administration also unveiled a “blueprint” for states to scale up their virus testing in the coming week. Still, there were doubts from public health experts that the new testing targets were sufficient.

— The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded the list of people to be prioritized for virus testing to include those who show no symptoms but are in high-risk settings such as nursing homes.

— British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to work after a bout with the virus and warned strongly against easing his own country’s lockdown too soon: “I refuse to throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and to risk a second major outbreak and huge loss of life."

— New York canceled its Democratic presidential primary, set for June 23, since Bernie Sanders has already conceded the nomination to Joe Biden. In a bit of encouraging news, the state reported 337 deaths for the lowest daily count this month, down from nearly 800 almost three weeks ago.

— Massachusetts recorded its 3,000th known death from the virus. The state is “still in the surge and very much in the fight against COVID-19,” Gov. Charlie Baker said. In Brazil, Bolsonaro has disputed the seriousness of the coronavirus and said people need to resume their lives to prevent an economic meltdown. But most state governors in the country have adopted restrictions to slow the spread and pushed people to stay at home.

In mid-April, Bolsonaro fired his popular health minister after a series of disagreements over efforts to contain the virus, replacing him with an advocate for reopening the economy. Residents protested, leaning out their windows to bang pots and pans.

Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse or too overwhelmed to take any more patients. Officials in Sao Paulo — the largest city in South America, a tightly packed metropolitan area of over 21 million residents, many living in poverty — have issued death certificates over the past two weeks for 236 people who succumbed at home, double the number before the outbreak, according to the SAMU paramedic service.

Manaus, an Amazon city of 1.8 million, recorded 142 deaths on Sunday, the most yet, including 41 who died at home. In the main cemetery, workers have been digging mass graves. Brazil's funeral industry warned last week that the city was running out of coffins and "there could soon be corpses left on corners.”

In the U.S., the governors of Nevada and Colorado announced their states will join California, Oregon and Washington state in coordinating their reopenings. The governors of all five states are Democrats.

In Georgia, where Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has let businesses reopen, restaurants received the go-ahead to resume dine-in service as long as they follow certain restrictions, including keeping tables 6 feet (2 meters) apart.

At Plucked Up Chicken & Biscuits in Columbus, Georgia, eight regulars showed up in the morning to have their coffee and breakfast and “chatted at each other across the room,” manager Alesha Webster said. But only 10 customers could be inside at a time, well below the capacity of 45.

Alex Brounstein, owner of the Atlanta-based chain Grindhouse Killer Burgers, had no plans to reopen right away. “You’re talking about people putting their mouths on things in your restaurant. You now have dirty dishes going back into your kitchen. To me, it’s just completely illogical,” he said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday outlined a slow reopening, allowing restaurants, retailers, movie theaters and malls to start letting customers trickle into their establishments starting Friday. The state has one of the world's largest economies.

Technology is likely to play an important role in helping countries ease their restrictions. Many countries, including Italy, France, Switzerland and Britain, are working on virus-tracking apps and other means of reducing the labor-intensive task of tracing infected people's contacts.

In Australia, with about 80 COVID-19 deaths, 1.1 million of the country's 26 million people downloaded a new contact-tracing app within 12 hours of its becoming available.

Biller and De Sousa reported from Rio de Janeiro and Geller from New York. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Virus tamed in New Zealand, while Brazil emerges as hot spot

April 28, 2020

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Surfers in New Zealand hit the waves at dawn, builders returned to construction sites and baristas fired up their espresso machines as the nation eased a strict lockdown Tuesday amid hopeful signs the coronavirus has been all but vanquished Down Under — at least for now.

But elsewhere, Brazil was emerging as a potential new hot spot for infections, and fresh doubts were raised over whether Japan would be able to host the already postponed Olympic Games next year. Europe and some U.S. states were also continuing to gradually ease limits on movement and commerce as they tried to restart their economies.

But in a reminder of the virus's increasing toll, President Donald Trump said the numbers of deaths could reach 70,000 in the U.S., after putting the number at 60,000 several times earlier this month.

With the number of new cases waning, New Zealand's government loosened its lockdown, which for more than a month had shuttered schools and most businesses, and only allowed people to leave their homes for essential work, to get groceries or to exercise.

Most students will continue studying from home and workers are still required to work from home if they can, while everyone is required to maintain social distancing. But restaurants can now reopen for takeaway orders, construction can restart, and golfers and surfers can play.

New Zealand reported just three new infections on Tuesday and the country's health authorities said they’re winning the battle against the virus. Nevertheless they cautioned people not to get complacent and to maintain social distancing.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said people had done an incredible job to break the chain of transmission, but cautioned they needed to remain vigilant. Quoting a microbiologist, Ardern said “there may still be some smoldering ashes out there, and they have the potential to become a wildfire again, if we give them the chance.”

In Australia, authorities reopened Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach to swimmers and surfers on Tuesday and hundreds returned to the water as soon as the restrictions were lifted. People can only use the beach during daylight hours, cannot linger on the sand and are counted to ensure social distancing.

In Japan, a top medical expert said he thinks it will be difficult to hold the Olympics in 2021 without an effective coronavirus vaccine. “I hope vaccines and drugs will be developed as soon as possible,” said Yoshitake Yokokura, the president of the Japan Medical Association.

Japan and the International Olympic Committee agreed to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games until July next year due to the pandemic. Japan is under a monthlong state of emergency amid a rapid increase of infections throughout the country, where hospitals are overburdened.

In Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro has insisted COVID-19 is just a “little flu” and that there is no need for the type of restrictions that have slowed the infection’s spread in Europe and the U.S. Brazil has reported 4,600 deaths and 67,000 confirmed infections. But the true numbers are believed to be vastly higher given the lack of testing and the many people without severe symptoms who haven’t sought hospital care.

Medical officials in Rio de Janeiro and at least four other major cities have warned that their hospital systems are on the verge of collapse or are too overwhelmed to take any more patients. There are also signs that a growing number of victims are now dying at home. Brazil is Latin America's biggest country, with 211 million people.

