Why Eduardo Bolsonaro Was Sentenced to Prison by Brazil’s Supreme Court

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Wednesday sentenced former lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro — who is also imprisoned for attempted coup d'état —, to four years and two months in prison for attempting to coerce the judiciary through international pressure.

The 4-0 ruling by the court's first chamber found that Eduardo Bolsonaro used his personal ties with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to lobby for sanctions against Brazilian officials, specifically targeting Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The court characterized his actions as "coercion in the course of judicial proceedings," a crime involving the use of grave threats to favor the interests of a defendant, in this case, his father.

LOBBYING FOR SANCTIONS

The prosecution argued that Eduardo Bolsonaro, who moved to the United States in early 2025 and later had his congressional mandate revoked for absenteeism, actively sought to sabotage the Brazilian state. Evidence presented during the trial included his public boasts about influencing the Trump administration's decision to impose 50% tariffs on Brazilian exports and the revocation of visas for several Brazilian authorities.

"It is not the function of a Brazilian federal deputy to lobby abroad against their own country," the court noted, rejecting the defense's claim that his statements were merely "political alerts" rather than threats.

POLITICAL FALLOUT

The sentence, to be served in a semi-open regime, carries significant political consequences. Eduardo Bolsonaro has been declared ineligible for public office until 2038, effectively ending his aspirations to succeed his father as the leader of Brazil's conservative movement in the 2026 presidential race.

Eduardo Bolsonaro, who did not appoint a lawyer and was represented by a public defender, has dismissed the trial as a "political sham" and claimed the court failed to follow due process by notifying him via public notice instead of international legal instruments.

BROADER IMPACT

The conviction marks another blow to the political future of the Bolsonaro family and the Brazilian far-right. Jair Bolsonaro himself was recently placed on trial for an alleged coup attempt following his 2022 election loss. Analysts suggest that Eduardo's removal from the electoral field shifts the spotlight to his brother, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, as the family’s primary political heir — Flávio's name, in turn, has already been linked to him in the Banco Master scandal, which donated millions of reais to the film Dark Horse, regarding Jair Bolsonaro.

The U.S. government’s use of the Magnitsky Act to sanction the Supreme Court minister Alexandre de Moraes, a move Eduardo claimed credit for, has created unprecedented diplomatic friction between Brasília and Washington, as the Brazilian government views the sanctions as an interference in its internal judicial affairs.

Flávio Bolsonaro Caught on Tape Pushing Banker for Millions for Father’s Biopic

Leaked audio messages and bank records have revealed a $24 million (134 million reais) deal between Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and former banker Daniel Vorcaro to finance a biopic about former President Jair Bolsonaro, according to an investigation by Intercept Brasil.

The leak comes as Federal Police investigate whether the funds, ostensibly for the film "Dark Horse," were used to camouflage illicit transfers or finance political activities. Vorcaro, the former owner of Banco Master, was arrested in late 2025 in a separate federal operation.

THE DEAL

Documents show that at least $10.6 million (61 million reais) was transferred in six installments between February and May 2025. In audio messages, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro — the eldest son of the former president and current pre-candidate for the presidency of the republic — is heard calling Vorcaro "brother" and pressuring him for payments to "honor commitments" related to the film's production.

"Brother, I am and will always be with you, there is no half-talk between us," Flávio wrote to Vorcaro just one day before the banker’s arrest. "I just need you to give me a light!"

CONTRADICTORY CLAIMS

The leak has sparked a wave of denials and conflicting statements within the Bolsonaro circle:

• Flávio Bolsonaro: Confirmed asking Vorcaro for "private sponsorship" for a "private film about his father's history." He claimed 100% of the money was invested in the movie but cited confidentiality clauses for his previous silence on the matter.

• The Production Company: GOUP Entertainment issued a statement denying they received a "single cent" from Vorcaro or Banco Master, claiming the funding came from over a dozen other anonymous investors who fear "political persecution."

• Mário Frias: The former Culture Secretary and executive producer of the film initially denied Vorcaro’s involvement but later admitted a partnership with "Entre Investimentos," a firm linked to Vorcaro’s business interests.

