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☆ Brazil readies task force to expel miners from Yanomami lands, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Anthony Boadle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A village of indigenous Yanomami is seen during Brazil's environmental agency operation against illegal gold mining on indigenous land, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, in Roraima state, Brazil April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly/File PhotoBRASILIA, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Brazil is preparing a task force of armed forces, police and government agencies to expel illegal gold miners who invaded the Yanomami indigenous reservation, officials said on Tuesday. Defense Minister Jose Mucio said the military is needed to drive out the miners, who are well armed and have helicopters. Wapichana said the task force, as in past offensives against illegal miners, will involve the Federal Police, environmental protection agency Ibama, Funai and several ministries, as well as the military. Wapichana said the government will move against the organized crime and financial groups that supply and fund the illegal mining, and launder the gold.

☆ Germany pledges funds to help Brazil defend Amazon rainforest
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRASILIA, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Germany on Monday pledged 200 million euros ($217 million) to help Brazil defend the Amazon rainforest, a global ecosystem devastated during years of rule under former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The sum includes a donation of 35 million euros ($38 million) to the Amazon Fund to strengthen a billion-dollar initiative funded by Norway and Germany to protect the South American rainforest and fight deforestation. The Amazon Fund was re-activated by Brazil's Environment Minister Marina Silva the day she took office vowing to halt deforestation in the world's largest tropical rainforest. As president Bolsonaro said Brazilians had the right to develop natural resources in the Amazon. The German assistance includes socio-environmental projects to support Brazilian states in the Amazon rainforest and low-interest loans to farmers for the reforestation of their land, a statement issued by Brazil said.

On the final leg of his South American tour, Scholz on Monday became the first foreign leader to visit Lula since his inauguration. But he grew stony-faced as his fellow leftist leader expounded his views on the Ukraine war. Lula also said Brazil would not provide ammunition to Ukraine for German-made Gepard anti-aircraft guns, as reportedly requested by Germany. In both countries, Scholz visited memorials to the victims of their military dictatorships that he said underscored the need to fight for democracy and freedom. In Brasilia, he expressed his full solidarity for Lula and Brazil at large after Bolsonaro supporters earlier this month stormed government buildings.

☆ Germany's Scholz sets off on first South American tour to boost trade, environment ties
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany is looking to create closer ties with countries that share its values, naming Japan and India, among others. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz heads to Argentina on Saturday for the first leg of his inaugural tour of South America as his government seeks to reduce Germany's economic dependence on China and strengthen relations with democracies worldwide. High on the agenda for talks will be the war in Ukraine and the lessons drawn from it — including for Berlin, a greater awareness of the need to reduce economic reliance on authoritarian states. "These three countries are all interesting partners for the diversification of our economic relations generally but also of our sourcing for commodities," a German government official said on Friday. The chancellor will address that as well as visit the memorials of victims of Argentina and Chile's military dictatorships.

☆ Brazil's central govt posts 54.1 bln reais surplus in 2022, first in 9 years
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The central government, comprising Brazil's Treasury, central bank and Social Security, posted a 54.1 billion reais ($10.7 billion) budget surplus before interest payment in 2022. It followed a 4.4 billion reais surplus in December, which came higher than the 2.8 billion reais expected in a Reuters poll. Private economists polled weekly by the central bank expect 2022 GDP to rise 3%, from just 0.3% they had forecast when last year began. Surging expenses led the primary deficit budgeted for 2023 to reach impressive 232 billion reais. ($1 = 5.0783 reais)Reporting by Marcela Ayres; Editing by Mark Porter and Steven GrattanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Why are Brazil's Indigenous Yanomani being decimated by diseases, mining?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

BOA VISTA, Brazil — Severe malnutrition and disease, particularly malaria, are decimating the Yanomami population in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, and on Jan. 20 the federal government declared a public health emergency. An estimated 30,000 Yanomami people live in Brazil’s largest indigenous territory, which covers an area roughly the size of Portugal and stretches across Roraima and Amazonas states in the northwest corner of Brazil’s Amazon. Illegal gold miners were first present in Yanomami territory during the 1980s, but then were largely expelled. Their numbers surged to 20,000 during Bolsonaro’s administration, according to estimates from environmental and Indigenous rights groups. Miners destroy the habitat of animals that the Yanomami hunt, and occupy fertile land that the Yanomami use to farm.