“We have all the conditions here for the pandemic to become much more serious,” said Paulo Brandão, a virologist at the University of Sao Paulo. Bolsonaro has disputed the seriousness of the coronavirus and said people need to resume their lives to prevent an economic meltdown. But most state governors in the country have adopted restrictions to slow the spread and pushed people to stay at home.

In other developments, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to work after a bout with the virus and warned strongly against easing his own country’s lockdown too soon: “I refuse to throw away all the effort and the sacrifice of the British people and to risk a second major outbreak and huge loss of life.”

And New York canceled its Democratic presidential primary, set for June 23, since Bernie Sanders has already conceded the nomination to Joe Biden. The state reported 337 deaths for the lowest daily count this month, down from nearly 800 almost three weeks ago.

The number of confirmed infections in the U.S. has risen to nearly 1 million, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, although the true number is likely much higher because not everybody who contracts the virus is tested.

Worldwide, the death toll topped 210,000. The number of dead in the U.S. surpassed 56,000. Italy, Britain, Spain and France accounted for more than 20,000 deaths each.

Biller reported from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed to this report.

Trump floats idea of Brazil becoming NATO member

Washington (AFP)

March 19, 2019

President Donald Trump raised the possibility Tuesday that Brazil could become a member of NATO as he hosted far-right President Jair Bolsonaro for security talks at the White House.

"I... intend to designate Brazil as a major non-NATO ally or even possibly, if you start thinking about it, maybe a NATO ally," Trump told reporters in the Rose Garden.

"I have to talk to a lot of people, but maybe a NATO ally, which will greatly advance security and cooperation between our countries."

Asked earlier as he hosted Bolsonaro in the Oval Office whether Brazil should be granted NATO privileges, Trump replied: "We're looking at it very strongly. We're very inclined to do that."

"The relationship that we have right now with Brazil has never been better," Trump added. "I think there was a lot of hostility with other presidents. There's zero hostility with me.

"And we're going to look at that very, very strongly in terms of whether it's NATO or something having to do with alliance."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which marks 70 years since its founding in April, last month cleared the way for Macedonia to become its 30th member.

Trump has been unstinting in his criticism of NATO's European members, accusing them of freeloading on the protection offered by the US military while not spending enough on their own armed forces.

Before taking office Trump called NATO "obsolete" and soon after a NATO summit last July summit he questioned whether the US would honor the alliance's founding principle of mutual defense for newest member Montenegro.

Source: Space War.

Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Trump_floats_idea_of_Brazil_becoming_NATO_member_999.html.

Brazil leans toward unsparing vision of far-right Bolsonaro

October 09, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The far-right former army captain who looks likely to become Brazil's next president promised nothing short of a complete overhaul of Latin America's largest nation, vowing Monday to combat the evils of corruption by gutting government ministries and privatizing state companies. He also pledged to promote traditional values that would roll back the rights of gays and other minorities.

With his pledge of "Brazil above all," Jair Bolsonaro has catapulted from the fringes of Congress, where he served as a member of marginal parties for 27 years, to a stone's throw from the presidency. A rabble rouser who has reminisced fondly about dictatorship and promised an all-out war on drugs and crime, he just missed outright victory in Sunday's vote and will face former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad of the leftist Workers' Party in an Oct. 28 runoff.

Bolsonaro only needs a few more points to secure victory, and Haddad's supporters vowed Monday to launch a tough fight to make up ground after their candidate finished a distant second. The election was a seismic shift for this nation of more than 200 million people, where the left has won the past four elections but deep divisions have opened in the wake of a massive corruption scandal and the 2016 impeachment of then-President Dilma Rousseff. Brazil's move fits into a global trend among voters — in the United States and Europe, among other places — who are choosing anti-establishment and often far-right or populist candidates who target minorities and promise a return to "traditional values."

"The evils and damages of corruption hurt the people in many ways. It's they who don't have a bed in the hospital, who don't have security in the streets or money in their pockets," Bolsonaro tweeted Monday. "A corrupt government encourages crime in all spheres."

His solution? "Reduce the number of ministries, get rid of and privatize state companies, fight fraud in (a popular social welfare program for low-income families) ... decentralize power giving more economic force to the states and municipalities," he said on Twitter, one of his favorite forms of communicating.

Bolsonaro's Social and Liberal Party was a tiny, fringe group until the candidate began surging in the polls through his use of social media and carefully orchestrated rallies. Bolsonaro has often praised Donald Trump, and his campaign took many pages from the U.S. president's playbook, from his echoing of Trump's "America First" slogan, to bashing the mainstream media to using the candidate's adult children as proxies.

Bolsonaro's party took a whopping 52 seats in the lower house of Congress — up from just one in the last election — giving it 10 percent of that house and making it the second-largest party after the Workers' Party, with 56.

If elected, Bolsonaro has promised a total overhaul of Brazil's government. The proposals that have attracted the most attention — and criticism — focus on how he would slash rising crime rates. Brazil has long been the world leader in homicides, with a record 63,880 people slain last year, according the Brazilian Public Security Forum, an independent think tank.

To this thorny problem, Bolsonaro has proposed simple solutions: Give police more freedom to shoot first and give ordinary people freer access to guns. Critics have expressed concern that police violence, already a major contributor to the high homicide rate, will only worsen if police are given carte blanche.

"Bolsonaro is very good at picking a one-sentence summary of the issue and a one-sentence solution to the issue and then one name to resolve it," said Matthew Taylor, an associate professor of Latin American politics at American University.

While Brazilians say that deteriorating security is one of their major concerns, crime — and efforts to crack down on it — have become almost a metaphor in Bolsonaro's campaign. He has painted a Brazil not only at war with criminals but, in many ways, with itself.

Bolsonaro often uses crime as a lens through which to sketch out a broad indictment of the left: What he calls its coddling policies toward the poor, marginalized and criminal and its push to protect the rights of minorities at what he says is the expense of the majority.

He has vowed to end the designation of indigenous lands, saying such reserves impede development and give special privilege to native peoples that others don't get. His education policy calls for removing "premature sexualization" from schools, a nod to criticism from the right that "leftist ideas" like sex education have taken hold in the curriculum and morality is absent.