FEDERAL PROBE

The Federal Police are now tracing the money trail. Investigators suspect that approximately $2 million was diverted to a Texas-based fund, Havengate Development Fund LP, managed by a legal associate of the senator’s brother, Eduardo Bolsonaro. Authorities are looking into whether the funds were used to cover Eduardo’s personal expenses in the United States.

Flávio Bolsonaro has denied any mismanagement, dismissing the allegations as political attacks. "It was a son looking for sponsorship," he told local media, defending the legality of the private investment.

Jornal Nacional, most-watched broadcast news program in Brazil, points possible reasons for Bolsonaro's impeachment

The Jornal Nacional, in its edition today, cited article 196 of the Brazilian Constitution, which recognizes the right of all citizens to health. The television program also cited Article 6 of the Brazilian Constitution, which states that health is a social right.

In addition, it was explained by the Jornal Nacional tv anchors that it is a crime of responsibility to violate social law according to Law 1,079 / 1950, in Articles 7 and 9.

Today, according to Al Jazeera website, "Brazil's coronavirus deaths have surpassed 100,000 deaths five months after the first reported case in a sign that the country has not contained the deadly disease".

While Brazil reaches half a million cases of COVID-19, with almost thirty thousand deaths, the country remains without a health minister and the president Bolsonaro rides a horse amid a demonstration as if nothing had happened

According to a survey carried out by the independent health data platform Functional Health Techo, the next July 6th will be the peak of contamination by COVID-19 in Brazil. On that date, the country will reach 1.78 million people with the coronavirus. This number, however, does not account for the cases of people recovered or who died.

According to the figures released by the state's health departments, Brazil currently has 514,992 cases of the new coronavirus (Sars-CoV-2), with 29,341 deaths, thus passing France in the number of deaths.

In the midst of this unprecedented health crisis, Brazil remains without a Minister of Health, a portfolio that is currently occupied temporarily by a military man who is not a doctor and has no experience in the area of public health. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, on the other hand, rode out on horseback to participate in a demonstration by supporters in Brasília.

Without a mask, Bolsonaro also greeted people crowded over the protective fence in the act in defense of his government. Thousands of people, many without protection (mask), gathered in front of the government headquarters.

The Brazilian financial market shows how much it is a segment that is completely detached from the reality of the country by simply disregarding the disastrous conduct of Bolsonaro's government in the fight against COVID-19 and the country's unprecedented political crisis

The disclosure of the video of the ministerial meeting in which President Jair Bolsonaro and several of his ministers committed, according to several jurists, crimes, including defending the arrest of ministers of the Supreme Court, was positively received by the Brazilian financial market.

As I had already written here, on August 27, 2019, by "betting on a possible liberal agenda of the then-the financial market was one of the biggest supporters of Jair Bolsonaro's candidacy".  

After the election, the Brazilian financial market has completely disregarded the fact that Bolsonaro's "government was largely unable to organize and lead the political debate around a reformist agenda. In fact, the statements of Bolsonaro and Guedes did more harm than good in assisting the approval work of the Social Security Reform. The main architect of this reform was the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, who at various times collided with Bolsonaro and even Paulo Guedes".

This assessment, completely mistaken in my view, continues today amid the chaos caused by COVID-19 and the political catastrophe of the crises that surround the current government, which no longer hides its anti-democratic intentions. The market continues to understand that the fact that Economy Minister Paulo Guedes is considered a strong name in the government is a positive thing. The problem is that Guedes, who is a liberal with an agenda considered outdated even by liberal economists like Monica de Bolle, will be forced now to adopt policies that he has been opposed to for a lifetime.

Several financial market analysts believe the Environment Minister's calling for environmental deregulation while public distracted by COVID and Guedes saying that the suspension of server readjustments is "grenade in the enemy's pocket", during this meeting, are the representation of liberal values!

This represents how ideological the assessment that a large part of the Brazilian financial market makes of the current government, which obviously undermines immensely a pragmatic analysis of what is really happening to the Brazilian economy.

Of the meeting that was released by the courts, only the attacks on China by members of the government, including the president himself, concern part of the Brazilian financial market.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's speech on national network scares investors

According to the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, President Jair Bolsonaro's speech distorted the global scenario about Covid-19. According to the newspaper, the president "criticized the closure of schools and commerce, contradicted guidelines from health agencies and attacked governors".

