BRAZIL!!!!!

Halifax2TheMax

mickeyrat said:

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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Brazil's Lula to visit Biden on Feb. 10

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.

Deport the mofo by attaching him to that Chinese balloon and let him feel real oppression. Or remand him to Mar-I-Lieo with an ankle bracelet and let him see if he wants to buy the test ride. Pussy.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/jair-bolsonaro-politics-brazil-government-united-states-florida-state-a1dc9e7ddaeaa2799cee80bb018ee9d2

 

Jair Bolsonaro Brazil government United States government Florida state government Brasilia Brazil

Bolsonaro says he may return to Brazil in the coming weeks

By CARLA BRIDI

Today

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Former President Jair Bolsonaro said Saturday he intends to return to Brazil “in the following weeks.”

The comment during an event at an evangelical church in Florida was the first time that Bolsonaro has made a statement in public about returning home.

The far-right politician has been in the U.S. since arriving in Orlando, Florida, on Dec. 31, the eve of the inauguration of his leftist rival, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as Brazil's current president.

Saturday's event was held entirely in Portuguese for a Brazilian crowd of Bolsonaro supporters living abroad and was organized by the right-wing organization Yes Brazil USA. Bolsonaro was cheered throughout the event.

There has been speculation during recent weeks on when Bolsonaro might return to Brazil, where is the subject of several investigations into possible wrongdoing.

He initially entered the U.S. on a one-month diplomatic visa, which ended Jan. 31. He was accompanied by a team of presidential advisers and his wife, all of whom left Florida last month.

Lawyers for Bolsonaro told Brazilian media recently that they applied for a tourist visa to extend his stay in the U.S.

Amid the speculation about Bolsonaro's plans, one of his sons, Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, told Brazilian reporters that he didn’t know when his father would return. “It could be tomorrow, it could be in six months, he might never return. I don’t know. He’s relaxing,” the son said.

---

JAIR BOLSONARO

Health crisis leads scores of Yanomami to roam the streets

Biden, Lula focus on democracy, climate during visit

Bolsonaro ponders election defeat, as crowd chants ‘fraud’

Ally claims Bolsonaro plotted coup to block Lula presidency

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

Bolsonaro is being investigated in four inquiries, which had been in the Supreme Court and were sent to trial court this past week.

Among the inquiries is whether Bolsonaro had any role in inciting the Jan. 8 riot by his supporters who stormed into government buildings in the capital, Brasilia, demanding his election defeat to Lula be overturned.

Investigators are also looking into who organized and financed the mass gathering of Bolsonaro supporters, who came to the capital from all over Brazil.

One of the investigations held by the Brazilian justice is who are the ones responsible for inciting the crimes, as well as who financed people from all over the country to travel to Brasilia.

mickeyrat

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-bolsonaro-ordered-testify-jan-8-riots-court-order-2023-04-14/

mickeyrat

whoops.

gift article

Brazil’s Police Raid Bolsonaro Home in Fake Vaccine Cards Case https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/03/world/americas/bolsonaro-brazil-police-covid-vaccine-cards.html?unlocked_article_code=23py6WgUWkPFsVr18iD6NH2aawUAZ2LF2TIpKWRZtzqWkR02V-zfQvGg-h1PLbMHvMr8Gd8Kh2rA6qflOWc9Yrakas2ZpZJJ2-kkqvFbGlXAg3gAEG7J43c1vwYB8b189xtYLNXt0GkcDp9GwEthM848eoSlpJr2JufWgvAfyBvgfjoM4WQu7i7N3P8-wanmaaxQrGG73QVnjzqVpwdVycSGSKoqKFEZUUcLEQS0uSbsqy21FrkiSjW9NE60QtGTi-Pw0nt5K6AKpb2xPvkBySBs7TR6m4WNmZsDkLC5xmMt2EPSGCefS72t9MznXUDLWH3_g0CZic9hPJniVyn7nvFJ6d4KLi_GO-rtZ9wy45FzWIHhL-WLxaF0KP8

 

Brazil’s Police Raid Bolsonaro Home in Fake Vaccine Cards Case

The authorities arrested a close aide of former President Jair Bolsonaro on charges that he forged vaccine records, possibly to help Mr. Bolsonaro enter the United States.