In an interview Monday with a friendly radio station, Bolsonaro indicated he would not change his hard-line views on issues like gay marriage. The constitution "recognizes the stable union between a man and a woman," he said, adding: "We can't think that gays can have super powers" to influence laws.

Many are concerned that his veneration of the armed forces, including his praise of the country's 1964-1985 dictatorship, signal that he will erode democratic values and rule with an authoritarian hand. He has said he will surround himself with former military officers, like his running mate who is a retired general.

In an interview late Monday with Brazil's most watched TV news program, Bolsonaro pledged to be "a slave of the constitution." "My administration will have authority, not authoritarianism," he said. While Bolsonaro was expected to come out in front Sunday, he far outperformed predictions, blazing past competitors who had more financing, the institutional backing of traditional parties and much more free air time on television. His first-place finish with 46 percent of the vote — just short of the 50 percent-plus needed for an outright win — came after an unpredictable campaign in which the front-runner, former President Luiz Inacio da Silva, was barred from running after being jailed on a corruption conviction.

Bolsonaro himself was stabbed and forced to campaign from a hospital bed for several weeks. But the attack allowed him to pick and choose his media appearances and largely speak to his supporters through social media. He will likely face much tougher scrutiny and questioning by reporters over the next three weeks.

Supporters of Haddad, who got 29 percent of the vote, promised a tough fight Monday that included forcing Bolsonaro to engage in policy debates. Brazilians have a lot to be angry about. Since 2014, they've watched slack-jawed as prosecutors detailed how many in government manipulated public contracts and promised favors in exchange for billions of dollars in kickbacks and bribes. Much of that focused on the Workers' Party, and many voters cited a desire to root out corruption in their choice of Bolsonaro.

Brazil has also just emerged from a protracted recession, unemployment is high and crime is rising. Haddad has leaned on a narrative of returning to better times: He promises to bring back the boom times Brazil experienced under his mentor, da Silva, and has portrayed an unequal society hijacked by an elite that can't bear to see the lives of poor people improve. He has promised to fight those inequalities, invest more in education and improve state services.

"Public security is a public service, to give guns to the population is to exempt the state from protecting citizens," Haddad told reporters Monday after he visited da Silva in jail.

DiLorenzo reported from Sao Paulo. Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

Da Silva's candidate vows to be his own man in Brazil

September 13, 2018

SAO PAULO (AP) — In his first full day as the presidential candidate for Brazil's Workers' Party, Fernando Haddad pledged Wednesday to be his own man if elected and not bow to financial markets or the interests of other countries, including the United States.

His promise to be his own man came a day after he replaced former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as the left-leaning party's candidate in October's election and apparently was directed at perceptions that he will be beholden to his jailed friend and political ally.

Da Silva was barred from running because of a corruption conviction and on Tuesday his Workers' Party officially chose Haddad, who was to have been da Silva's vice presidential running mate, to lead its ticket.

Haddad's comment about not bowing to financial markets came after Brazil's main stock exchange fell whenever da Silva improved his position in the polls and jumped after his presidential bid was barred.

They want a president "to whom the financial markets can say what they want and what they don't want. What (U.S. President Donald) Trump wants or what Trump doesn't want," said the 55-year-old former mayor of Sao Paulo to a crowd.

Haddad said unpopular President Michel Temer did not have the authority to stand up to U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who visited the South American nation in August. "The American secretary came here to tell our government what to do," Haddad said.

Haddad spoke at a meeting with beneficiaries of education programs started during da Silva's presidency, between 2003 and 2010. The presidential hopeful was Brazil's education minister from 2005 to 2012, the year he was elected mayor. Four years later he lost re-election by a landslide.

Asked about the influence da Silva would have if he wins, Haddad said the former president is "an inspiration," but called his party's program for the 2018 election of "our Gospel." "It has my signature and it has Lula's too," he said.

While da Silva has publicly endorsed Haddad as the Workers' Party presidential candidate, many wonder whether supporters of da Silva — who had held a clear lead in all polls — will actually listen and back Haddad, who until now had relatively little appeal?

The designation of Haddad comes only four weeks before Brazil's first round of voting on Oct.7. If none of the candidates reaches 50 percent plus one vote - as is expected - there will be a runoff on Oct.28.

A Datafolha poll published on Monday shows Haddad in fourth place, favored by just 9 percent of those surveyed. That was a rise of 5 percentage points in just a few weeks, but still behind rightist congressman Jair Bolsonaro's 24 percent, left-leaning Ciro Gomes' 13 percent, centrist Marina Silva's 11 percent and right-leaning Geraldo Alckmin's 10 percent.

The poll had a margin of error of 2 percentage points. All the 2,804 voters sampled were interviewed on Monday, days after da Silva's candidacy was barred by the electoral court and Bolsonaro was stabbed in an incident that might put him in hospital until election day.

Da Silva is serving a 12-year sentence for trading favors with construction company Grupo OAS for the promise of a beachfront apartment. The former president has always denied wrongdoing, arguing this case and several others pending against him are meant to keep him off the ballot.

Brazil's da Silva names successor, but will voters follow?

September 12, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — In a letter from his jail cell, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called on tens of millions of supporters to vote for the man he named to lead his Workers' Party ticket in October's presidential election.

"I want everyone who would vote for me to vote for Fernando Haddad for president of Brazil," da Silva, who Brazilians universally call Lula, said on Tuesday, the deadline for the party to pick another candidate after da Silva's candidacy was barred. "From now on he will be Lula for millions of Brazilians."

While long anticipated, the formal designation of Haddad both settled one question and launched another: Will da Silva's supporters actually listen? The two men are close in their political views and said to be friends, but for many voters in Latin America's largest nation they are also very different.

While da Silva is easily the country's most recognizable politician after being president between 2003 and 2010, Haddad is largely unknown outside of Sao Paulo, where he was governor four years, a liability in a nation slightly larger than the continental U.S. While da Silva is charismatic and has an every-man touch, Haddad is a political science professor turned education minister who comes off as professorial. He also got trounced in his re-election bid as mayor in 2016, raising questions about how well he is at winning over voters.