For Alexandre Almeida, from CM Capital, the statement by President Jair Bolsonaro may scare investors because of his lack of connection with reality.

These statements immediately provoked repudiation by congressmen, governors, in the Judiciary and in different sectors of society. A few minutes later, the president of the Brazilian Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, released an official note stating that "Brazil needs serious leadership, responsible and committed to the life and health of the population".

The president's speech is the main subject of Brazilian newspapers today: O Estado de S. Paulo states that Bolsonaro criticizes confinement and wants stores and schools open; O Globo publishes that Bolsonaro ignores the world orientation and criticizes isolation and closed schools; Correio Braziliense reports that speech caused perplexity.

Federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of President Jair Bolsonaro, becomes the center of a diplomatic crisis, after publicly blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic; allies of the Brazilian president distance themselves and Bolsonaro and he could suffer impeachment, according to Senator Major Olímpio

Since Thursday (19.03.2020), the Chinese Embassy in Brazil and Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro have been harshly accusing each other on social media. The Embassy of China even published a Twitter saying that the parliamentarian's speech is “absurd and prejudiced”. It all started after Eduardo blamed China for the coronavirus pandemic. The president's son blamed the Chinese government and compared Covid-19 to the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

In Brazil, Eduardo Bolsonaro's speech was widely criticized by the media, by Brazilian citizens (on Twitter) and even by Brazilian Vice President Hamilton Mourão said that Eduardo Bolsonaro's criticisms of China do not represent the government's position.

However, it is impossible to dissociate Eduardo's speech from Jair Bolsonaro's ideas. The relationship between the current president of Brazil with China has always been very complicated. During the presidential campaign, in 2018, Bolsonaro even said that China should buy Brazilian products and not "buy Brazil". Then, in 2019, during a visit to China, Bolsonaro said he was visiting a "capitalist country". Now, a member of the Bolsonaro clan decides to enter diplomatic conflict with Brazil's largest trading partner. In 2019, the trade balance with the Asian country had a surplus of another 30 billion dollars: Brazil exported 65.3 billion dollars, and imported 35.8 billion dollars.

Isolated government

According to the Congresso em Foco website, "President Jair Bolsonaro is losing support in the National Congress and in Brazilian society. Surrounded by daily national demonstrations, he is increasingly isolated.

In an exclusive interview with Congresso em Foco, a faithful ally to the president, the leader of the PSL in the Senate, Major Olimpio (SP), "says that decisive segments for the election of Bolsonaro in 2018, such as agribusiness, public security professionals and evangelicals, represented by the most influential benches in Congress, are distancing themselves from the president because of dissatisfaction with his government. Investors, he notes, also do not feel safe to bet on the country, due to the political instability created almost always by the president himself and your children".

According to a study by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), deforestation of Indigenous lands in Brazil increased in a scary way in 2019

According to a study made by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), deforestation is exploding in territories with the presence of isolated Indigenous peoples in the Amazon. Data from the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) point out that, "in 2019, the cutting of the forest in these lands grew 113%. In the total of all the Indigenous Lands (TIs), the increase was 80%". 

The figures are in an ISA report that will be presented today (03.03.2020), at the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations (UN).

The survey indicates that 42,679 hectares were illegally destroyed in 2019, the first year of the Jair Bolsonaro government, which considerably reduced environmental control policies in the country, which, in turn, contributed to the reduction of inspection, the increase in deforestation in public lands and, consequently, the violation of the rights of Indigenous peoples.

According to the report presented by ISA, "the outlook for isolated Indigenous peoples in Brazil, therefore, is devastating. With the explosion of deforestation and the destruction of forests and the advance of illicit practices, such as mining, illegal logging and land grabbing of land, the existence of these groups is seriously threatened".

Confirmation of a Coronavirus case (Covid-19) and president Jair Bolsonaro endorsing anti-democracy protests are the subjects of the most important Brazilian newspapers

The newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo states that the stock market falls 7% after the arrival of the coronavirus in Brazil. The Valor Econômico newspaper reports that coronavirus drops the stock market and companies lose R $ 260 billion. O Globo publishes that the arrival of coronavirus in Brazil causes the stock market to plummet 7% and Correio Braziliense reports that coronavirus causes losses of R$ 290 billion in just one day.

