BRAZIL!!!!!

mickeyrat

  https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-business-caribbean-brazil-congress-607180be50dabedff22b39434370b06e

 

Jair Bolsonaro Brazil Brasilia Congress

Lula's team meets Bolsonaro as Brazil's transition kicks off

By CARLA BRIDI

Today

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — President Jair Bolsonaro met briefly on Thursday with the envoy coordinating the transfer of power to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, four days after Bolsonaro's tight election loss that sparked protests by his supporters amid his refusal to publicly concede.

The meeting between Brazil's far-right outgoing president and Vice President-Elect Geraldo Alckmin took place at the presidential palace, according to Alckmin, who heads da Silva's transition team. The team had earlier arrived in the capital of Brasilia, launching the process that will culminate with da Silva’s Jan. 1 inauguration.

While Bolsonaro declined to publicly concede defeat in his first public comments Tuesday, his chief of staff Ciro Nogueira told reporters he had received authorization from the incumbent for the transition process to proceed.

“It was positive,” Alckmin told journalists after Thursday's meeting with Bolsonaro. He refused to answer whether the incumbent had congratulated him for Sunday's victory.

Bolsonaro spoke about "the federal government’s readiness to provide every information, help, so we have a transition that is guided by the public interest,” the vice president-elect said.

Alckmin's team's first meeting of the day was with Sen. Marcelo Castro, who is responsible for the government's 2023 budget proposal. The vice president-elect urged lawmakers to adopt an emergency measure to allow new spending that the future administration considers essential, including monthly welfare payments of 600 reals ($118).

---

JAIR BOLSONARO

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Without that emergency action, the current budget would reduce these payments to 400 reals ($78) in January. Lawmakers told reporters that a decision on whether to make the change would be made by Monday.

Alckmin added he will return to Brasilia on Tuesday for more talks.

Da Silva’s Worker’s Party is also seeking negotiations with Chamber of Deputies Speaker Arthur Lira, who has been a close ally of Bolsonaro. He is expected to seek reelection for the job next year.

“He showed willingness to discuss whatever is set as a priority for the (future) government. The doors are open,” Workers' Party lawmaker José Guimaraes said.

The meetings aim to ensure governability with a potentially contentious Congress and provide reassurance that Bolsonaro's administration will be cooperative.

There had been widespread concern Bolsonaro might present claims of fraud and challenge the results of Sunday's election, following the roadmap of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

There have been questions about the ease with which da Silva will be able to govern, partly because conservative lawmakers from Bolsonaro’s party and others did well in the first round of the election on Oct. 2. In addition, the “Big Center” bloc of politicians known for exchanging support for positions and pork has been supporting Bolsonaro to date.

An opening came Sunday when Lira became the first prominent Bolsonaro ally to recognize the election results. Lira oversees what has become commonly referred to as the “secret budget,” which directs billions to lawmakers for pet projects.

The mechanism was adopted during Bolsonaro’s government, enabling Congress and the executive branch to bypass a budget ceiling. During the campaign, da Silva criticized the program, saying it depleted funds for key social needs and promised to put an end to it. Many lawmakers already expect to receive funds for spending in their states.

Senator-elect Wellington Dias, one of the coordinators of da Silva's campaign, told journalists that “it is not the moment” to discuss an end to that mechanism.

Congress has until Dec. 17 to approve a 2023 spending bill with input from the new administration.

In a video posted to social media Wednesday, Bolsonaro addressed his supporters, calling for them to end their nationwide protests. They had blocked hundreds of roads, with some people calling for military intervention to overturn the election results.

In the narrowest presidential election since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985, da Silva beat Bolsonaro by about 2 million votes.

“I know you’re upset. I’m just as sad and upset as you are. But we have to keep our heads straight,” Bolsonaro said. “Closing roads in Brazil jeopardizes people’s right to come and go.”

By Thursday morning, more than 850 protests had broken up, leaving 73 partial or full blockages of roads, the federal highway police said. Of the 13 full blockages, most were in the southern state of Santa Catarina.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-caribbean-brazil-c03ec4f0e1d65fc81c02a2d90181cf48

 

Jair Bolsonaro Brazil Brasilia Electronic voting Government and politics

Bolsonaro contests Brazil election, demands votes be anulled

By DAVID BILLER and CARLA BRIDI

3 mins ago

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — More than three weeks after losing a reelection bid, President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday blamed a software bug and demanded the electoral authority annul votes cast on most of Brazil’s nation’s electronic voting machines, though independent experts say the bug doesn't affect the reliability of results.

Such an action would leave Bolsonaro with 51% of the remaining valid votes — and a reelection victory, Marcelo de Bessa, the lawyer who filed the 33-page request on behalf of the president and his Liberal Party, told reporters.

The electoral authority has already declared victory for Bolsonaro's nemesis, leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and even many of the president's allies have accepted the results. Protesters in cities across the country have steadfastly refused to do the same, particularly with Bolsonaro declining to concede.

Liberal Party leader Valdemar Costa and an auditor hired by the party told reporters in Brasilia that their evaluation found all machines dating from before 2020 — nearly 280,000 of them, or about 59% of the total used in the Oct. 30 runoff — lacked individual identification numbers in internal logs.

Neither explained how that might have affected election results, but said they were asking the electoral authority to invalidate all votes cast on those machines.

---

JAIR BOLSONARO

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The complaint characterized the bug as “irreparable non-compliance due to malfunction” that called into question the authenticity of the results.

Immediately afterward, the head of the electoral authority issued a ruling that implicitly raised the possibility that Bolsonaro's own party could suffer from such a challenge.

Alexandre de Moraes said the court would not consider the complaint unless the party offers an amended report within 24 hours that would include results from the first electoral round on Oct. 2, in which the Liberal Party won more seats in both congressional houses than any other.

The bug hadn't been known previously, yet experts said it also doesn't affect results. Each voting machine can still be easily identified through other means, like its city and voting district, according to Wilson Ruggiero, a professor of computer engineering and digital systems at the Polytechnic School of the University of Sao Paulo.

Diego Aranha, an associate professor of systems security at Aarhus University in Denmark, who has participated in official security tests of Brazil's electoral system, agreed.

“It does not undermine the reliability or credibility in any way," Ruggiero told The Associated Press by phone. "The key point that guarantees correctness is the digital signature associated with each voting machine.”