Image

Jair Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil, speaking to reporters outside his home in Brasília after the police search on Wednesday.Credit...Eraldo Peres/Associated Press

By Flávia Milhorance and Ana Ionova

May 3, 2023Updated 4:54 p.m. ET

RIO DE JANEIRO — The Brazilian police raided the home of former President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday and seized his cellphone as part of a sweeping investigation into forged Covid-19 vaccination records that may have allowed him and his top aides to gain entry into the United States.

The authorities searched more than a dozen homes in Rio de Janeiro and Brasília, arresting six people, including one of Mr. Bolsonaro’s closest aides and two of his security guards, who are suspected of tampering with a government vaccination database and issuing falsified records.

The forged vaccine cards may have allowed Mr. Bolsonaro and his aides to sidestep U.S. travel restrictions put in place at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, investigators said.

False vaccine certificates may have been issued for Mr. Bolsonaro, his 12-year-old daughter, Laura, and other top officials in his administration, according to the Brazilian authorities. The police said the vaccination records were forged between November 2021 and December 2022.

continues....

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/brazil-amazon-deforestation-lula-climate-change-2fe225f71a8f484e8d365ea641acd65e

 

In Lula's first six months, Brazil Amazon deforestation dropped 34%, reversing trend under Bolsonaro

By Fabiano Maisonnave

6 Jul 2023

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — After four years of rising destruction in Brazil’s Amazon, deforestation dropped by 33.6% during the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s term, according to government satellite data released Thursday.

From January to June the rainforest had alerts for possible deforestation covering 2,650 square kilometers (1,023 square miles), down from 4,000 square kilometers — an area the size of Rhode Island — during the same period last year under former President Jair Bolsonaro. This year's data includes a 41% plunge in alerts for June, which marks the start of the dry season when deforestation tends to jump.

"The effort of reversing the curve of growth has been reached. That is a fact: we reversed the curve; deforestation isn't increasing," João Paulo Capobianco, the Environment Ministry's executive secretary, said during a presentation in Brasilia.

---

JAIR BOLSONARO

Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro is barred from running for office until 2030

Brazil court imposes Bolsonaro election ban to 2030

Bolsonaro political future at risk as trial begins

Brazil's Bolsonaro questioned in fake vaccine card investigation

Capobianco noted that full-year results will depend on a few challenging months ahead. Still, the data is an encouraging sign for Lula, who campaigned last year with pledges to rein in illegal logging and undo the environmental devastation during Bolsonaro’s term. The former far-right leader weakened environmental authorities while his insistence on development of the Amazon region resonated with landgrabbers and farmers who had long felt maligned by environmental laws. They were emboldened, and Amazon deforestation surged to a 15-year high.

Thursday's deforestation data comes from a system called Deter, managed by the National Institute for Space Research, a federal agency. It is an initiative mainly focused on detecting real-time deforestation. The most accurate deforestation calculations come from another system called Prodes, with data released only annually.

“Bottom line, we are prioritizing environmental law enforcement,” Jair Schmitt, head of environmental protection at Ibama, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

However, the continued shortage of personnel means the task hasn't been easy, he said. Many Ibama agents retired and weren't replaced during Bolsonaro’s administration, reflecting his effort to defang environmental authorities. Lula has committed to restoring the workforce, but the number of Ibama’s enforcement agents remains at its lowest in 24 years. For the entire country that is bigger than the contiguous U.S., there are just 700 agents, with 150 available for deployment.

Ibama has also strengthened remote surveillance, where deforestation is detected through satellite imagery, according to Schmitt. By cross-referencing with land records, it is possible to identify the owner of the area in many cases, leading to an embargo that restricts access to financial loans and imposes other sanctions.

Another strategy has been to seize thousands of illegally raised cattle within embargoed areas. It is effective because it inflicts immediate punishment, whereas fines are rarely paid in Brazil due to a slow appeals process, Schmitt said.