According to The New York Times, "a 61-year-old São Paulo man who returned recently from a business trip to Italy has tested positive for the coronavirus, Brazilian health officials said on Wednesday (26.02.2020), confirming the first known case in Latin America and sending a shudder through the entire region".

In addition, there is a huge criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro by a large part of the media, politicians, leaders of civil society institutions and members of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), such as Judge Celso de Mello, who said that " Bolsonaro is not up to the job if he supported an act against Congress".

According to The Guardian, "Jair Bolsonaro’s apparent endorsement of protests designed to cow Brazil’s democratic institutions has sparked outrage across the political spectrum with one lawmaker warning of a return to the dark days of dictatorship if the demonstrations are not opposed".

Evangelical preacher Ricardo Lopes Dias, who worked on a mission to evangelize Indigenous people in the Amazon, is appointed as general coordinator of Isolated Indigenous people, one of Funai's most sensitive sectors

The government of Jair Bolsonaro, through Funai (Brazilian National Indian Foundation), appointed evangelical preacher, anthropologist, and missionary Ricardo Lopes Dias to the General Coordination of Isolated Indians and Newly Contacted, the most technical position of the agency.

Lopes Dias is a theologian and served for many years in the New Tribes of Brazil Mission (MNTB), an organization that aims to evangelize indigenous people.

According to El País, the appointment of the anthropologist produced a series of criticisms made by Indigenous entities and servants of the Funai itself, who fear a change in the policy practiced in the country since the end of the military dictatorship: to protect these peoples without forcing any type of contact, as it happened before the re-democratization with the objective of "evangelizing" and "integrating" them into society.

For the Indigenous leader, Sonia Guajajara, with the indication of the evangelical preacher Lopes Dias, "the danger [for the Indigenous people] now comes from who has the duty to protect them", that is, Funai itself.

According to The Guardian, Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, a UN special rapporteur, says that Jair Bolsonaro’s ‘dangerous’ appointment of Ricardo Lopes Dias threatens remote Indigenous people. For her,  “this is a dangerous decision that may have the potential to cause genocide among isolated Indigenous people.”

According to the former Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, "the president of FUNAI changed the internal rules of the agency so that a person outside the staff of career servants would assume a commissioned function of leadership. He appointed Mr. Ricardo Lopes Dias to be the new coordinator of isolated and recently contacted Indigenous people".

For her, "an area that requires a lot of experience and technical knowledge cannot be held hostage by patronage, at the risk of returning to a policy of the time of the dictatorship that does not respect the condition of isolation of some Indigenous peoples".

Government of Jair Bolsonaro excludes the participation of civil society members of the National Environment Fund council

According to the website G1, The National Environment Fund (FNMA), managed by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment and responsible for promoting the development of sustainable activities in the country, distributing funds collected in forestry concessions, will no longer have the participation of members of civil society.

Until then, the council had the participation of representatives of the Brazilian Association of Environmental Entities (Abema), the National Association of Municipalities and Environment (Anamma), the Brazilian Forum of NGOs and Social Movements for the Environment and Development (FBOMS), of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science (SBPC). Now they will no longer have a say in FNMA decisions.

Paradoxically, during the presidential campaign that elected Jair Bolsonaro, one of the themes of the then-candidate and now president was "more Brazil, less Brasília". However, what is seen in government decisions is the exact opposite. By withdrawing civil society from FNMA discussions, the government is adopting a policy of more Brasilia and less Brazil.

Now, the FNMA will manage a budget of more than R $ 33 million without the participation of civil society. In 2019, the Bolsonaro government reduced the number of participants in the National Environment Council (Conama) from 22 to 4. Thus, "the more Brazil, less Brasilia" of the campaign is consolidated as an argument used to elect a government that increasingly decreases the power and participation of decision-making councils and forums in decisions and constantly and willingly distances itself from the interaction with representatives civil society.