While the machines don't have individual identification numbers in their internal logs, those numbers do appear on printed receipts that show the sum of all votes cast for each candidate, said Aranha, adding the bug was only detected due to the efforts by the electoral authority to provide greater transparency.

Bolsonaro's less than two-point loss to da Silva on Oct. 30 was the narrowest margin since Brazil’s 1985 return to democracy. While the president hasn’t explicitly cried foul, he has refused to concede defeat or congratulate his opponent — leaving room for supporters to draw their own conclusions.

Many have been protesting relentlessly, making claims of election fraud and demanding that the armed forces intervene.

Dozens of Bolsonaro supporters gathered outside the news conference on Tuesday, decked out in the green and yellow of Brazil's flag and chanting patriotic songs. Some verbally attacked and pushed journalists trying to enter the venue.

Bolsonaro spent more than a year claiming Brazil’s electronic voting system is prone to fraud, without ever presenting evidence.

Brazil began using an electronic voting system in 1996 and election security experts consider such systems less secure than hand-marked paper ballots, because they leave no auditable paper trail. But Brazil’s system has been closely scrutinized by domestic and international experts who have never found evidence of it being exploited to commit fraud.

The Senate's president, Rodrigo Pacheco, said Tuesday afternoon that the election results are “unquestionable.”

Bolsonaro has been almost completely secluded in the official residence since his Oct. 30 defeat, inviting widespread speculation as to whether he is dejected or plotting to cling to power.

In an interview with newspaper O Globo, Vice President Hamilton Mourão chalked up Bolsonaro's absence to erysipelas, a skin infection on his legs that he said prevents the president from wearing pants.

But his his son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal lawmaker, has been more direct.

“We always distrusted these machines. ... We want a massive audit,” the younger Bolsonaro said last week at a conference in Mexico City. “There is very strong evidence to order an investigation of Brazil’s election.”

For its audit, the Liberal Party hired the Legal Vote Institute, a group that has been critical of the current system, saying it defies the law by failing to provide a digital record of every individual vote.

In a separate report presented earlier this month, the Brazilian military said there were flaws in the country’s electoral systems and proposed improvements, but didn't substantiate claims of fraud from some of Bolsonaro’s supporters.

Analysts have suggested that the armed forces, which have been a key component of Bolsonaro’s administration, may have maintained a semblance of uncertainty over the issue to avoid displeasing the president. In a subsequent statement, the Defense Ministry stressed that while it had not found any evidence of fraud in the vote counting, it could not exclude that possibility.

___

Biller reported from Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-caribbean-rio-de-janeiro-e4328ee88323100cdaa1e4e461006cce

 

Jair Bolsonaro Weekend Reads Brazil Rio de Janeiro Government and politics

Brazilian protests intensify; Bolsonaro stays silent

By DIANE JEANTET

Yesterday

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The two men were sitting at a bar on Nov. 21, sipping drinks for relief from the scorching heat of Brazil's Mato Grosso state, when police officers barged in and arrested them for allegedly torching trucks and an ambulance with Molotov cocktails.

One man attempted to flee and ditch his illegal firearm. Inside their pickup truck, officers found jugs of gasoline, knives, a pistol, slingshots and hundreds of stones — as well as 9,999 reais (nearly $1,900) in cash.

A federal judge ordered their preventive detention, noting that their apparent motive for the violence was “dissatisfaction with the result of the last presidential election and pursuit of its undemocratic reversal,” according to court documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

For more than three weeks, supporters of incumbent President Jair Bolsonaro who refuse to accept his narrow defeat in October’s election have blocked roads and camped outside military buildings in Mato Grosso, Brazil's soy-producing powerhouse. They also have protested in other states across the nation, while pleading for intervention from the armed forces or marching orders from their commander in chief.

A supporter of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro salutes while singing the nation's anthem outside a military base during a protest against his reelection defeat in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Nov. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

Since his election loss, Bolsonaro has only addressed the nation twice, to say that the protests are legitimate and encourage them to continue, as long as they don't prevent people from coming and going.

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JAIR BOLSONARO

Brazil election agency rejects Bolsonaro push to void votes

Brazil election agency rejects Bolsonaro push to void votes

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Bolsonaro has not disavowed the recent emergence of violence, either. He has, however, challenged the election results — which the electoral authority's president said appears aimed at stoking protests.

While most demonstrations are peaceful, tactics deployed by hardcore participants have begun concerning authorities. José Antônio Borges, chief state prosecutor in Mato Grosso, compared their actions to that of guerrilla fighters, militia groups and domestic terrorists.

Mato Grosso is one of the nation's hotbeds for unrest. The chief targets, Borges says, are soy trucks from Grupo Maggi, owned by a tycoon who declared support for President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. There are also indications that people and companies from the state may be fueling protests elsewhere.

Road blockades and acts of violence have been reported in the states of Rondonia, Para, Parana and Santa Catarina. In the latter, federal highway police said protesters blocking highways have employed “terrorist” methods including homemade bombs, fireworks, nails, stones and barricades made of burnt tires.

Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro protest against Bolsonaro's run-off election loss outside the Army headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil, Nov. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

Police also noted that roadblocks over the weekend were different from those carried out immediately after the Oct. 30 runoff election, when truckers blocked more than 1,000 roads and highways across the country, with only isolated incidents.

Now, most acts of resistance are taking place at night, carried out by “extremely violent and coordinated hooded men," acting in different regions of the state at the same time, federal highway police said.

“The situation is getting very critical” in Mato Grosso state, chief state prosecutor Borges told the AP. Among other examples, he noted that protesters in Sinop, the state’s second most populous city, this week ordered shops and businesses to close in support of the movement. “Whoever doesn’t shut down suffers reprisals,” he said.

Since the vote, Bolsonaro has dropped out of public view and his daily agenda has been largely vacant, prompting speculation as to whether he is stewing or scheming.

Government transition duties have been led by his chief of staff, while Vice President Hamilton Mourão has stepped in to preside over official ceremonies. In an interview with newspaper O Globo, Mourão chalked up Bolsonaro’s absence to erysipelas, a skin infection on his legs that he said prevents the president from wearing pants.

But even Bolsonaro's social media accounts have gone silent – aside from generic posts about his administration, apparently from his communications team. And the live social media broadcasts that, with rare exception, he conducted every Thursday night during his administration have ceased. The silence marks an abrupt about-face for the bombastic Brazilian leader whose legions of supporters hang on his every word.