Haddad, 55, also only begins his campaign in earnest on Wednesday, less than four weeks before voters go to the polls. Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper university, believes the strength of the party and da Silva's endorsement will be enough to help Haddad get to a second round of voting. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent on Oct. 7, as expected, the top two finishers will meet in an Oct. 28 runoff.

"He was introduced as the candidate very late, we have to see if there is time for him to get all the votes he needs," Melo said. Before running for mayor in 2012, Haddad served as education minister under da Silva and his predecessor, President Dilma Rousseff.

He was confirmed as the replacement to da Silva on Tuesday after a meeting of his party's executive committee in the southern city of Curitiba, where the former president is jailed for a corruption conviction. He will be joined on the ticket by Manuela D'Avila, a member of Brazil's Communist Party.

Recent polls show Haddad with less than 10 percent of voter intentions, but the party hopes he will now rise with da Silva's endorsement. The current poll leader is far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro.

A Datafolha poll published on Monday shows Haddad in fourth place, favored by 9 percent support. That was a rise of 5 percentage points in just a few weeks, but still behind Bolsonaro's 24 percent, left-leaning Ciro Gomes' 13 percent, centrist Marina Silva's 11 percent and right-leaning Geraldo Alckmin's 10 percent.

The poll had a margin of error of 2 percentage points. All the 2,804 voters sampled were interviewed on Monday, days after da Silva's candidacy was barred by the electoral court and Bolsonaro was stabbed in an incident that might put him in hospital until election day.

The move to put Haddad on the top of the ticket was an acknowledgement that the left-leaning party could not get da Silva on the ballot despite numerous attempts in the courts. One of the last appeals of the former president was denied by Brazil's top court after Haddad was announced as his replacement.

Haddad met with da Silva after the decision, then delivered his first speech as the candidate in front the federal police building where da Silva is jailed. "I feel the pain of many Brazilians who won't be able to vote for who they want," he said, standing next to D'Avila and other Workers' Party heavyweights. "But now is not the time to have your head down."

Da Silva is serving a 12-year sentence for trading favors with construction company Grupo OAS for the promise of a beachfront apartment. The former president has always denied wrongdoing, arguing this case and several others pending against him are meant to keep him off the ballot.

Da Silva led polls for more than a year, but his candidacy was recently barred by the country's top electoral court. The strategy of holding on to da Silva's candidacy until the last minute caused much internal fighting within the party. Many believed that leaving Haddad so little time to present his case to voters was risky, while others thought it was best to keep da Silva front and center as long as possible.

Since the beginning of the year the Workers' Party hinted Haddad could be the candidate. When he was named candidate for vice president in mid-August the choice became obvious. "Haddad and I are like Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez," da Silva once said, referring to superstar teammates on FC Barcelona's soccer club. "We play together and we don't even need to look at each other to know what the other is doing."

Brazil race begins in earnest with da Silva off party ticket

September 11, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's Workers' Party on Tuesday replaced jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as its candidate for October's general election, clarifying one of the biggest question marks hanging over the vote to lead Latin America's largest nation.

The party confirmed the move after a meeting of its executive committee in the southern city of Curitiba, where da Silva is jailed. Fernando Haddad, a former Sao Paulo mayor, will lead the ticket and be joined by Manuela D'Avila, a member of Brazil's Communist Party.

The move, while long expected, was an acknowledgement that the party could not get da Silva, who Brazilians universally call Lula, on the ballot despite numerous attempts in the courts. "The struggle has just begun. Let's go, Haddad! Haddad is Lula!" the Workers' Party Twitter account said. "He was a Lula minister, he is a Lula attorney and best of all: he is a friend of Lula's."

The political science professor turned education minister and later politician met with da Silva Tuesday after the decision, then delivered his first speech as the candidate in front of hundreds of supporters in front the federal police building where da Silva is jailed.

"I feel the pain of many Brazilians who won't be able to vote for who they want," said Haddad, standing next to D'Avila and other Workers' Party heavyweights. "But now is not the time to have your head down."

Da Silva is serving a 12-year sentence for trading favors with construction company Grupo OAS for the promise of a beachfront apartment. The former president, who governed between 2003 and 2010, has always denied wrongdoing, arguing this case and several others pending against him are meant to keep him off the ballot.

Da Silva led polls for more than a year, but his candidacy was recently barred by the country's top electoral court. The court gave the party until Tuesday to replace da Silva. In a lengthy letter distributed by the Workers' Party, da Silva recounted what he called "lies and persecution" that he and his family had suffered and urged supporters to vote for Haddad.

"Today and going forward, Fernando Haddad will be Lula for millions of Brazilians," wrote da Silva. The strategy of holding on to da Silva's candidacy until the absolute last minute caused much internal fighting within the party. Many believed that leaving Haddad so little time to present his case to voters was risky, while others thought it was best to keep da Silva front and center as long as possible.

"Haddad and I are like Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez," da Silva once said, referring to super star teammates on FC Barcelona's soccer club. "We play together and we don't even need to look at each other to know what the other is doing."

Rival candidates have frequently taken shots at Haddad, attacking the centerpiece of the party's strategy: his dependence on da Silva. Brazil will have "a little president" if Haddad is elected, said left-leaning candidate Ciro Gomes last month.

"The theater of the Workers' Party is over," right-leaning Geraldo Alckmin said Tuesday. Recent polls show Haddad far behind, but the party hopes he will now rise with da Silva's endorsement. The current poll leader is far-right congressman Jair Bolsonaro, consistently over 20 percent in a race that puts several candidates at around 10 percent.

Haddad was education minister under da Silva and his successor, Dilma Rousseff. In 2012 he was elected mayor of Sao Paulo, the most populous city in South America, but failed to get re-elected four years later.

A Datafolha poll published on Monday shows Haddad in fourth place, favored by 9 percent. That was a rise of five percentage points in just a few weeks, but still behind Bolsonaro's 24, Gomes' 13, centrist Marina Silva's 11 and Alckmin's 10 percent.

