Articles - The Brazilian Report

Key takeaways from day one of Covid hearing testimony

Power

Key takeaways from day one of Covid hearings testimony

Former Health Minister Mandetta spoke before the committee for nearly seven hours. It was a tepid outing, but which showed the extent of Bolsonaro's Covid-19 denialism

1 day ago • Débora Álvares

Shipment of Sputnik V doses. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Shutterstock

Power

Sputnik V vaccine’s controversy in Brazil, explained

Manufacturers claim the regulator acted unethically, but Anvisa stresses inconsistencies with the immunizer

2 days ago • Renato Alves

Bolsonaro covid hearings fario faria communications

Power

Bolsonaro strategy to muffle the Senate’s Covid hearings

Trying to hijack the news, Jair Bolsonaro moved a major telecom event to a Senate function room, just meters from the Covid inquiry

3 days ago • Débora Álvares

Power

Economy Minister Guedes picks his job over his beliefs

Increasingly marginalized since taking office, Economy Ministry Paulo Guedes has been pushed into a large reshuffle of his department. Will it be enough to save his credibility?

6 days ago • Ana Ferraz

Senate Covid hearings committee Bolsonaro

Power

A tense first round of the Covid hearings committee

The first session of the Covid hearings laid bare some of the tactics that will be used over the next 90 days

1 week ago • Débora Álvares

Business

Brazil plans to repatriate foreign funds to foot Covid-19 bill

The Senate is working on a proposal to settle the undeclared foreign assets of Brazilian citizens, hoping to go some way toward covering the country's record pandemic-related deficit

19 hours ago • Renato Alves

Business

Brazil takes controversial step towards breaking Covid patents

A bill that would allow the country to sidestep patents on drugs, testing, and – crucially – vaccines has passed in the Senate. We break down its legal implications

5 days ago • Ana Ferraz

Business

Brazil hopes to finally make money from “world’s best” satellite launch center

Located just south of the equator, expeditions from the Alcântara Launch Center are cheaper, more efficient, and more predictable. But Brazil has consistently failed to profit from the base

6 days ago • Renato Alves

Business

Northeastern Brazil to build world’s biggest green hydrogen plant

The state of Ceará hopes to become a global supplier of green hydrogen, seen by experts as the fuel source of a sustainable future

1 week ago • Renato Alves

Business

Planning an IPO, Wise owes Brazil an explanation

A former partner in Brazil claims the London-based fintech was involved in fraud schemes

2 weeks ago • Natália Scalzaretto

Startup accelerator goes looking for Amazonian unicorns

Tech

Tech Roundup: Searching for unicorns in the Amazon

This is our weekly tech roundup, a digest of the most important news on technology and innovation in Brazil

6 days ago • Ana Ferraz and Renato Alves

Tech

Brazilian Air Force turns to homemade drones in Embraer deal

The Air Force and Embraer reached an agreement to develop military drones made in Brazil. One private company has beaten the pair to the punch, however

1 week ago • Renato Alves

Tech

Tech Roundup: Creating a Latin America-wide DNA database

This week: a possible DNA database. Brazil's controversial AI guidelines. And the IADB's push for digitizing the Brazilian government

2 weeks ago • Ana Ferraz and Natália Scalzaretto

Court sides with angry neighbors in Airbnb trial in Brazil

Tech

Brazilian court sides with angry neighbors in Airbnb trial

A panel of judges ruled that housing complexes can forbid owners from renting their property on Airbnb — a ruling which could set a precedent for similar cases

2 weeks ago • Gustavo Ribeiro

Tech

Tech Roundup: The importance of a national data council

Brazil's Data Protection Council is one step closer to creation, which will give regulators a huge boost in decision-making and research

3 weeks ago • Natália Scalzaretto and Ana Ferraz

Podcast

Explaining Brazil #150: Vaccine diplomacy in Latin America

When Latin American countries received their first vaccines, they didn't get them from Western powers — but from China and Russia instead. But these deals often came with strings attached

19 hours ago • Gustavo Ribeiro

Podcast

Explaining Brazil #149: The Brazilian Epstein?

One of Brazil's biggest business success stories may have covered a child sexual abuse ring

1 week ago • Gustavo Ribeiro

President Jair Bolsonaro. Photo: Isac Nóbrega/PR

Podcast

Explaining Brazil #148: Bolsonaro fighting on multiple fronts

The Brazilian president has a lot on his plate right now, with the resolution of the 2021 budget, a crucial climate summit, and a Senate investigation into the government's pandemic response. Can his administration survive?