A vendor hangs electoral merchandise featuring Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, who is running for re-election, for sale during a campaign rally after a military parade commemorating the bicentennial of the country's independence in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)

Still, demonstrators, who have camped outside military barracks across Brazil for weeks, are certain they have his tacit support.

“We understand perfectly well why he doesn’t want to talk: They (the news media) distort his words,” said a 49-year-old woman who identified herself only as Joelma during a protest outside the monumental regional military command center in Rio de Janeiro. She declined to give her full name, claiming the protest had been infiltrated by informants.

Joelma and others say they are outraged with Bolsonaro’s loss and claim the election was rigged, echoing the incumbent president’s claims — made without evidence — that the electronic voting system is prone to fraud.

Scenes of large barbecues with free food and portable bathrooms at several protests, plus reports of free bus rides bringing demonstrators to the capital, Brasilia, have prompted investigations into the people and companies financing and organizing the gatherings and roadblocks.

The Supreme Court has frozen at least 43 bank accounts for suspicion of involvement, news site G1 reported, saying most are from Mato Grosso. Borges cited the involvement of agribusiness players in the protests, many of whom support Bolsonaro’s push for development of the Amazon rainforest and his authorization of previously banned pesticides. By contrast, President-elect da Silva has pledged to rebuild environmental protections.

Most recently, protesters have been emboldened by the president’s decision to officially contest the election results.

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro and his party filed a request for the electoral authority to annul votes cast on nearly 60% of electronic voting machines, citing a software bug in older models. Independent experts have said the bug, while newly discovered, doesn’t affect the results and the electoral authority's president, Alexandre de Moraes swiftly rejected the “bizarre and illicit” request.

De Moraes, who is also a Supreme Court justice, called it “an attack on the Democratic Rule of Law ... with the purpose of encouraging criminal and anti-democratic movements."

On Nov. 21, Prosecutor-general Augusto Aras summoned federal prosecutors from states where roadblocks and violence have become more intense for a crisis meeting. Aras, who is widely seen as a Bolsonaro stalwart, said he received intelligence reports from local prosecutors and instructed Mato Grosso's governor to request federal backup to clear its blocked highways.

Ultimately that wasn’t necessary, as local law enforcement managed to break up demonstrations and, by Monday night, roads in Mato Grosso and elsewhere were all liberated, according to the federal highway police. It was unclear how long this would last, however, amid Bolsonaro's continued silence, said Guilherme Casarões, a political science professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation university.

“With his silence, he keeps people in the streets,” Casarões said. “This is the great advantage he has today: a very mobilized, and very radical base.”

Supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro hold a sign with a message that reads in Portuguese: "The people ask the army for help" during a protest against his defeat in the presidential runoff election, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nov. 2, 2022.(AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

___

Associated Press reporter Carla Bridi in Brasilia, Brazil, contributed to this report.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/technology-politics-brazil-amazon-river-climate-and-environment-eab9b17e6f0b9360a6c1ece2c57d78d1

 

Brazil Climate and environment

Brazil's Lula picks Amazon defender for environment minister

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE

46 mins ago

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) —

Brazil´s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced Thursday that Amazon activist Marina Silva will be the country´s next minister of environment. The announcement indicates the new administration will prioritize cracking down on illegal deforestation even if it means running afoul of powerful agribusiness interests.

Both attended the recent U.N. climate conference in Egypt, where Lula promised cheering crowds “zero deforestation” in the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest and a key to fighting climate change, by 2030. “There will be no climate security if the Amazon isn't protected,” he said.

Silva told the news network Globo TV shortly after the announcement that the name of the ministry she will lead will be changed to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.

Many agribusiness players and associated lawmakers resent Silva. That stems from her time as environment minister during most of Lula's prior presidency, from 2003 to 2010.

Lula also named Sonia Guajajara, an Indigenous woman, as Brazil’s first minister of Indigenous peoples, and Carlos Fávaro, a soybean producer, as agriculture minister.

Silva was born in the Amazon and worked as a rubber tapper as an adolescent. As environment minister she oversaw the creation of dozens of conservation areas and a sophisticated strategy against deforestation, with major operations against environmental criminals and new satellite surveillance. She also helped design the largest international effort to preserve the rainforest, the mostly Norway-backed Amazon Fund. Deforestation dropped dramatically.

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But Lula and Silva fell out as he began catering to farmers during his second term and Silva resigned in 2008.

Lula appears to have convinced her that he has changed tack, and she joined his campaign after he embraced her proposals for preservation.

“Brazil will return to the protagonist role it previously had when it comes to climate, to biodiversity,” Silva told reporters during her own appearance at the U.N. summit.

This would be a sharp turnabout from the policies of the outgoing president, Jair Bolsonaro, who pushed for development in the Amazon and whose environment minister resigned after national police began investigating whether he was aiding the export of illegally cut timber.

Bolsonaro froze the creation of protected areas, weakened environmental agencies and placed forest management under control of the agriculture ministry. He also championed agribusiness, which opposes the creation of protected areas such as Indigenous territories and pushes for the legalization of land grabbing. Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon reached a 15-year high in the year ending in July 2021, though the devastation slowed somewhat in the following 12 months.

In Egypt, Lula committed to prosecuting all crimes in the forest, from illegal logging to mining. He also said he would press rich countries to make good on promises to help developing nations adapt to climate change. And he pledged to work with other nations home to large tropical forests — the Congo and Indonesia — in what could be coordinated negotiating positions on forest management and biodiversity protection.

As environment minister, Silva would be charged with carrying out much of that agenda.

Silva is also likely to face resistance from Congress, where the farm caucus next year will account for more than one-third of the Lower House and Senate.

Two lawmakers allied with Lula who come from the nation’s agriculture sector told The Associated Press before the announcements they disagree with Silva’s nomination given the conflict of her prior tenure. They spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals.

Others were more hopeful. Neri Geller, a lawmaker of the agribusiness caucus who acted as a bridge to Lula during the campaign, said things had changed since Silva's departure in 2008.

“At the time, Marina Silva was perhaps a little too extremist, but people from the agro sector also had some extremists," he said, citing a strengthened legal framework around environmental protection as well. “I think she matured and we matured. We can make progress on important agenda items for the sector while preserving (the environment) at the same time."

Silva and Brazil stand to benefit from a rejuvenated Amazon Fund, which took a hit in 2019 when Norway and Germany froze new cash transfers after Bolsonaro excluded state governments and civil society from decision-making. The Norwegian Embassy in Brazil praised “the clear signals” from Lula about addressing deforestation.