After public pressure government gives up to tax solar energy in Brazil

Aneel (National Electric Energy Agency), the body that regulates the electric power sector in Brazil, wanted to change the current rule, which allows solar energy produced by those who have solar panels at home or in the company to be returned to the grid. Those who do this get discounts on their electric bills.

Therefore, according to the current rules for solar energy generation for own consumption in Brazil, the operation is simple: who produces more energy than it spends throws this surplus in the distribution network and gets the credits. Those who produce less than spend pay the difference to the distributor.

Aneel's proposal, defended by Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, has been the target of numerous criticisms. The public pressure was so great that President Jair Bolsonaro, Mayor Rodrigo Maia and Senate President Davi Alcolumbre publicly made a commitment not to change the rules on solar energy production in Brazil.

Aneel argues that those who receive this benefit are receiving subsidies, but, according to journalist Elio Gaspari, there would be subsidy "if the citizen consumed R$100 of kilowatts and only paid R$ 90. In this case, who has solar energy panels paid to distributors to the last penny for the energy it consumes".

The change in rules advocated by Aneel could increase the taxation of those who have solar panels by up to 60%, which for most experts could represent a huge setback for the area.

Brazilian agribusiness fears Iranian retaliation and calls for Brazil's neutrality in US versus Iran conflict

According to the Congress em Foco website, Brazilian agribusiness, the sector that most benefits from Brazil's trade transactions with Iran, which is the second-largest importer of corn, the fifth-largest buyer of soybeans and the sixth-largest beef producer in Brazil. 2019.

This concern is so great that the president of the Parliamentary Front of Agriculture, Deputy Alceu Moreira (MDB-RS), defended that Brazil remains neutral to avoid diplomatic problems that could harm business between the two countries.

Brazilian agribusiness has much to lose if the Bolsonaro government maintains automatic alignment with the Trump government.

The note from Itamaraty (Brazil's Foreign Ministry), which said it supported the "fight against the scourge of terrorism" and placed itself with the US in the conflict, drives away a major buyer of Brazilian raw materials.

#Iranbrazil: Iranian government asks Brazil for explanations of US support note; on twitter, Brazilian population asks Bolsonaro to be silent (#BolsonaroFicaCalado) and declare themselves against the war

According to the newspaper O Globo, Iran's Foreign Ministry asked the Brazilian diplomacy for explanations on Sunday about Brazil's position on the death of General Qassem Soleimani.

Tensions between the United States and Iran worry several world leaders. In Brazil, the population is also concerned, mainly compossible manifestations by the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro (without party), about the foreign impasse. For this reason, the country had Twitter users asking: #BolsonaroFicaCalado (a request for the president to be silent).

Iranian state TV even aired Brazilian messages on Twitter asking them not to be attacked. Brazilian netizens flooded Twitter with requests for Brazil to stay out of a possible conflict between the United States and Iran. There is even a meme with singer Gretchen, who went viral in recent days, which reads: warn that the Brazilian people do not agree with the opinion of the President of the United States."

2019 was a year of environmental tragedies in Brazil

The rupture of a Vale dam in Brumadinho (MG), deforestation and burning in the Amazon, and the dumping of oil on Brazilian beaches summed to the unfortunate and terrible statements of the president, Jair Bolsonaro, and the environment minister, Ricardo Salles, contributed to the aggravation of the crises.

In January, the rupture of the Vale dam at the Corrégo do Feijão in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, shocked Brazil and the world. To date, more than 260 deaths of employees of Samarco (a joint-venture between the Brazilian Vale and the English-Australian BHP, each one holding 50% of the company's stocks) and residents of the region have been confirmed. There are people that are still missing. For Greenpeace, what happened in Brumadinho was a "crime".

According to Greenpeace, "cases such as this, which may become more frequent with the easing of environmental licensing, cannot be considered accidents, but social and environmental crimes arising from greed and neglect."

Samarco itself is linked to the largest environmental disaster ever recorded in Brazil. The Mariana dam rupture in Minas Gerais killed 19 people and dumped tons of tailings polluting and destroying the Rio Doce basin and devastating the fauna and flora of the region. In the affected Rio Doce region, approximately 3.2 million people live.