☆ Brazilian ex-senator takes over as Petrobras CEO; shares fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Marta Nogueira | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Prates was unanimously approved by the board, on which he will also hold a seat, Petrobras said in a securities filing. He has said the Lula government would not take an aggressively interventionist approach to Petrobras. Petrobras made bumper payouts in recent quarters, but Prates has said the company cannot "just keep tapping sub-salt oil and paying dividends". Prates, who was a senator for the past four years, is the first politician in several years to hold a high-ranking office at Petrobras. Earlier in the day, the Brazilian Senate's official gazette published the resignation of Prates as a lawmaker.

☆ Jan. 6 Committee failed to hold social media companies to account for their role in the Capitol attack, staffers and witnesses say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Donie O'Sullivan Audrey Ash Zachary Cohen | Donie O'Sullivan | Audrey Ash | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But now these witnesses, along with some committee staff, are frustrated, saying the committee failed to adequately hold major social media companies to account for the role they played in the worst attack on the Capitol in 200 years. They also said the final report outlines structural issues across social media and society that need to be studied further. Jeremy Moorhead/CNNDisagreement about social media companies’ role in the Jan. 6 attack comes as 2023 looks to be a pivotal year for Silicon Valley firms in Washington, DC. “Indeed, the lack of an official Committee report chapter or appendix dedicated exclusively to these matters does not mean our investigation exonerated social media companies for their failure to confront violent rhetoric,” they wrote. “History has taught us what happens when political speech on social media companies is allowed to fester unchecked.”

☆ Latin America, Caribbean call for more international funding at CELAC summit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Countries from Latin America and the Caribbean on Tuesday called for more international funding in the region following economic and climate crises, in a final declaration after a summit held in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires. The 111-point "Declaration of Buenos Aires" from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States' (CELAC) seventh summit described how effects of COVID-19, climate change and the war in Ukraine had rippled across the region. "We express our concern that several countries emerged from the pandemic with higher levels of public debt," it said. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro sent a recorded message saying he had chosen not to attend due to "permanent conspiracies, the permanent threat, calculated ambushes." Reporting by Lucila Sigal; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Brazil Justice Moraes fines Telegram for not complying with court order
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRASILIA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Brazil's Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes fined on Wednesday messaging app Telegram for failing to comply with a court order that called for the suspension of accounts of supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Telegram will be fined 1.2 million reais ($236,527), the decision said. Moraes gave Telegram five days to pay the fine from the day of the decision. In March 2022, Moraes ordered the suspension of messaging app Telegram, saying it had repeatedly refused to adhere to judicial orders to freeze accounts spreading disinformation. The suspension was revoked days later, after the company complied with court requests.

☆ Brazil's Yanomami region looks like ‘concentration camp,’ says official
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

“It looks like a concentration camp,” Tapeba, a doctor appointed to the position by Brazil’s new government, said in a radio interview. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, visits the Yanomami Indigenous Health House (Casai) in the Boa Vista rural area, Roraima state, Brazil, on Saturday. “It’s an extreme calamity, many Yanomami are suffering from malnutrition and there is a total absence of the Brazilian state,” Tapeba said. This can only be resolved by removing the gold miners and that can only be done by the armed forces,” he said. Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the removal of the gold miners.

London CNN —The two biggest economies in South America are starting talks to create a common currency. At a press conference in Buenos Aires, he said establishing a common currency for trade would reduce reliance on the US dollar, whose sharp ascent last year was painful for countries around the world. Talk of creating a common currency has periodically cropped up since its founding in 1991. Still, investors are doubtful efforts to create a common currency in the region will gain much traction. “Brazil and Argentina are a long way away from the convergence in economic policy and performance required to launch [a] monetary union,” he said.