“We think the Amazon Fund can be opened quickly to support the government’s action plan once the Brazilian government reinstates the governing structure of the fund,” the embassy said in a statement to the AP.

The split between Lula and Marina in his last administration came as the president was increasingly kowtowing to agribusiness, encouraged by voracious demand for soy from China. Tension within the administration grew when Mato Grosso state’s Gov. Blairo Maggi, one of the world’s largest soybean producers, and others lobbied against some of the anti-deforestation measures.

Lula and Silva were also at odds over the mammoth Belo Monte Dam, a project that displaced some 40,000 people and dried up stretches of the Xingu River that Indigenous and other communities depended upon for fish. Silva opposed the project; Lula said it was necessary to meet the nation’s growing energy needs and hasn’t expressed any regret since, despite the plant’s impact and the fact it is generating far below installed capacity.

After Silva resigned, she quit Lula’s Workers’ Party and became a fierce critic of him and his successor, Dilma Rousseff. Silva and Lula didn’t begin to reconcile until this year’s presidential campaign, finding common cause in defeating Bolsonaro, whom they deemed an environmental villain and would-be authoritarian.

Caetano Scannavino, coordinator of Health and Happiness, an Amazon nonprofit that supports sustainable projects, said Silva “grew to become someone larger than only an environment minister.”

“This is important, as the challenges in the environmental area are even greater than two decades ago,” Scannavino said, citing growing criminal activities in the Amazon and increasing pressure from agribusiness eager to export to China and Europe. "Silva’s success is Brazil’s success in the world, too. She deserves all support.”

___

AP writer Carla Bridi contributed from Brasilia and Diane Jeantet from Rio de Janeiro.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

23scidoo

Sad day for their country..

mickeyrat

23scidoo said:

Sad day for their country..

really. care to explain why you think that is? in detail if you dont mind.

Gern Blansten

mickeyrat said:

23scidoo said:

Sad day for their country..

really. care to explain why you think that is? in detail if you dont mind.

 Probably referring to Pele

mickeyrat

Gern Blansten said:

mickeyrat said:

23scidoo said:

Sad day for their country..

really. care to explain why you think that is? in detail if you dont mind.

 Probably referring to Pele

ahh. given recent posts in the virus thread ......

lastexitlondon

Pele for sure

23scidoo

What else people??..oh Gods..

josevolution

https://apple.news/A6kr-RoZ9SMOjwPZ_wvx47g

Bolsonaro heads to Florida ahead of inauguration of Lula I wonder where in Florida he could be? POSH another right wing asshole  

Halifax2TheMax

How much did Steve O or Mikey Flynn Baby earn in consulting fees and how much is POOTWH earning in rents? Nice to see the US exporting again, though.

Bolsonaro backers storm congress, court, presidential office in Brazil’s capital

BRASILIA — Thousands of radical backers of Brazil’s far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro breached and vandalized the presidential office building, congress and the Supreme Court on Sunday, and sought to enter other halls of power, in scenes that hauntingly evoked the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former president Donald Trump.

The attack came a week after the inauguration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who defeated Bolsonaro in a runoff election in October. 

Images on Globo TV showed protesters roaming the halls and standing near smashed glass cases in the Planalto Palace, the office of the president. Thousands of others wearing the national soccer shirt — now a symbol of the far right — and waving the Brazilian flag milled about the massive square outside in a part of the Brasilia capital that is similar to Washington’s National Mall.

“This absurd attempt to impose the will by force will not prevail,” Lula’s justice minister Flavio Dino tweeted shortly after the invasion began around 2:30 p.m. local time. “The Government of the Federal District claims that there will be reinforcements. And the forces at our disposal are at work. I’m at the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice.”

The incident captured the uncanny parallels between Bolsonaro and his political lodestar, Trump, and came after months in which pundits have feared a Jan. 6 style copycat action here.

In a manner similar to Trump, Bolsonaro has fueled discontent among his base since his loss to the newly-inaugurated leftist, stepping down while refusing to officially concede.

Continues 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/08/bolsonaro-invade-congress-lula/

gimmesometruth27

over a thousand were arrested. amazing what happens when they arrest people on the day of the event instead of letting them all go home and try to round them up later.

this is going to happen elsewhere as long as trump and the leaders of 1/6 continue to go on about stolen elections.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/brazil-amazon-deforestation-indigenous-people-44ae576b9010a8f11795f8b1ad9e5b2d

 

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE and DIANE JEANTET

Today

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Shaking a traditional rattle, Brazil’s incoming head of Indigenous affairs recently walked through every corner of the agency’s headquarters — even its coffee room — as she invoked help from ancestors during a ritual cleansing.

The ritual carried extra meaning for Joenia Wapichana, Brazil’s first Indigenous woman to command the agency charged with protecting the Amazon rainforest and its people. Once she is sworn in next month under newly inaugurated President Luiz Inácio da Silva, Wapichana promises to clean house at an agency that critics say has allowed the Amazon's resources to be exploited at the expense of the environment.

As Wapichana performed the ritual, Indigenous people and government officials enthusiastically chanted “Yoohoo! Funai is ours!’’ — a reference to the agency she will lead.

FILE - Kayapo leader Raoni Metuktire, from left, Joenia Wapichana, the first indigenous congresswoman to be elected to Brazil's lower house, and indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara, attend a meeting with lawmakers to discuss land rights and the Chamber of Deputies' role in the protection of the environment in Brasilia, Brazil, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Environmentalists, Indigenous people and voters sympathetic to their causes were important to Luiz Inácio da Silva's election to a third term as Brazil's president. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, file)

Environmentalists, Indigenous people and voters sympathetic to their causes were important to Lula's narrow victory over former President Jair Bolsonaro. Now Lula is seeking to fulfill campaign pledges he made to them on a wide range of issues, from expanding Indigenous territories to halting a surge in illegal deforestation.

To carry out these goals, Lula is appointing well-known environmentalists and Indigenous people to key positions at Funai and other agencies that Bolsonaro had filled with allies of agribusiness and military officers.

In Lula's previous two terms as president, he had a mixed record on environmental and Indigenous issues. And he is certain to face obstacles from pro-Bolsonaro state governors who still control swaths of the Amazon. But experts say Lula is taking the right first steps.