The poll had a margin of error of 2 percentage points. All the 2,804 voters sampled were interviewed on Monday, days after da Silva's candidacy was barred by the electoral court and Bolsonaro was stabbed in an incident that might put him in hospital until election day.

If no candidate gets more than 50 percent on Oct. 7, a runoff will be held on Oct. 28. Political science professor Alberto Almeida, who has written several books on Brazilian polls, believes Haddad has a lot of potential to gain popularity, despite the little time for his campaign.

"By next week, it is possible that Haddad grows enough to see Marina and Ciro behind him. That was predictable because of Lula's high support at around 40 percent in the polls," Almeida said, adding: "The race is clearer now."

After Rio museum fire, questions about cause, what survived

September 04, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Forensic investigators and researchers awaited access Tuesday to the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, gutted in a fire, to find out how the blaze began and what remains of the 20 million artifacts that made the museum one of the most important in Latin America.

After a fire tore through the museum Sunday, engineers were doing tests on the structure to make sure it wouldn't collapse. Authorities had expressed concern Monday that internal walls and parts of the roof were weak.

The museum held Latin America's largest collection of historical and scientific artifacts, and officials suggested that the damage could be catastrophic, with one official telling a Brazilian news outlet that as much as 90 percent may have been destroyed.

The cause of the fire was not known. Federal police will investigate since the museum was part of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. But protesters, commentators and museum directors themselves said years of government neglect had left the museum so underfunded that its staff had turn to crowdfunding sites to open exhibitions. In another example of struggling public services, firefighters initially struggled to contain it because the hydrants closest to the museum did not work. Instead, trucks had to gather water from a nearby lake.

Roberto Leher, rector of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, said it was well known that the building was vulnerable to fire and in need of extensive repairs. In fact, the institution had recently secured approval for nearly $5 million for a planned renovation, including an upgrade of the fire-prevention system, but the money had not yet been disbursed.

On Monday, officials promised $2.4 million to shore up the building and promised to rebuild the museum. "Those saying that the museum will be rebuilt are not telling the truth," said Luiz Philippe de Orleans e Braganca, an heir to Brazil's last emperor. "The building could be rebuilt, but the collection will never again be rebuilt. Two hundred years, workers, researchers, professors that dedicated in body and soul (to the museum) ... the work of their life burned due to the negligence of the Brazilian state."

The museum, whose main building was once home to the royal family, had extensive paleontological, anthropological and biological specimens. It also contained a skull called Luzia that was among the oldest fossils ever found in the Americas. It held an Egyptian mummy and the largest meteorite ever discovered in Brazil — one of the few objects that officials could confirm had survived. Some parts of the collection were held at others sites and thus spared.

Luiz Fernando Dias Duarte, the museum's deputy director, said that anything held in the main building was likely destroyed, and Cristiana Serejo, a vice-director of the museum, told the G1 news portal that maybe around 10 percent of the collection had survived.

For many in Brazil, the state of the 200-year-old natural history museum quickly became a metaphor for what they see as the gutting of Brazilian culture and life during years of corruption, economic collapse and poor governance.

Brazil has struggled to emerge from a two-year recession and seen its political and corporate elite jailed in Latin America's largest corruption investigation. The country has been riven with deep political divisions following the impeachment and removal of former President Dilma Rousseff.

DiLorenzo reported from Sao Paulo.

Brazil leftist party insists on banned candidate da Silva

September 02, 2018

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil's main leftist party said Saturday it's sticking with former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as its presidential candidate even though the electoral court has thrown him off the ballot for an election just five weeks away.

Da Silva's vice presidential running mate, former Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad told reporters the Workers Party will continue pushing to somehow get da Silva, 72, who easily leads in the polls, back on the ballot.

"The people are sovereign regarding the party's candidate. And that candidate is Lula," Haddad said. That strategy would keep da Silva in the spotlight until the absolute last minute, perhaps rallying support from backers that could then be transferred to a stand-in, likely Haddad, who is much less popular or charismatic.

The electoral court voted 6-1 early Saturday to reject da Silva's candidacy because of a corruption conviction that has been upheld on appeal. Da Silva and the party are appealing both the conviction and the electoral court ruling.

The ruling had been widely expected and there were no immediate street protests of the sort that occurred when the former president was initially arrested. Da Silva, who was wildly popular when he left office on Jan. 1, 2011, is now a sharply polarizing figure. Many Brazilians still revere him for pulling millions from poverty during his eight years in power.

But he and the Workers' Party have lost much of that appeal over the last several years due to a stumbling economy under his hand-picked successor Dilma Rousseff and a sprawling corruption probe that has ensnared many top businessmen and politicians, including da Silva.

That division was clear in the reaction to the electoral court ruling. "We have a big debt with Lula," said Thiago Renato, a 39-year-old IT specialist in the northeastern city of Recife. "We trust him here. I will vote for whoever he endorses because then I will know who will have the biggest impact for the poor," he added. "I know Haddad, but I don't know him well. If he is the candidate, he will have my vote."

At a Sao Paulo coffee shop, Alexandre Fonseca- 21 year old medical student, called the court decision an "unfortunate and fully expected ruling," one unlikely to be overturned on appeal. "The party must unite behind Haddad or whoever will replace Lula, to win the elections and give continuity to his legacy," he said.

But Virginia Toledo, a 37-year-old housewife in Sao Paulo, said da Silva's ouster means "we have another reason to celebrate." "First he was jailed and now his chances of returning to power have been eliminated," she said, while buying ice cream for her 10-year-old daughter

"We have to pray that Haddad or whoever the Workers' Party chooses as its candidate for president does not win the election," she added The former president is serving a 12-year-sentence for corruption and money laundering after being convicted of trading favors with construction company Grupo OAS in exchange for the promise of a beach house apartment.

As part of the ruling, Justice Luis Roberto Barroso said the Workers' Party should replace da Silva within 10 days, and that he should not appear as a presidential candidate in free airtime that is given to political parties on nationwide TV and radio.

However the party used the first day of free campaign TV airtime on Saturday to denounce the electoral court ruling in a spot that featured filed footage of da Silva. Left-leaning candidate Ciro Gomes of the Democratic Labor Party said the electoral court's ruling was "not a good thing for Brazil."