☆ Venezuela calls off Maduro meeting with Lula, Brazil govt says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Venezuela has decided to call off a previously arranged meeting between President Nicolas Maduro and his Brazilian counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday, Lula's press office said. Later, however, Lula's team released a new update of his agenda saying the meeting would no longer take place as Venezuela canceled it. Lula, who took office on Jan. 1, asked his foreign relations minister to restore relations with Venezuela. Diplomatic relations between the countries were broken in 2020 by Brazil's former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Steven GrattanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Explainer: What Brazil and Argentina's 'currency union' really means
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Marcela Ayres | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BRASILIA, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Brazil and Argentina sparked some excitement on Sunday over the possibility of a potential "currency union", though the two countries are unlikely to ditch the real or peso any time soon. That sparked off chatter about a European Union-style zonal currency for South America, though officials have since played that down and analysts say a full-on currency union is a distant prospect. Under the plan, the Brazilian real and Argentine peso would continue to exist, with the new tender targeted narrowly at trade. That is key for Argentina, which is grappling with low foreign currency reserves after years of debt crises. In 2019, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro touted plans for a currency union, which also never materialized.

☆ Drag artist says George Santos was a left-wing Lula supporter in Brazil before going to the US and turning into 'this crazy thing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | Virginia Alves | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A drag artist who knew him in the mid-2000s told Insider Santos supported Brazil's left-wing president then. Rochard said Santos supported Lula and then "goes to the US and turns into this crazy thing there. They were all Lulistas and Anthony was too because he hung out with us," Rochard told Insider, using the name Rochard says Santos used in Brazil, "Anthony." Brazilian drag artist Eula Rochard holds a newspaper from 2008 that she says shows GOP Rep. George Santos in drag attire. Rochard met Santos when he was about 17 years old and said she used to catch Santos in "little white lies."

☆ A South American currency union? Don't hold your breath
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Rodrigo Campos | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

That came after the leaders had touted a "common South American currency" on Sunday and officials told the Financial Times the tender could even be called the "sur" and eventually look to bring in other countries around South America. "It has failed to achieve simpler integration goals than that of a common currency." He called the idea of a currency union a "fantasy." Currency union talk was just a distraction, she said. Todd Martinez, a director at Fitch Ratings' sovereigns group focused on Latin America, said the two countries appeared to be unlikely partners to form a successful currency union, given their diverging economies.

☆ Analysis: Lula confronts Brazil military's pro-Bolsonaro lean with carrot and stick
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Anthony Boadle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

But at a Friday meeting the commanders of the armed forces, Lula did not bring up the attack, according to a government official who witnessed the meeting. The armed forces' strategic plans to modernize its equipment included developing a nuclear-powered submarine contracted with France's Naval Group, a subsidiary of defense contractor Thales (TCFP.PA). GENIE OUT OF THE BOTTLEWhether a splurge on military hardware will help tamp down pro-Bolsonaro sentiment in the armed forces is open to question. "Lula wants this to go away as soon as possible," he added. "Starting to punish members of the armed forces for what happened may be legally the right thing to do but politically it would open a Pandora's box."

☆ Brazil declares emergency over deaths of Yanomami children from malnutrition
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BRASILIA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's ministry of health has declared a medical emergency in the Yanomami territory, the country's largest indigenous reservation bordering Venezuela, following reports of children dying of malnutrition and other diseases caused by illegal gold mining. In four years of Bolsonaro's presidency, 570 Yanomami children died of curable diseases, mainly malnutrition but also malaria, diarrhea and malformations caused by mercury used by wildcat gold miners, the Amazon journalism platform Sumauma reported, citing data obtained by a FOIA. Lula visited a Yanomami health center in Boa Vista in Roraima state on Saturday following the publication of photos showing children and elderly men and women so thin their ribs were visible. In recent violent incidents, men on speed boats on the rivers have shot with automatic weapons at indigenous villages whose communities oppose the entry of gold miners. Lula said the new government will put an end to illegal gold mining as it moves to crack down on illegal deforestation in the Amazon, which surged to a 15-year high under Bolsonaro.