Rodrigo Agostinho, the head of Ibama, noted in the presentation Thursday that the value of fines imposed in the first half of the year jumped 167% from the 2019-2022 average, and the agency embargoed 2,086 areas — up 111%.

“We started the year with a lot of difficulty because of everything we inherited, reorganizing all the enforcement teams, environmental protection, reactivating tech systems,” said Agostinho.

Improved deforestation data also reflect the change in rhetoric coming from the top, said Schmitt. Whereas Bolsonaro openly criticized Ibama and advocated for the legalization of deforested areas, Lula has said he will rebuild law enforcement and promised to expel invaders from protected areas. Experts say the mere expectation that a land-grabbed area will eventually be regularized has historically been one of deforestation's biggest drivers.

It may be premature to celebrate the reversal in deforestation's trend, however. According to satellite monitoring, there were 3,075 fires in the Amazon in June alone, which marks the beginning of the dry season — the most since 2007. The jump is due to the clearing of areas deforested in the second half of 2022, Schmitt said. In the Amazon, fires are mostly man-made and occur after clear-cutting of the forest.

With El Niño looming, which typically brings less rain and higher temperatures to the Amazon, Ibama has doubled its budget for fighting forest fires and increased the scope of its fire squads by 17% for the most critical period, typically July to October. Approximately half of the 2,117 temporary firefighters are Indigenous peoples.

The Amazon rainforest covers an area twice the size of India and holds tremendous stores of carbon, serving as a crucial buffer against climate change. Two-thirds of it is located in Brazil.

Next month, Lula will preside over a meeting in Belem, bringing together heads-of-state from all Amazonian nations to discuss means to effectively cooperate in the challenging region. Lula has promised to end net deforestation in Brazil's Amazon by 2030. His four-year mandate, his third term, ends two years earlier.

To achieve this, law enforcement alone will not be enough, says Adevaldo Dias, a rubber-tapper leader who presides over the Chico Mendes Memorial, a non-profit organization that assists traditional non-Indigenous communities in the Amazon.

“It is necessary to invest in sustainable productive chains under community management, such as managed pirarucu (arapaima) fishing, Brazil nuts, vegetable oils, and açai,” he told the AP. “This will help revitalize and expand these chains, generating decent income for those engaged in conservation efforts within their territories.”

Ibama's Agostinho also stressed his agency's efforts within Indigenous territories, particularly the land of the Yanomami people where thousands of illegal gold miners — seeking to carve out a living — invaded during Bolsonaro's term.

Their activities contaminated waterways and sickened local people, and Lula's government has spent months expelling most of them. Some remain, however, working at night to avoid being caught, Agostinho said.

“We are very content with the result so far," he said. "We know the fight isn’t over, we will continue doing this work.”

___

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/brazil-bolsonaro-ineligible-court-ruling-vote-99dee0fe4b529019ccbb65c9636a9045

 

Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro is barred from running for office until 2030

By Diane Jeantet, Mauricio Savarese

30 Jun 2023

SAO PAULO (AP) — Far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was barred Friday from running for office again until 2030 after a panel of judges concluded that he abused his power and cast unfounded doubts on the country’s electronic voting system.

The decision upends the 68-year-old's political future and likely erases any chance for him to regain power.

Five judges on the nation's highest electoral court agreed that Bolsonaro used government communication channels to promote his campaign and sowed distrust about the vote. Two judges voted against the move.

“This decision will end Bolsonaro’s chances of being president again, and he knows it,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “After this, he will try to stay out of jail, elect some of his allies to keep his political capital, but it is very unlikely he will ever return to the presidency.”

---

JAIR BOLSONARO

In Lula's first six months, Brazil Amazon deforestation dropped 34%, reversing trend under Bolsonaro

Brazil court imposes Bolsonaro election ban to 2030

Bolsonaro political future at risk as trial begins

Brazil's Bolsonaro questioned in fake vaccine card investigation

The case focused on a July 18, 2022, meeting where Bolsonaro used government staffers, the state television channel and the presidential palace in Brasilia to tell foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system was rigged.

In her decisive vote that formed a majority, Judge Carmen Lucia — who is also a Supreme Court justice — said "the facts are incontrovertible.”