The federal officials Lula has already named to key posts “have the national and international prestige to reverse all the environmental destruction that we have suffered over these four years of the Bolsonaro government,” said George Porto Ferreira, an analyst at Ibama, Brazil’s environmental law-enforcement agency.

Bolsonaro's supporters, meanwhile, fear that Lula's promise of stronger environmental protections will hurt the economy by reducing the amount of land open for development, and punish people for activities that had previously been allowed. Some supporters with ties to agribusiness have been accused of providing financial and logistical assistance to rioters who earlier this month stormed Brazil's presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court.

When Bolsonaro was president, he defanged Funai and other agencies responsible for environmental oversight. This enabled deforestation to soar to its highest level since 2006, as developers and miners who took land from Indigenous people faced few consequences.

(AP Photos/Leo Correa, File)

Between 2019 and 2022, the number of fines handed out for illegal activities in the Amazon declined by 38% compared with the previous four years, according an analysis of Brazilian government data by the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental nonprofit groups.

One of the strongest signs yet of Lula's intentions to reverse these trends was his decision to return Marina Silva to lead the country's environmental ministry. Silva formerly held the job between 2003 and 2008, a period when deforestation declined by 53%. A former rubber-tapper from Acre state, Silva resigned after clashing with government and agribusiness leaders over environmental policies she deemed to be too lenient.

FILE - Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, right, and congressional candidate Marina Silva, campaign in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, file)

Silva strikes a strong contrast with Bolsonaro’s first environment minister, Ricardo Salles, who had never set foot in the Amazon when he took office in 2019 and resigned two years later following allegations that he had facilitated the export of illegally felled timber.

Other measures Lula has taken in support of the Amazon and its people include:

— Signing a decree that would rejuvenate the most significant international effort to preserve the rainforest — the Amazon Fund. The fund, which Bolsonaro had gutted, has received more than $1.2 billion, mostly from Norway, to help pay for sustainable development of the Amazon.

— Revoking a Bolsonaro decree that allowed mining in Indigenous and environmental protection areas.

— Creating a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, which will oversee everything from land boundaries to education. This ministry will be led by Sônia Guajajara, the country's first Indigenous woman in such a high government post.

FILE - Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara from the Guajajara ethnic group poses for a photo during a protest against Violence, illegal logging, mining and ranching, and to demand government protection for their reserves, one day before the celebration of "Amazon Day", in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, file)

“It won't be easy to overcome 504 years in only four years. But we are willing to use this moment to promote a take-back of Brazil's spiritual force," Guajajara said during her induction ceremony, which was delayed by the damage pro-Bolsonaro rioters caused to the presidential palace.

The Amazon rainforest, which covers an area twice the size of India, acts as a buffer against climate change by absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide. But Bolsonaro viewed management of the Amazon as an internal affair, causing Brazil's global reputation to take a hit. Lula is trying to undo that damage.

During the UN’s climate summit in Egypt in November, Lula pledged to end all deforestation by 2030 and announced his country’s intention to host the COP30 climate conference in 2025. Brazil had been scheduled to host the event in 2019, but Bolsonaro canceled it in 2018 right after he was elected.

While Lula has ambitious environmental goals, the fight to protect the Amazon faces complex hurdles. For example, getting cooperation from local officials won't be easy.

Six out of nine Amazonian states are run by Bolsonaro allies. Those include Rondonia, where settlers of European descent control local power and have dismantled environmental legislation through the state assembly; and Acre, where a lack of economic opportunities is driving rubber-tappers who had long fought to preserve the rainforest to take up cattle grazing instead.

The Amazon has also been plagued for decades by illegal gold mining, which employs tens of thousands of people in Brazil and other countries, such as Peru and Venezuela. The illegal mining causes mercury contamination of rivers that Indigenous peoples rely upon for fishing and drinking.

FILE - An area of forest on fire near a logging area in the Transamazonica highway region, in the municipality of Humaita, Amazonas state, Brazil, Sept. 17, 2022. In a victory speech Sunday, Oct. 30, Brazil's president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promised to reverse a surge in deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros, file)

“Its main cause is the state's absence,” says Gustavo Geiser, a forensics expert with the Federal Police who has worked in the Amazon for over 15 years.

One area where Lula has more control is in designating Indigenous territories, which are the best preserved regions in the Amazon.

Lula is under pressure to create 13 new Indigenous territories — a process that had stalled under Bolsonaro, who kept his promise not to grant “one more inch” of land to Indigenous peoples.

A major step will be to expand the size of Uneiuxi, part of one of the most remote and culturally diverse regions of the world that is home to 23 peoples. The process of expanding the boundaries of Uneiuxi started four decades ago, and the only remaining step is a presidential signature, which will increase its size by 37% to 551,000 hectares (2,100 square miles).

FILE - Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stands next to Indigenous leader Cacique Raoni at the Planalto Palace after he was sworn in as new president in Brasilia, Brazil, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, file)

“Lula already indicated that he would not have any problem doing that,” said Kleber Karipuna, a close aide of Guajajara.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/technology-caribbean-sao-paulo-brazil-climate-and-environment-c25db936ba80798d2285adc9f27f844d

 

Sao Paulo Brazil Climate and environment Crime

Brazil police: Businessman ordered killings of men in Amazon

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE

5 mins ago

SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazilian police said Monday they planned to indict a Colombian fish trader as the mastermind of last year's slayings of Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira and British journalist Dom Phillips.

Ruben Dario da Silva Villar provided the ammunition to kill the pair, made phone calls to the confessed killer before and after the crime, and paid his lawyer, federal police officials said during a press conference held in Manaus.

Fisherman Amarildo da Costa de Oliveira, nicknamed Pelado, confessed that he shot Phillips and Pereira and has been under arrest since soon after the killings in early June. He and three other relatives are accused of participating in the crime. They all live in an impoverished riverine community inside a federal agrarian reform settlement between the city of Atalaia do Norte and Javari Valley Indigenous Territory.

Villar has denied any wrongdoing in the case. Before Monday's announcement, he was already being held on charges of using false Brazilian and Peruvian documents and leading an illegal fishing scheme. According to the investigation, he financed local fishermen to fish inside Javari Valley Indigenous Territory.

In a statement, UNIVAJA, the local Indigenous association that employed Pereira, said it believed there were other significant planners behind the killings who have not been arrested.