☆ Lula replaces Brazil's army commander, source says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Lisandra Paraguassu | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRASILIA, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva fired the army commander, General Julio Cesar de Arruda, on Saturday, a source with knowledge of the matter said. His replacement will be General Tomas Miguel Ribeiro Paiva, army commander of the southeast, the source said. Brazil's army and the Ministry of Defense did not immediately comment on the matter. Lula said this week that intelligence services failed on Jan. 8, when government buildings in Brasilia were stormed by supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula has said recently that his government would purge hardcore Bolsonaro loyalists from the security forces.

☆ Brazil’s army chief fired in the aftermath of capital uprising
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro clash with security forces as they raid the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, 08 January 2023. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva fired Brazil's army chief Saturday just days after the leftist leader openly said that some military members allowed the Jan. 8 uprising in the capital by far-right protesters. The official website of the Brazilian armed forces said Gen. Julio Cesar de Arruda had been removed as head of the army. The video claimed Lula wasn't voted into office, but rather was chosen by the Supreme Court and Brazil's electoral authority. Lula has been trying to reduce the high number of military officers in the government administration left by Bolsonaro.

☆ Brazil police raid governor's house over capital riots
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The raid targeted Rocha's house and workplaces, police said. Rocha was not on site during the raid, which was followed by lawyers from his defense team. This raid it is unnecessary and fruitless," his lawyer Cleber Lopes said, adding that the governor had no connection to the violence. The operation drew criticism from lawyers, as Rocha was head of the Brazilian Bar Association before he became governor. It included 24 warrants covering five states and the capital Brasilia, it said in a statement.

☆ Brazil defense minister says military not directly involved in Brasilia riots
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRASILIA, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Brazil Minister of Defense Jose Mucio said on Friday that the country's armed forces were not directly involved in the riots by supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed government buildings calling for a coup. Mucio met on Friday with Lula and the commanders of the armed forces aiming to reduce tensions. He said the riots were not discussed and the meeting focused on plans for military procurement and investments in Brazil's defense industry, with business leaders present, the minister said. "I understand that there was no direct involvement of the Armed Forces, but if anyone was personally involved (in the riots) that will be investigated," Mucio told reporters after the meeting. The storming of government building will not happened again "because the Armed Forces will anticipate it," Mucio said.

☆ Lula: Brazil's intelligence services failed ahead of Brasilia pro-Bolsonaro riots
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

BRASILIA — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday his intelligence services had failed on Jan. 8, when Brasilia buildings were stormed by supporters of far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro. “We made an elementary mistake: my intelligence did not exist (that day),” Lula told TV channel GloboNews in an interview. The president stressed he would like to maintain civilized relations with Brazil’s armed forces but noted they must not be politicized. The Brazilian insurrection resembled the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. The Brazilian president said he was also set to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Brazil later this month, as Reuters first reported last month.

Reuters exclusively accompanied raids led by environmental agency Ibama in the rainforest state of Para to stop loggers and ranchers illegally clearing the forest. The agency has also launched raids this week in the states of Roraima and Acre, Ibama environmental enforcement coordinator Tatiane Leite said. Lula on the campaign trail last year pledged to put Ibama back in charge of combating deforestation with beefed-up funding and personnel. But Ibama agents told Reuters that they already felt more empowered by Lula announcing environmental protection as a top priority. His government instituted a gag order forbidding Ibama agents from speaking to the press, which agents say has already been reversed under Lula.

☆ Facebook approved ads promoting violence in wake of Brazil riots, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Martin Coulter | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Ueslei MarcelinoLONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Facebook approved a series of online ads promoting violence in Brazil, days after protesters ransacked government buildings, according to a new report. However, four days after the uprising, human rights organisation Global Witness found Facebook was still allowing ads containing death threats and other calls to violence on its platform. Using fake accounts, the group submitted 16 bogus ads to run on the platform, 14 of which were approved for publication. Global Witness said it withdrew the ads from Facebook before any other users could see them. “In the aftermath of the violence in Brasilia, Facebook said they were ‘actively monitoring’ the situation and removing content in violation of their policies.

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