"The meeting did take place. It was convened by the then-president. Its content is available. It was examined by everyone, and there was never a denial that it did happen,” she said.

Alexandre de Moraes, also a Supreme Court justice, said the decision represents rejection of “populism reborn from the flames of hateful, antidemocratic speech that promotes heinous disinformation.”

Speaking to reporters in Minas Gerais, Bolsonaro lamented that the trial was unfair and politically motivated.

“We’re going to talk with the lawyers. Life goes on,” he said when asked what his next step would be. He called the ruling an attack on Brazilian democracy. “It’s a rather difficult moment.”

Melo said the decision is “very unlikely” to be overturned. It removes Bolsonaro from the 2024 and 2028 municipal elections as well as the 2026 general elections. The former president also faces other legal troubles, including criminal investigations. Future criminal convictions could extend his ban by years and subject him to imprisonment.

Former President Fernando Collor de Mello and current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva were declared ineligible in the past, but Bolsonaro’s case marks the first time a president has been suspended for election violations rather than a criminal offense. Brazilian law forbids candidates with criminal sentences from running for office.

Lula’s eligibility was reinstated by Brazil’s top court following rulings that then-judge and now Sen. Sergio Moro was biased when he sentenced the leftist leader to almost 10 years in prison for corruption and money laundering.

Maria Maris, a 58-year-old engineer in Rio de Janeiro, celebrated the ruling, though said she suspects it may have been politically motivated.

“My fear is that Bolsonaro appeals and runs in the next presidential election, even though he was made ineligible today,” Maris said.

Bolsonaro holds a ceremonial leadership role within his Liberal Party and has traveled around Brazil criticizing Lula, who won last October’s election with the narrowest margin in over three decades.

Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings on Jan. 8 — one week after Lula took power — in an attempt to oust the leftist from power. Swift jailing and prosecution of hundreds of those who participated had a chilling effect on their rejection of the election's results. Federal police are investigating Bolsonaro's role in inciting the uprising; he has denied any wrongdoing.

The chairwoman of Lula's Workers’ Party, Gleisi Hoffmann, said on her social media channels that Bolsonaro's ineligibility offers a teachable moment.

“The far-right needs to know that the political struggle takes place within the democratic process, and not with violence and threatening a coup,” she said. Bolsonaro "will be out of the game because he doesn’t respect the rules. Not only him, his whole gang of coup mongers has to follow the same path.”

The trial has reenergized Bolsonaro’s base online, with supporters claiming he is a victim of an unfair judicial system and comparing his fate to that of former U.S. President Donald Trump, according to Marie Santini, coordinator of NetLab, a research group at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro that monitors social media.

However, that engagement pales in comparison to the levels seen ahead of last year’s polarizing election.

The expression of Katia Caminha, a 67 year-old retiree in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana neighborhood, crumbled upon hearing the news that a majority of judges had voted against Bolsonaro. She told The Associated Press that she thought the whole trial had been a “clown show.”

“Everything that has to do with the electoral court is biased and against" Bolsonaro. "This is terrible news for Brazil,” Caminha said.

This week, his supporters showed their continued support with contributions to help him pay 1.1 million reais (about $230,000) in fines levied by Sao Paulo state's government for Bolsonaro's repeated violations of health protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Bolsonaro aims to be the right's kingmaker, and his endorsement will carry significant heft, his decision to decamp to Florida for several months at the start of Lula's term weakened him, said Thomas Traumann, a political analyst. That is reflected by the limited right-wing outrage on social media throughout the eligibility trial, and no sign of protests.

“There won't be a mass movement, because he diminished in size. The fact that he went to Florida and didn't lead the opposition caused him to diminish in size,” Traumann said. “The leader of the opposition is clearly not Bolsonaro."

As the trial drew to a close, a trumpeter standing outside the electoral court played the song that became a sensation during last year's presidential race: “It is Time for Jair to Go Away.”

___

Jeantet reported from Rio. Associated Press Writer Carla Bridi contributed to this report.

mickeyrat

https://twitter.com/NoLieWithBTC/status/1699503097540731358?t=UH18-uoOYGvbHhVkBaG5hA&s=19