According to the Repérter Brasil website, the Amazon burnings in 2019 were more frequently detected in cattle-producing regions near refrigerators than in the rest of the forest.

In 2019, the burning in the Amazon almost tripled and surpassed the historical average. Within 12 months from August 31, 2018, until August 31, 2019, 30,901 fire outbreaks were recorded compared to 10,421 fire outbreaks for the same period between 2017 and 2018, which corresponds to a 196% increase.

The disaster caused by the oil spill that hit the beaches of the Northeast and part of Southeast Brazil is still unsolved. More than 800 sites have already been hit by oil slicks on the coast. Three months after the appearance of the first spots, the origin of the oil is unknown, and no one has been indicted.

According to Inpe, Amazon deforestation in November grows 104% and breaks the record for this month

A survey by INPE (Brazil National Institute for Space Research) found that the devastation of the Amazon rainforest biome hit a record for November. In 2019, according to Inpe, there was an increase of almost 104% of the deforested area compared to the previous year.

According to the Deter (Deforestation Detection System in the Legal Amazon in Real Time) there was an increase of 83.9% in forest devastation between January and November 2019 compared to the same period of 2018. In total, during the government From Jair Bolsonaro, the devastation of the forest went from 4,878.7 square kilometers recorded in 2019 to 8,974.31 square kilometers during the current government.

It is good to remember that following the international repercussions of the increase in deforestation reported by Inpe since July, President Jair Bolsonaro accused, without evidence, Inpe of lying about the data and dismissed the then director of the institute, Ricardo Galvão, who rebutted the criticism of the President In the end, the data showed that Galvão was right and that deforestation had really increased a lot in the region. Due to his opposition to the government and his work in defense of science, Galvão was elected by Nature magazine one of the ten most important scientists of 2019.

According to Nature magazine, Galvão "spoke out in defence of INPE scientists. He also accused the president of cowardice and called for a face-to-face meeting — acts that he knew would lead to him losing his job. What he didn’t know was that he would become a hero of sorts, hailed by his scientific colleagues as well as by strangers on the streets. A woman even stopped him on the subway in São Paulo to thank him for standing up to Bolsonaro and helping her to understand why preserving the Amazon matters".

According to ISA, president Jair Bolsonaro's speeches against Indigenous Peoples coupled with weak oversight by Ibama and the Federal Police due to the weakening of these federal agencies by the current government helped to increase deforestation on indigenous lands by 80% in 2019

A study by the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA) showed that deforestation in the Amazon between August 2018 and July 2019 was higher in Indigenous lands. The Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA) linked Inpe's data to Indigenous territories and found that the increase in the deforested area rises from 30% to 80% in these regions, reaching the haunting number of 42.6 thousand hectares of destroyed forest.

The ISA research shows that 51 million trees have been felled on the Amazon rainforest at Indigenous lands in these twelve months. According to the survey by ISA, the government speech by Jair Bolsonaro boosted burning and deforestation in the Amazon. The study crossed information on deforestation with statements by President Bolsonaro, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, and some governors in the region such as Gladson Cameli, governor of Acre.

Bolsonaro, who had said I will no longer demarcate even an "extra square inch of indigenous land," harshly criticized the destruction of vehicles used by illegal loggers by Ibama agents. He also dismissed the president of Inpe when the institute published figures on the increase in deforestation.

Acre Governor Gladson Cameli was recorded telling illegal loggers to "not pay" the fines imposed by the government.

Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, in turn, met with timber producers in Espigão d'Oeste, Rondônia, and highlighted the role of the timber industry in that state. Interestingly, illegal logging in the municipality of Espigão d'Oeste rose 332% in 2019.

All this happens in a year also terrible for the Indigenous peoples. According to Pastoral da Terra, in 2019, the death toll of indigenous leaders killed was the highest in the last 11 years. Of the 27 people who died in rural conflicts in Brazil this year, 7 were indigenous leaders, compared to 2 in 2018, according to the organization.

Statement by Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, in Washington, about AI-5 is disastrous, irresponsible and very bad for the Brazilian economy, as it alienates potential investors

In a completely irresponsible speech, Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes stated, according to Folha de S.Paulo, that it is not possible to be frightened by the idea of someone asking for AI-5 in the face of a possible radicalization of street protests in Brazil.