"No matter how much Lula is detested in some sectors and no matter how he is idolized in others, to prohibit the country's biggest popular leader from taking part in the electoral process is traumatic."

Lula da Silva barred from running for Brazil's presidency

September 01, 2018

SAO PAULO (AP) — Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been barred from Brazil's October presidential election by the country's electoral court despite easily leading in the polls — a ruling that adds uncertainty to the race to lead Latin America's largest nation, leaving no clear favorites.

In a session that stretched into the early hours of Saturday, the justices voted 6-1 against the once hugely popular president, who is imprisoned on a corruption conviction he claims is a sham. Da Silva's left-leaning Workers' Party issued a statement vowing to appeal, but there appeared to be scant chance it would succeed. That would seem to leave the party's fortunes in the hands of its current vice presidential candidate Fernando Haddad, a former Sao Paulo mayor who so far has polled in single digits and would have to count on the borrowed charisma of da Silva to succeed.

Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso cast the first vote against da Silva, saying the ruling was "very simple" because the law forbids candidates whose conviction has been upheld on appeal. "There is no margin here for the electoral court to make any other evaluation but the one showing there is a conviction, and that conviction matters in the candidate's eligibility," Barroso said.

Justice Edson Fachin disagreed, citing a recent call by a U.N. human rights committee calling for da Silva to be allowed to run while he further appeals his conviction. Even as the justices were debating, the Workers' Party put out ads on social media channels featuring da Silva, holding fast to a strategy to keep the former president front and center as long as possible.

The former firebrand union leader led Brazil during a booming period from 2003 and 2010, promoting social policies that pulled millions from poverty. U.S. President Barack Obama once called him the "most popular politician on earth."

But da Silva and party have lost much of that appeal over the last several years due to a stumbling economy under his hand-picked successor Dilma Rousseff and a sprawling corruption probe that has ensnared many top businessmen and politicians, including da Silva.

The 72-year-old ex-president is serving a 12-year-sentence for corruption and money laundering after being convicted of trading favors with construction company Grupo OAS in exchange for the promise of a beach house apartment.

Justice Barroso said the Workers' Party should replace da Silva within 10 days, and that he should not appear as a presidential candidate in free airtime that is given to political parties on nationwide TV and radio starting on Saturday.

In a statement late Friday, the Workers' Party said it would appeal the electoral court ruling, just as da Silva is fighting to overturn his corruption conviction. With da Silva out of the race, Haddad was expected to take his place on the Workers' Party ticket. Polls show tepid support for his bid, but the party hopes da Silva's popularity could boost the former mayor's hopes.

On Saturday, Haddad was scheduled to visit Garanhuns, a city in Brazil's impoverished Northeast where da Silva was born.

Brazil party names jailed leader as presidential nominee

August 05, 2018

SAO PAULO (AP) — The Workers' Party in Brazil named jailed former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Saturday as its nominee for the country's top job in October's election. Delegates of the left-leaning party confirmed da Silva, who served two terms as Brazil's president between 2003 and 2010, with enthusiastic approval at a convention in Sao Paulo.

The former president is likely to be barred by Brazil's electoral court, though. Since April, the former president has been jailed on a corruption conviction, but he denies any wrongdoing and claims he is being politically persecuted.

Da Silva leads polls for the office by a large margin, and surveys show voters would lend their support to another Workers' Party candidate if he cannot participate. The party is not expected to name his running mate until Monday.

In a recorded message to the convention, da Silva said that "it is those that sentenced me that are jailed in a lie." "Brazil needs to restore its democracy, find itself and be happy again," he said. "They might lock me up, shut me up, but I will keep my faith in the Brazilian people."

After his nomination was approved, another message written by da Silva was read aloud. "They already brought down a president that was elected and now they want to veto the right of the people to elect their next president. They want to invent a democracy without people," he said.

Meanwhile, other candidates criticized da Silva and his party. "It pains my heart, but I don't expect anything from them now," said left-leaning presidential hopeful Ciro Gomes, of the Democratic Labor Party.

Conservative Geraldo Alckmin, who was named by the Social Democracy Party as its presidential nominee Saturday, cast blame for the country's 13 million unemployed. "It was the lies and the radicalism that created the chain of events that is the tragic heritage of the Workers' Party," he said.

Workers' Party chairwoman Gleisi Hoffmann, who is trying to lure other left-leaning parties to the ticket, addressed supporters at the convention after two fringe parties endorsed da Silva's run. "They tried to exclude Lula from the political discussion," she said. "There is no political discussion in Brazil without Lula and the Workers' Party."

Centrist Marina Silva was also nominated by the Rede party on Saturday. Polling third, Silva will bid for the presidency for a third time. But this time her campaign isn't nearly as structured as in previous opportunies.

"We are here maybe in a much harder situation, but we trust that this time our position will beat the establishment," she said at the convention of her Rede party.

Brazil's top court rules against da Silva on prison

April 05, 2018

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's top court voted narrowly in the early hours Thursday to turn down an attempt by former President Luiz Inacio da Silva to stay out of jail while he appeals a corruption conviction, a decision that will have widespread implications in this polarized nation.

After nearly 11 hours of often heated debate, the justices of the Supreme Federal Tribunal voted 6-5 to deny da Silva's preventative habeas corpus request to stave off a 12-year jail sentence while he fights a conviction in a case that he argues was nothing more than a ploy to keep him off of October's presidential ballot.

Despite the conviction and several other corruption charges pending against him, da Silva leads all preference polls for the election. The decision means he will likely be jailed soon, though probably not until at least next week thanks to various technicalities.

Within minutes of the decision, da Silva's Workers' Party, which held Brazil's presidency from 2003 to 2016, put out a tweet that foreshadowed the struggles to come. "The Brazilian people have the right to vote for Lula, the candidate of hope," it read. "The Workers' Party will defend this candidacy on the streets and in every court until the last consequences."

The court's debate underscored how fraught the matter is at a time of high tension and angst in Brazil, which is struggling to emerge from a crippling recession and is four years into a major corruption scandal that has ensnared much of the country's elite, including da Silva.

