Ministry of Health building in Brasilia is occupied by a group of Indigenous women

A group of about 1500 indigenous women occupied the building of the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health (Sesai) of the Ministry of Health in Brasilia late yesterday afternoon. They are against the municipalization of indigenous health and against the decision of the Minister of Health, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, which determined the extinction of Sesai.

According to indigenous leader Sônia Guajajara, "they put an indigenous secretary in the briefcase to say that the Indigenous are represented, but she has no commitment to our people. We want to strengthen special health and subsystems. In addition, we are against legalizing deforestation. We will not accept the genocidal policy of the Bolsonaro government. We are not obliged to accept any destruction of our rights. "

BTG Pactual (BPAC11) shows a profit of R$ 1 billion in first-quarter 2019

On the balance sheet presented today, Banco BTG Pactual posted a profit of R$ 1 billion in the second quarter of 2019, up 50.2% over the same period in 2018, when it posted a profit of R$ 685 million.

According to the website Poder360, "the company's net operating revenue totaled R$ 2.2 billion, up 76.2% from R $ 1.2 billion in the second quarter of 2018. Adjusted earnings per share were R$ 1.18 and the annualized return on average equity reached 20.6% in the quarter."

Banco Inter (BIDI4) presents a 90.9% increase in net income in the second quarter of 2019

Banco Inter, a Belo Horizonte-based financial institution and one of the first digital banks in Brazil, posted a 90.9% increase in net income in the quarter over the same period last year to R $ 32.9 million.

Return on equity was 13.7%, 3.2 percentage points higher than in the second quarter of 2018.

The bank's total assets were R$ 6.754 billion, up 45.7% over the same period last year, and the expanded loan portfolio stood at R$ 3.963 billion, up 37.2% over the second quarter of last year.

Brazil enters in "technical recession" after disclosure of preview of the first quarter of 2019 GDP made today by the Brazilian Central Bank

The Brazilian economy registered a retraction of 0.13% in the second quarter of 2019, according to the Economic Activity Index (IBC-Br) released by the Brazilian Central Bank today. This puts the country in a "technical recession" framework "when you have two quarters in a row of economic contraction i.e. our economy shrinks and things go south."

This index is a preview of GDP, which will be released on August 29 by the Central Bank. The 0.13% decline reported today occurred between April and June 2019 compared to the first quarter of the same year.

The Brazilian Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, said today at an event held at the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) that it is not possible to blame the current government for the economic performance of the country.

According to the newspaper Correio Braziliense, Guedes said that "It is still a short time for the government with liberal policies in the economy to present results."

Macri's defeat in regional election in Argentina surprises the Brazilian financial market; currency market reacts by devaluing the Argentine peso

The Front of All slogan, formed by Alberto Fernández and former President Cristina Kirchner, imposed a severe defeat on Argentine President Mauricio Macri in the primary elections held yesterday. Macri lost by a difference of 18 percentage points. In Buenos Aires, the country's largest electoral stronghold, the victory of Kirchnerist Alex Kicillof in the race for the office of governor points to a possible defeat by Macri in the October 27 general election.

A possible government with Cristina Kirchner as vice president will probably distance politically the Argentinians from Brazil. Argentina is Brazil's largest trading partner, but after President Jair Bolsonaro has publicly supported Macri's reelection and criticized Kirchnerist presidential candidate Alberto Fernández, who visited former President Lula in prison, the relations between the two countries will surely suffer a severe blow whit a Fernández and Kirchner victory.

Under Macri (2015-currently), the Argentine economy has not taken off. Inflation remains high (55% accumulated in 12 months) and the peso (Argentine currency) is strongly devaluated against the dollar. The tendency now is for this devaluation to be stronger due to the financial market fears of a possible Fernández victory.

Today, the first reaction of the markets was falling bonds and shares with falls of up to 35% in the price prior to opening. The shares of the Argentine companies collapsed about 20% in premarket of the New York Stock Exchange. The dollar is being sold between 49 and 51 Argentinian pesos.

Huawei announces the construction of U$ 800 million factory in Sao Paulo State, in Brazil, to produce 5G smartphones

According to the website Poder360, the Chinese mobile company Huawei has announced that it will build another factory in Brazil, in the state of Sao Paulo. The total investment will be 800 million dollars and is expected to take place between 2020 and 2022. The Chinese giant wants to participate in the 5G auction, which the Brazilian government intends to make by the end of the first half of 2020.

Huawei aims to supply the domestic market and all of South America with devices prepared for the latest generation network.

Huawei currently has factories in two Brazilian cities: Manaus (AM), where it produces fiber optic services, and Sorocaba (SP), where it employs 2,000 people in a factory that produces infrastructure to support telephone operators.

Deutsche Welle says German ministry of Environment will suspend funding for projects in the Amazon; Yanomami leader David Kopenawa denounces illegal gold mining in Roraima

Due to the sharp increase in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, the German Ministry of Environment has decided to suspend funding for projects to protect the forest and biodiversity, german Minister Svenja Schulze said in an interview with Tagesspiegel today, according to the website Deutsche Welle Brazil.