---

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Pereira and Phillips were traveling in the remote area of the Amazon when they disappeared, and their bodies were recovered after the confessions. Phillips was researching for a book about how to save the world’s largest rainforest.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/veja-sneakers-amazon-rubber-sustainability-68d33094e142db88f5b00f8384f5a18f

 

By FABIANO MAISONNAVE, TATIANA POLLASTRI AND ERALDO PERES

19 Jan 2023

XAPURI, Brazil (AP) — Rubber tapper Raimundo Mendes de Barros prepares to leave his home, surrounded by rainforest, for an errand in the Brazilian Amazon city of Xapuri. He slides his long, scarred, 77-year-old feet into a pair of sneakers made by Veja, a French brand.

At first sight, the expensive, white-detailed urban tennis shoes seem at odds with the muddy tropical forest. But the distant worlds have converged to produce soles made from native Amazonian rubber.

Veja works with a local cooperative called Cooperacre, which has reenergized the production of a sustainable forest product and improved the lives of hundreds of rubber tapper families. It's a project that, though modest in scale, provides a real-life example of living sustainably from the forest.

Rubber tapper Rogerio Mendes shows off his Veja sneakers, received as a prize for his work as a young rubber extractor in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre state, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

“Veja and Cooperacre are doing an essential job for us who live in the forest. They are making young people come back. They have rekindled the hope of working with rubber," Rogério Barros, Raimundo’s 24-year-old son, told The Associated Press as he demonstrated how to tap a rubber tree in the family’s grove in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve. Extractive reserves in Brazil are government-owned lands set aside for people to make a living while they keep the forest standing.

Rubber was once central to the economy of the Amazon. The first boom came at the turn of the 20th century. Thousands of people migrated inland from Brazil's impoverished Northeast to work in the forest, often in slave-like conditions.

That boom ended abruptly in the 1910s when rubber plantations started to produce on a large scale in Asia. But during World War II, Japan cut the supply, prompting the United States to finance a restart of rubber production in the Amazon.

Rubber tapper Raimundo Mendes de Barros stands next to a tree prepared for the extraction of rubber, in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre state, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

A rubber tree is prepared for the removal of rubber in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre state, Brazil, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Rubber tappers Raimundo Mendes de Barros, left, and his son Rogerio Mendes place their hands on a rubber tree in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre state, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Cows roam an area recently deforested in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre state, Brazil, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

After the war, Amazon latex commerce again fell into decline, even as thousands of families continued to work in poor conditions for rubber bosses. In the 1970s, these relatively wealthy individuals began selling land to cattle ranchers from the south, even though, in most cases, they didn’t actually own it, but rather just held concessions because they were well-connected with government officers.

These land sales caused the large scale expulsion of rubber tappers from the forest. That loss of livelihood and deforestation to make way for cattle raising is what prompted the famous environmentalist Chico Mendes — together with a cousin of Barros — to found and lead a movement of rubber tappers. Mendes would be murdered for his work in 1988.

After Mendes' assasination, the federal government began to create extractive reserves so that the forest could not be sold to make way for cattle. The Chico Mendes reserve is one of these. But the story did not end with the creation of the reserves. Government attempts to promote the latex, including a state-owned condom factory in Xapuri, failed to create a reliable income.

What sets the Veja operation apart is that rubber tappers are now getting paid far above the commodity price for their rubber. In 2022, the Barros family received US$ 4.20 per kilo (2.2 pounds) of rubber tapped from their grove. Before, they made one tenth that amount.

Industrial rubber is processed at a rubber industrial plant of the cooperative called Cooperacre, in Sena Madureira, Acre state, Brazil, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Employees work at a rubber industrial plant of the cooperative called Cooperacre, in Sena Madureira, Acre state, Brazil, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

A worker shows a piece of a processed rubber plate taken for sample control at a rubber industrial plant of the cooperative called Cooperacre, in Sena Madureira, Acre state, Brazil, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Light shines on raw plates of pressed rubber at a rubber industrial plant of the cooperative called Cooperacre, in Sena Madureira, Acre state, Brazil, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

This price that shoe company Veja pays the tappers includes bonuses for sustainable harvests plus recognition of the value of preserving the forest, explains Sebastião Pereira, in charge of Veja’s Amazonian rubber supply chain. ​The rubber workers also receive federal and state benefits per kilo.

Veja also pays bonuses to tappers who employ best practices and local cooperatives that buy directly from them. The criteria range from zero deforestation to the proper management of rubber trees. Top producers also receive a pair of shoes as a prize.

A worker sorts processed and packaged rubber at a rubber industrial plant of the cooperative called Cooperacre, in Sena Madureira, Acre state, Brazil, Friday, Dec. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Veja’s rubber is produced by some 1,200 families from 22 local cooperatives spread across five Amazonian states: Acre, home to the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Amazonas, Rondonia, Mato Grosso, and Pará.

All the rubber goes to the Cooperacre plant in Sena Madureira, in Acre state, where raw product is cut, washed, shredded into smaller pieces, heated, weighed, packed and finally shipped to factories that Veja contracts with in industrialized Rio Grande Sul state, thousands of miles to the south, as well as to Ceara state, in Brazil's Northeast.

Veja shoes pile up in a store in Paris, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Shoes are visible in a Veja shoe store in Paris, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

A man walks past a Veja shoe store in Paris, Monday, Jan. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

From there the sneakers are distributed to many parts of the world. Over the last 20 years, Veja has sold more than 8 million pairs in several countries and maintains stores in Paris, New York and Berlin. The amount of Amazon rubber it purchases has soared: from 5,000 kilos (11,023 pounds) in 2005 to 709,500 kilos (1.56 million pounds) in 2021, according to company figures.

However, it has not been a game changer for the forest in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, where almost 3,000 families live. The illegal advance of cattle, an old problem, has picked up. Deforestation there has tripled in the past four years, amid the policies of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was defeated in his reelection bid and left office at the end of last year.

Cattle long ago replaced rubber as Acre’s main economic activity. Nearly half of the state’s rural workforce is employed in cattle ranching, where only 4% live from forest products, mainly Brazil nuts.

According to an economic study by Minas Gerais Federal University, 57% of Acre’s economic output comes from cattle. Rubber makes up less than 1%.

People walk near the home of a rubber tapper in the Rio Branco placement in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, Acre state, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Surrounded by cattle pasture and paved highway — the entry point for deforestation — Chico Mendes has the third highest rate of deforestation of any protected reserve in Brazil.