"The constitution secures individual rights, which are fundamental to democracy, but it also assures the exercise of criminal law," said Chief Justice Carmen Lucia, who cast the deciding vote after spending much of the session being criticized by colleagues.

Justice Gilmar Mendes, traditionally a critic of da Silva, voted in favor of the former leader's petition to stay out of jail, challenging his colleagues to buck pressure from society. "If a court bows (to pressure), it might as well not exist," said Mendes.

Justice Luis Roberto Barroso argued that the integrity of the justice system was at stake. "A penal system that doesn't work with minimal effectiveness leads to an instinct for taking justice into one's own hands," said Barroso, who voted against the petition.

Justice Rosa Weber, who legal analysts predicted would be key because there was much doubt about her position on the matter, voted against da Silva. In one of several brisk exchanges, after Weber's vote, justice Marco Aurelio Mello accused Lucia of plotting against da Silva's case. Mello said limiting the vote just to the habeas corpus petition and not the larger question of when a convict should be forced to begin serving a sentence helped sway Weber's vote.

"I want this to be registered in the court's records," Mello told Lucia, who responded by saying "yes" to the request. The session reflected the debate happening across Brazil as millions tuned into the televised session. When the decision was leveled, fireworks and yells could be heard and seen in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, two of the nation's most important cities.

Da Silva was once wildly popular after his two terms as president from 2003 to 2010, but he has become a polarizing figure amid the "Car Wash" corruption scandal that has roiled Brazil the last several years and made average citizens furious with the political class.

Da Silva was convicted in July of helping a construction company get sweetheart contracts in exchange for the promise of a beachfront apartment. He denies any wrongdoing in that case or in several other corruption cases that have yet to be tried. An appeals court upheld the conviction in January, and the three reviewing magistrates even lengthened the sentence to 12 years and one month.

Technically, the Supreme Federal Tribunal's decision doesn't keep da Silva off the ballot. The country's top electoral court makes final decisions about candidacies beginning in August, but it has been expected to deny da Silva's candidacy under Brazil's "clean slate" law, which disqualifies people who have had criminal convictions upheld.

Thursday's decision was about much more than the future of a once towering politician trying to make a comeback. Many legal observers had said that allowing da Silva to stay out of jail could have a big impact on all the other cases related to "Car Wash" and other white-collar criminals with the means to continue appealing.

Congressman Jair Bolsonaro, a right-leaning legislator who is running second in the polls behind da Silva, summed up what many da Silva detractors were likely thinking. "Brazil hopes that after today's vote Sergio Moro is able to order his arrest to show corruption doesn't work," Bolsonaro said while demonstrating outside Congress in Brasilia during the session. "We should never do politics like this again. Crooks should not have votes. They should have a cell."

The Tuxá Indigenous Paradise, Submerged under Water

The Tuxá Indigenous Paradise, Submerged under Water

By Fabiana Frayssinet

RODELAS, Brazil, Sep 30 2017 (IPS) - The Tuxá indigenous people had lived for centuries in the north of the Brazilian state of Bahia, on the banks of the São Francisco River. But in 1988 their territory was flooded by the Itaparica hydropower plant, and since then they have become landless. Their roots are now buried under the waters of the reservoir.

Dorinha Tuxá, one of the leaders of this native community, which currently has between 1,500 and 2,000 inhabitants, sings on the shore of what they still call “river”, although now it is an 828-sq-km reservoir, in the northeastern state of Pernambuco, along the border with the state of Bahia, to the south.

While singing the song dedicated to their “sacred” river and smoking her “maraku”, a pipe with tobacco and ritual herbs, she looks dreamily at the waters where the “Widow’s Island” was submerged, one of several that sprinkled the lower course of the São Francisco River, and on which the members of her community used to live.

“This song is to ask our community for unity, because in this struggle we are asking for the strength of our ancestors to help us recover our territory. A landless indigenous person is a naked indigenous person. We are asking our ancestors to bless us in this battle and protect our warriors,” she told IPS.

The hydroelectric plant, with a capacity of 1,480 megawatts, is one of eight installed by the São Francisco Hydroelectric Company (CHESF), whose operations are centered on that river which runs across much of the Brazilian Northeast region: 2,914 km from its source in the center of the country to the point where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean in the northeast.

After the flood, the Tuxá people were relocated to three municipalities. Some were settled in Nova Rodelas, a hamlet in the rural municipality of Rodelas, in the state of Bahia, where Dorinha Tuxá lives.

After a 19-year legal battle, the 442 relocated Tuxá families finally received compensation from the CHESF. But they are still waiting for the 4,000 hectares that were agreed upon when they were displaced, and which must be handed over to them by state agencies.

“What nostalgia for that blessed land where we were born and which did not let us lack for anything. The river where we used to fish. I have such nostalgia for that time, from my childhood to my marriage. We were indeed a suffering and stoic but optimistic people. We grew rice, onions, we harvested mangoes. All that is gone,” Tuxá chief Manoel Jurum Afé told IPS.

The new village is very different from the community where they used to live on their island.

Only the soccer field, where children play, retains the shape of traditional indigenous Tuxá constructions.

But the elders strive to transmit their collective memory to the young, such as Luiza de Oliveira, who was baptized with the indigenous name of Aluna Flexia Tuxá.

She is studying law to continue her people’s struggle for land and rights. Her mother, like many other Tuxá women, also played an important role as chief, or community leader.

“It was as if they lived in a paradise. They had no need to beg the government like they have to do now. They used to plant everything, beans, cassava. They lived together in complete harmony. They talk about it with nostalgia. It was a paradise that came to an end when it was flooded,” she said.

After three decades of living with other local people, the Tuxás stopped wearing their native clothes, although for special occasions and rituals they put on their “cocares” (traditional feather headdresses).

They welcomed IPS with a “toré” – a collective dance open to outsiders. Another religious ceremony, “the particular”, is reserved for members of the community. That is how they honour the “enchanted”, their spirits or reincarnated ancestors.