According to the Correio, he defended the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP), son of President Jair Bolsonaro, who considered the implementation of a similar act in cases of protests against the current government. According to Guedes, the speech was "a reaction to what he called summons from the left."

Guedes' irresponsible declaration generates political instability in the country and acts against the economic reforms that Guedes himself intends to make. Jair Bolsonaro's own members are largely to blame for the country's ongoing political crisis, as they constantly give statements such as these that put the nation in a political crisis.

This and countless other statements by senior government officials are obviously bad for business and economic stability because no one invests in an unstable country, where the minister of economics talks about ending rights and abolishing democracy. Paulo Guedes, who calls himself a liberal, is actually much closer to Latin American dictators like Pinochet and Maduro.

The AI-5 was the Brazilian military regime's hardest blow to the rights of Brazilian citizens. Set up on December 13, 1968, during the rule of General Costa e Silva, it was the most complete expression of the dictatorship, as it allowed the military to arbitrarily punish any Brazilian citizen considered an enemy of the regime.

It institutionalized the annulment of mandates of opposition deputies, suspended political rights and promoted layoffs and forced retirements of anti-regime civil servants. The AI-5 allowed the closing of the National Congress and other legislative houses of the country indefinitely. Since the establishment of AI-5, repression of opponents and torture practices have resurfaced in Brazil. It was the beginning of the terrible Years of Lead.

#ai5nuncamais

Amazon deforestation reaches frightening levels and rises 29.5% in 2019; almost 10.000 square kilometers were cut down

According to experts, Jair Bolsonaro's anti-environmental speech, coupled with the dismantling of oversight bodies, prompted a clearing of the forest in 2019.

As published by the Climate Observatory, a coalition of dozens of environmental conservation organizations in Brazil, "this is a direct result of Bolsonaro's strategy of dismantling the Ministry of Environment, demobilizing enforcement, shelving plans. to combat deforestation of previous governments and to empower environmental criminals in his speech, and the president himself has proudly stated that he had sent his anti-environment minister, Ricardo Salles, 'to put the scythe into the IBAMA Renewable Natural Resources] '.Salles obeyed."

According to data from Prodes 2019 (Satellite Legal Amazon Deforestation Monitoring Project), released by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), the deforested area in the Amazon was 9,762 km² between August 2018 and July 2019, the highest since 2008. This figure represents a 29.5% increase over the same period last year (August 2017 to July 2018), when deforestation was 7,536 km².

This increase represents the highest rate since 2008 and also the biggest jump from year to year in the last 22 years. For scientists like Carlos Nobre, this deforestation should transform part of the Amazon territory into an impoverished savanna. Obviously, this is very serious, which should affect the climate in the region and reduce, due to the change in the country's rainfall cycle, the capacity of Brazilian agricultural production. Deforestation is horrible for the environment and also bad for business.

This week, during a talk at the Wilson Center Brazil Institute in Washington, Brazil's agriculture minister, Tereza Cristina, heard several questions about problems in the Amazon at meetings with officials and investors. Therefore, the risk of an increase in the boycott of Brazilian products is getting bigger.

Economy Minister Paulo Guedes says Brazil and China are negotiating the creation of a free trade area

Brazil and China have begun negotiations, according to Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, about the possibility of establishing a free trade area between the two countries.

The Brazilian minister said the negotiations are at an early stage. However, under the rules of Mercosur, a group of which Brazil is part, member countries of this bloc cannot individually enter into bilateral agreements involving tariff elimination.

For Guedes, these negotiations are to make Brazil "integrate into global chains".

Paradoxically, President Jair Bolsonaro, who was a harsh critic of China during the 2018 campaign, now seems very keen to get closer to the communist nation. After meeting in Brasilia with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Bolsonaro said the Asian giant "is part of Brazil's future."

This week, the governments of Brazil and China sign nine acts of cooperation. Both advocate a closer approach between the two nations in technology. Brazil will export agribusiness expertise to the Chinese, while China, according to the Brazilian Infrastructure minister Tarcisio de Freitas, may take part in auctions for two railroads in Brazil.