The growing pressure of cattle on the reserve, which has already lost 9% of its original forest cover, even led Veja to set up its own satellite monitoring system.

“Our platform shows a specific region where deforestation is rampant. So we may go there and talk. But we are aware that our role is to offer an alternative and raise awareness,” Pereira told the AP in a phone interview. “We are careful not to cross the line, as the public authority should be the one doing the law enforcement.”

According to Roberta Graf, who leads Acre’s branch of the association of federal environmental officials, the Veja experience is essential as it shows a path for living inside extractive reserves sustainably. But to achieve that, she argues, requires a joint effort that includes government at different levels, nonprofits and grassroots organizations.

“The forest communities still hold rubber tapping dear. They enjoy making a living off the latex,” she told the AP in an interview in her home in Rio Branco, Acre’s capital. “There are many forest products: copaiba, andiroba (vegetable oils), Brazil nuts, wild cacao, and seeds. The ideal should be to work with all of them according to what each reserve can offer."

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-politics-rio-de-janeiro-brasilia-brazil-49518d08678ef5653a5f854c051ca130

 

Jair Bolsonaro Rio de Janeiro Brazil Brasilia

Brazil police raid Bolsonaro nephew's home in uprising probe

By CARLA BRIDI

53 mins ago

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s federal police searched the home of a nephew of former President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday in connection with the Jan. 8 storming of government buildings in the capital by far-right protesters.

Police said Leonardo Rodrigues de Jesus, known by Bolsonaro supporters as Leo Índio, was one of the targets of a series of raids that led to 11 arrests in different states. It was the first time a member of Bolsonaro's family has been included in the investigations of the uprising in Brasilia, which underlined the political polarization in Brazil.

Police said those under investigation could be tried for crimes against democracy and criminal association.

De Jesus posted his picture near the entrance of the Congress building on social media on the day of the uprising. Later, Bolsonaro’s nephew accused leftists of infiltrating the protest to attack government buildings. Police investigations have found no evidence to back up this claim.

De Jesus has a close relationship to one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Carlos Bolsonaro, a city council member in Rio de Janeiro. The two often appeared together at the presidential palace in Brasilia when the far-right president was in office. Their visits were kept secret by the Bolsonaro administration following opposition criticism.

---

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Carlos Bolsonaro is the head of the former president’s digital operations and a key member of Bolsonaro’s failed reelection bid.

De Jesus was one of Carlos Bolsonaro’s aides in Rio and moved to Brasilia in 2019. He joined a senator’s Cabinet team and later Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party group as an adviser at the Senate. He was later fired after the local media revealed he was a “phantom employee” — someone who did not show up for work but still was paid for the post.

In 2022, he ran as a Federal District councilor but didn’t gather enough votes.

De Jesus has been investigated by Rio de Janeiro’s judicial authorities since 2021, when it was alleged he received money transfers from the Cabinet of one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Flavio, when he was on the city council. Public money was also allegedly used to pay De Jesus’ rent.

The Supreme Court had already requested De Jesus’ preventative arrest in connection with the Jan. 8 attacks, but police said he had not been detained yet. De Jesus can appeal that order, but he declared a lack of funds to pay the costs of his attorneys.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva guaranteed at a meeting with state governors that what happened on Jan. 8 won't occur again, calling it a coup attempt

mickeyrat

interesting. curious how this unfolds and plays out.....

https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-politics-brazil-government-united-states-caribbean-2baa4273ac9294879d8d91b64f758c29

 

Jair Bolsonaro Brazil government United States government Brazil Inaugurations Immigration

Brazil's Bolsonaro applies for 6-month U.S. visitor visa

By DAVID BILLER

Today

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has filed a request for a six-month visitor visa to stay in the U.S., indicating he may have no immediate intention of returning home, where legal issues await.

The application was first reported by The Financial Times, citing Bolsonaro's immigration lawyer, Felipe Alexandre. Contacted by The Associated Press, the lawyer's firm, AG Immigration, confirmed the report.

Bolsonaro left Brazil for Florida on Dec. 30, two days before the inauguration of his leftist rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The ceremony proceeded without incident, but a week later thousands of Bolsonaro's die-hard supporters stormed the capital and trashed the top government buildings demanding that Lula's election be overturned.

Bolsonaro is being investigated for whether he had any role in inciting that uprising. It is just one of several probes targeting the former president and that pose a legal headache upon his eventual homecoming, and which could strip him of his eligibility in future races — or worse.

For the first time in his more than three-decade political career as a lawmaker then as president, he no longer enjoys the special legal protection that requires any trial be held at the Supreme Court.

---

JAIR BOLSONARO

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It has been widely assumed — though not confirmed — that Bolsonaro entered the U.S. on an A-1 visa reserved for sitting heads of state. If so, he would have 30 days from the end of his presidential term to either leave the U.S. or adjust his status with the Department of Homeland Security.

Meantime, the shape of his political future and his potential return to Brazil has been a matter of rumor and speculation.

Bolsonaro's calculus appears to be to distance himself from the radicals whose destruction in the capital could implicate him in the short term, with the aim of some day returning to lead the opposition, said Mario Sérgio Lima, a political analyst at Medley Advisors.

“He is giving it some time, staying away a bit from the country at a moment when he can begin to suffer legal consequences for his supporters’ attitudes,” said Lima. “I don’t think the fact of him staying away is enough. The processes will continue, but maybe he thinks he can at least avoid some sort of revenge punishment.”

Bolsonaro has been staying in a home outside Orlando, Florida, and video has shown him snapping photos with supporters in the gated community and ambling around inside a supermarket.

In the wake of the rampage in the Brazilian capital this month, a group of 46 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding Bolsonaro’s visa be revoked.

“The United States must not provide shelter for him, or any authoritarian who has inspired such violence against democratic institutions,” they wrote.

Bolsonaro's son, a senator, told reporters at an event this weekend that he was not sure when his father would return to Brazil.

"It could be tomorrow, it could be in six months, he might never return. I don't know. He's relaxing,” Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro said.

Asked whether Bolsonaro has filed any request for documentation or help with visa processses, Brazil’s foreign ministry referred AP to U.S. authorities. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services referred AP to the State Department, which has repeatedly declined comment to questions about Bolsonaro’s visa status in the U.S.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-politics-brazil-government-florida-state-caribbean-a322d4dd311840120b3f296b363e550e

  

Jair Bolsonaro Brazil government Florida state government Brazil

Ally claims Bolsonaro plotted coup to block Lula presidency

By ELÉONORE HUGHES

1 hour ago

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — A Brazilian magazine on Thursday released audio of a senator claiming then President Jair Bolsonaro sought help in a plot to annul the October elections and keep himself in power.