But they are also Catholics and very devoted to Saint John the Baptist, patron saint of Rodelas, which was named after Captain Francisco Rodelas, considered the first chief who fought alongside the Portuguese against the Dutch occupation of northeast Brazil in the 17th century.

Armando Apaká Caramuru Tuxá is a “pajé” – guardian of the Tuxá traditions.

“The waters covered the land where our ancestors lived. Many times I saw my grandfather sitting at the foot of a jua (Ziziphus joazeiro, a tree typical of the eco-region of the semi-arid Northeast), there on the island talking to them up there (in the sky),” he said.

“We lost all that. That place which was sacred to us was submerged under water,” he said, sadly.

The Tuxá people, who for centuries were fishermen, hunters, gatherers and farmers, practically gave up their subsistence crops in their new location.

Some bought small parcels of land and grow cash crops, such as coconuts.

“We need to improve our quality of life. Before we used to live on what we produced from agriculture and fishing. Today that is not possible, so we want to return to agriculture, and to do that we need our land,” Chief Uilton Tuxá told IPS.

In 2014, a decree declared some 4,392 hectares of land an “area of social interest” in order to expropriate it and transfer it to the Tuxá people.

In June of this year, they won a lawsuit in a federal court, which ruled that the National Indigenous Foundation (Funai) had three months to create a working group to begin the demarcation process. It also set a new compensation to be paid to the Tuxá people.

But distrustful of the state bureaucracy and the courts, the Tuxá people decided to occupy Surubabel, the area near their village, on the banks of the reservoir, which was expropriated in order for it to be demarcated in their favor, but this never happened.

They began to build a new village there, in what they call “the recovery” of their lands.

“The occupation of this land by us, the Tuxá people, represents the rekindling of the flame of our identity as an indigenous people native to this riverbank. We were already here, since the beginning of the colonization process, even in the 16th century when the first catechists arrived,” argued Uilton Tuxá.

“We want to build this small village for the government to fulfill its obligations and the order to delimit our territory,” he said.

During the week they have other activities. They are public employees or work on their plots of land. But on Saturdays they load their tools in their vehicles and build their houses in the traditional way.

“Nowadays a lot of land in this sacred territory of the Tuxás is being invaded by non-indigenous people and also by indigenous people from other ethnic groups,” chief Xirlene Liliana Xurichana Tuxá told IPS.

“We were the first indigenous people from the Northeast to be recognized and we are the last to have the right to our land. This is just the beginning. If the justice system does not grant us our right to continue the dialogue, we will adopt forceful measures, we will mobilize. We are tired of being the good guys,” she warned, speaking as a community leader.

Meanwhile, the small portion of their ancestral land that was not submerged, and the land they occupy now, are threatened by new megaprojects.

These lands were left in the middle of two canals, on the north axis of the diversion of the São Francisco River, a project that is still under construction, which is to supply 12 million people with water.

“The Tuxá people have suffered impacts, above and beyond the dam. There is also the diversion of the river and the possibility that they might build a nuclear plant will also affect us,” said Uilton Tuxá, smoking his marakú during a break.

They say the marakú attracts protective forces. And this time they hope these forces will help them to get the land promised to them when their ancestral land was taken away, and that they will not lose it again to new megaprojects.

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2017/09/tuxa-indigenous-paradise-submerged-water/.

Brazil's top court favors indigenous groups in land dispute

August 17, 2017

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's top court ruled Wednesday against a state that sought federal compensation for lands used to create three indigenous reserves, delivering a landmark decision seen as a defeat for groups trying to limit native land claims.

Mato Grosso, a large Brazilian state on the border with Bolivia, had argued the reserves were created in the 1960s on state lands. In an 8-0 decision, the Supreme Federal Tribunal disagreed, saying the land was owned by the federal government and it had the right to hand over the territory to the indigenous communities.

Sonia Guajajara, an indigenous leader from the northern state of Maranhao, called the ruling a "great conquest in a time when rights are being rolled back." Her comment alluded to claims by indigenous communities that their way of life has increasingly come under fire during the administration of President Michel Temer.

Last month, Temer signed a recommendation to block the demarcation of any land on which indigenous people were not living by 1988, the year of Brazil's latest constitution. Indigenous advocates rejected the proposal, arguing that many native communities had been violently forced from their lands before that date. They accuse Temer of signing the recommendation to cater to the interests of the powerful agribusiness bloc in Congress who he depends on to stay in power.

"It is conceivable that he will try to promote another similar measure" for the same reason, said Cleber Buzatto, spokesman for the Indigenous Missionary Council. There are more than 700 requests for the demarcation of indigenous land pending and Temer has not signed one of them during his 16 months in power.

Troops deploy in Rio de Janeiro amid increasing violence

July 29, 2017

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thousands of soldiers began patrolling Rio de Janeiro on Friday amid a spike in violence in Brazil's second-largest city. The deployment of 8,500 soldiers, plus hundreds of police and highway patrol officers, is aimed at fighting organized crime gangs, which control many of the city's hundreds of slums.

Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said patrols would soon start participating in operations against drug traffickers. That is a break from previous duties that were limited to patrolling, manning checkpoints and recovering caches of weapons seized during police raids. The operation is scheduled to run until the end of 2018.

Some troops began deploying in the afternoon, with trucks full of soldiers seen rolling over bridges and expressways. While the main efforts were concentrated in the city's north, where violence is most pervasive, armored vehicles were also patrolling the quiet surroundings of the Santos Dumont airport. As the sun set, a dozen soldiers with rifles in hand stood silhouetted against Guanabara Bay.

"I'm not really sure what they are doing here, since the crime they have to fight is in the other side of the city," said Almir Soares, a passer-by. He called the deployment a stunt, but then conceded that the military operation could deter violence where it is actually needed.

Three people on average were killed each day by stray bullets in the first six months of the year in Rio de Janeiro. That mounting number, plus criminal assaults and increasing shootouts between drug traffickers and police, have led authorities in recent weeks to acknowledge that much of the city is out of their control.

Last year, 85,000 troops were used to bolster security around the venues of the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio. Public security experts say Brazil's worst recession in decades is exacerbating the situation.