This decision comes after new data released by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) confirmed the significant increase in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. In July this year, the devastation of the biome grew 278% over the same month of 2018 according to the instinct.

This information cost the office of Inpe's president, Ricardo Galvão. President Jair Bolsonaro dismissed Galvão after the release of this information. President Jair Bolsonaro, after the dismissal of the president of Inpe, said the data released by the institute were "inaccurate", but did not indicate exactly where the inaccuracies were. He also mocked the media coverage surrounding Amazon deforestation by saying she was the "chainsaw captain".

Later this week, on a Facebook broadcast, president Jair Bolsonaro again argued for gold mining to be released in the Amazon region. He made this statement alongside indigenous people of the Raposa Serra do Sol reserve, which is in Roraima. Bolsonaro defends the possibility of liberation of the activity even in indigenous lands.

However, according to leader Yanomami Dário Kopenawa, despite the denunciations made by his people, "the prospectors are still there." Kopenawa is the son of historical Yanomami leader David Kopenawa. , he is fixing a problem for the Brazilian state ”, criticizes the young vice president of the Hutukara Yanomami association in Roraima.

Brazilian services sector falls 1% in June and presents the worst performance of 2019, according to IBGE

The service sector in Brazil had the worst rate for June since 2015 with a drop in the 5 surveyed activities. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), compared to June 2018 (series without seasonal adjustment), the volume of services fell 3.6%. This should again bring down expectations for the 2019 Brazilian GDP.

Paraguayan political crisis involving the Brazilian government leads to impeachment request against Paraguayan President Mario Abdo

The energy produced by Itaipu's hydroelectric power plant, which is binational, that is, a state-owned by Brazil and Paraguay, is producing a serious political crisis in Paraguay. 

Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color published alleged private messages from the president of Paraguay Mario Abdo in which he allegedly pressured then Ande (Paraguayan energy state) president Pedro Ferreira for the implementation of the agreement signed in diplomatic minutes on May 24, following pressure from the government of Jair Bolsonaro. 

The point is that if this agreement were followed by Ande it would raise the energy bill for consumers in Paraguay. Therefore, President Abdo would be participating in a negotiation that harmed the population of his country.

The president of Paraguay knew all about the deal with Brazil that was damaging his country if his WhatsApp talks with the director of the Paraguayan energy company obtained by reporter Mabel Rehnfeldt of the ABC Color newspaper are true.

This stance would lead to damage to the Paraguayan government, mainly because ABC's dialogues show that the Paraguayan president knew the terms of the agreement in advance, was aware that he would increase the cost of energy in Paraguay and advised that everything should be kept confidential.

The case prompted the opposition in Paraguay to file an impeachment request against Paraguayan President Mario Abdo.

According to the ABC Color newspaper, then-Paraguayan ambassador to Brasilia, Hugo Saguier, was summoned to a meeting at the Brazilian federal government headquarters in which he was informed that the Brazilian government was dissatisfied with the non-compliance with the agreement by the Paraguayan state company, Ande.

President Jair Bolsonaro says that a famous torturer from dictatorship times in Brazil (1964-1985) is a "national hero"

President Jair Bolsonaro said today that Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, chief of DOI-Codi during the military dictatorship in Brazil, is a "national hero". There are several testimonies of political prisoners who were tortured by Ustra during the dictatorship in Brazil.

According to Miguel Reali Jr., "to consecrate a torturer, thus recognized by the judiciary, as a national hero is to legitimize torture," said the jurist and former minister of justice who was one of the authors of the impeachment request of former president Dilma Rousseff.

The barbarities committed by Ustra are widely known in Brazil. According to Amelinha Teles, one of the victims of torture during the dictatorship, the tortured suffered shocks in the anus, vagina, systematic rapes. One of the torturers masturbated while she was strapped to the "dragon chair" and threw sperm at her.

Cost of living in Brazil: IPCA grows only 0.19% in July

According to the IBGE, the July Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA) varied 0.19%, 0.18 percentage points (pp) above the June result (0.01%). This was the lowest IPCA for the month of July since 2014, when it stood at 0.01%. The accumulated variation in the year was 2.42% and, compared to the last 12 months, the index fell to 3.22%, below the 3.37% recorded in the immediately preceding 12 months. In July 2018, the rate was 0.33%.

The sector that had the biggest increase in prices was housing, whose variation was 1.20%. The reason for this increase was the increase in electricity prices, which, on average, was 4.48% more expensive. Food and beverages were virtually unchanged, with prices rising by 0.01%.

In the accumulated 12-month period through July, the IPCA increased by 3.22%, against 3.37% in the previous month. Reuters poll pointed out analyst expectations were up 0.24% in July, accumulating 12-month advance of 3.28%