In the recording, Sen. Marcos do Val tells the magazine Veja that the idea was discussed when he met with Bolsonaro and lawmaker Daniel Silveira on Dec. 9 at the presidential residence, three weeks before leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was set to take office.

Do Val, who was an ally during Bolsonaro’s four-year term, said the far-right leader gave him the “mission” of recording Alexandre de Moraes, a Supreme Court justice who also heads Brazil's electoral authority, while trying to get the judge to admit he overstepped his powers under the constitution.

“'I annul the election, Lula isn't sworn in, I stay in the presidency and arrest Alexandre de Moraes because of his comments,'” do Val quotes Bolsonaro as saying.

Veja released the audio in response to denials the senator issued following the magazine's report Thursday morning about the purported plot, which had not cited him as its source. Do Val told reporters after the magazine published its story that the plot had been Silveira's idea and that the former president hadn't said a word during the meeting.

---

JAIR BOLSONARO

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Later Thursday, de Moraes ordered the Federal Police to take do Val's sworn testimony within five days. Bolsonaro, who has been keeping a low profile in Florida since Dec. 30, did not comment on the matter on any of his social media channels. He recently applied for a six-month tourist visa to stay in the U.S.

The alleged meeting adds to the growing list of woes for Bolsonaro, who is already under investigation for his possible role in his supporters' uprising in the Brazilian capital on Jan. 8.

Bolsonaro cast doubt on the nation's electronic voting system for months in the lead-up to the election, and he then refused to concede defeat. His die-hard supporters have accused de Moraes of rigging the election in Lula’s favor, without offering any evidence, and of overstepping his authority by blocking social media accounts and ordering allegedly arbitrary arrests and searches.

Suspicions of a coup plot increased after police searching the home of Bolsonaro’s former justice minister found a draft decree that would have seized control of the electoral authority and potentially overturned the election. The origin of the unsigned document is unclear, and it remains unknown if Bolsonaro or his subordinates took any steps to implement the measure.

Do Val told both Veja magazine and journalists later Thursday that he informed de Moraes of what was discussed at the meeting with Bolsonaro and Silveira, and that he declined to participate in the alleged plot.

Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, the former president’s son, said he was aware of the meeting, which he described as an attempt by Silveira to persuade the other two men to do something “absolutely unacceptable, absurd and illegal.” But discussing such an idea does not constitute a crime, he said.

Silveira was arrested Thursday on de Moraes' order for violating terms of his release from prison. Silveira was previously sentenced for anti-democratic acts after issuing threats against de Moraes and other justices, but was released after Bolsonaro pardoned him. Still, he was prohibited from using his social media accounts and required to wear an electronic ankle bracelet as other investigations targeting him proceed.

___

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

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-politics-united-states-government-brazil-florida-state-d76610dcae6f4a2490ae596f2136728d

 

Jair Bolsonaro United States government Brazil government Florida state government Miami Donald Trump Brazil Fraud

Bolsonaro ponders election defeat, as crowd chants ‘fraud’

By TERRY SPENCER, ELEONORE HUGHES and NICHOLAS RICCARDI

18 mins ago

MIAMI (AP) — Only a few weeks after his supporters stormed the seat of his country's government, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Friday expressed bafflement at how he could have lost October's election, then smiled silently as a crowd of supporters cried, “Fraud!”

He did not directly address the Jan. 8 assault on the buildings housing Brazil’s Congress and Supreme Court during his appearance in Miami before a conservative group tied to former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Bolsonaro had mimicked Trump’s strategy during his own 2020 reelection campaign, for months sowing doubts about the reliability of Brazil's voting machines and then filing a petition to annul millions of votes. He is now under investigation for allegedly inciting the uprising.

Like Trump, Bolsonaro has not conceded the election, though unlike the former U.S. president he also has never explicitly said he lost due to fraud. During a question-and-answer session with Charlie Kirk, head of the conservative Turning Point USA, the former Brazilian president rattled off his administration's accomplishments and then provided backers with an opening.

“Brazil was doing very well,” Bolsonaro said. “I cannot understand the reasons why (the election) decided to go to the left.”

---

JAIR BOLSONARO

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After the cries of “fraud” died down, Kirk, who helped spread Trump's own election fraud lies after the former U.S. president's loss, replied, “All I can say is, that sounds very familiar.”

The event took place at Trump's Miami hotel, underscoring the connection between two populist presidents who fanned suspicion of their democracies' elections, leading supporters to turn violent after their losses. The two were political allies who shared an overlapping set of advisers. Shortly before Bolsonaro's opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, took office, Bolsonaro moved to Florida, the state where Trump has based himself.

Friday's appearance marked part of Bolsonaro's reemergence after spending several weeks in a central Florida suburb. He spoke to some supporters there earlier this week before taking the stage at Trump's hotel late Friday afternoon.

Much of Bolsonaro's Friday speech amounted to a defense of his four years in power, touting job gains, what he said was a lack of corruption in his administration and, in a reference that drew loud cheers, “freedom” for those who opted out of COVID-19 vaccinations.

After his 30-minute appearance, many in the several hundred-strong crowd, often clad in the national colors of yellow and green, swarmed around the 67-year-old former president.

Some of Bolsonaro's backers in Brazil have expressed disappointment that he left the country before Jan. 8 and has remained circumspect about the attack. The former president faces legal jeopardy not only from a mushrooming number of investigations into the Jan. 8 uprising but from the country's supreme court, which has censored websites that have spread what it calls lies about Brazil's election.

Reynaldo Rossi, a Brazilian farmer visiting Florida to explore a possible relocation there, said he is glad Bolsonaro is staying in the U.S. for now.

“If he goes back, they are going to create a lot of trouble for him,” Rossi said. “He would spend a lot of his time down there defending himself instead of leading us.”

In his speech, Bolsonaro acknowledged Brazilians who have left the country for the U.S., seeming to include himself in that category.

“As well as we feel here, we always worry about our friends and family that stayed there,” he said, referring to Brazil.

He also reassured the crowd about the country's future.

“I believe in Brazil, and I am certain that Brazil will not end with the current government,” Bolsonaro said.

___

Hughes reported from from Rio de Janiero and Riccardi from Denver.