2 weeks ago • Gustavo Ribeiro

elections Ecuadorian President-elect Guillermo Lasso. Photo: Vincent Ricci/Shutterstock

Podcast

Explaining Brazil #147: What to make of South America’s Super Sunday

Elections in Ecuador and Peru were filled with surprises. Latin America correspondent Lucas Berti breaks down what they mean for the region

3 weeks ago • Gustavo Ribeiro

Podcast

Explaining Brazil #146: A Brazilian vaccine on the way?

President Jair Bolsonaro and São Paulo Governor João Doria are in a race toward the first coronavirus vaccine fully produced in Brazil

4 weeks ago • Gustavo Ribeiro

Coronavirus

Indigenous lives during Covid-19, through a camera lens

Genilson Guajajara has become one of the leading references in documenting the daily cultures and struggles of Brazil's indigenous communities

3 days ago • Renato Alves

Society

Scarred by Zika, Brazilian women say ‘no’ to pandemic pregnancies

1 week ago • Letícia Marteleto

Society

Brazilian data production faces “uncertain future” as census is postponed

Brazil was once lauded for its ability to produce reliable statistical data, but successive funding cuts have thrown this reputation into jeopardy

1 week ago • Ana Ferraz

life expectancy Graveyard pits opened at São Paulo's Vila Formosa Cemetery. Photo: Ettore Chiereguini/Shutterstock

Society

Pandemic cuts Brazil’s life expectancy, experts say recovery will take time

Average Brazilian life expectancy fell for the first time since 1945 last year, and is set to slip even further

2 weeks ago • Renato Alves

Society

The forgotten stories of Brazil’s concentration camps

After entering World War II on the side of the Allies, the Brazilian government opened a series of concentration camps housing German, Japanese, and Italian immigrants

3 weeks ago • Renato Alves

Mountains of Escazú, Costa Rica, where the climate agreement was signed in 2018. Photo: Daniel Rojas Abarca/Shutterstock

Environment

Escazú Climate Agreement: Brazil among notable absences

Twelve Latin American countries ratified a landmark agreement to strengthen civil participation in environmental issues and help punish wrongdoings

7 days ago • Gustavo Ribeiro

Environment

Tons of waste wash up on beaches in Brazil’s Northeast

Dozens of tons of solid waste have been cleared from a series of beaches in Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte. Authorities have yet to ascertain a cause

1 week ago • Renato Alves

Environment

Widely criticized, Brazil’s Environment Minister isn’t going anywhere

Many in Brazil and abroad want Ricardo Salles removed as Brazil's Environment Minister. But he may well be untouchable within the Bolsonaro administration

2 weeks ago • Renato Alves

Environment

As U.S. and Brazil discuss the Amazon, civil society says “don’t trust Bolsonaro”

The two countries are set to discuss terms over potential U.S. financial aid to help Brazil fight deforestation

3 weeks ago • Renato Alves

Petrobras oil rig along the Brazilian coast. Photo: Petrobras/ABr

Environment

New “pre-salt” oil reserves on the Amazon coast excite markets

Researchers claim to have found new deepwater oil reserves off Brazil's northern coast. However, environmental agents say coral reefs could be destroyed by oil extraction activities

4 weeks ago • Renato Alves

Small banana farmer in Cane, Honduras. Photo: Vivid imagery/Shutterstock

Latin America

Deadly storms ravaged fruit crops in Central America’s original banana republic

2 days ago • Lucas Berti

Latin America

Private vaccine rollouts begin to take hold in Latin America

With governments unable to provide vaccine jabs to citizens, private firms want to step in. But the plan could further raise inequality

2 weeks ago • Lucas Berti

Latin America

The coronavirus collapse in Paraguay continues to get worse

The government in Paraguay escaped collapse following protests over its handling of the pandemic. One month later, it has given few answers

2 weeks ago • Lucas Berti

Latin America

How the pandemic furthers a right-wing agenda in Latin America

Growing poverty and violence may see the democratic advances of previous decades wiped out as zero-tolerance policies grow more popular among voters

3 weeks ago • Lucas Berti

Mexico gambles on homemade Patria vaccine

Latin America

Amid a slow rollout, Mexico gambles on homemade vaccine

President AMLO presented the new vaccine as being 100-percent made in Mexico, but it relies on technology developed in the U.S.

3 weeks ago • Lucas Berti

congress Rodrigo Maia led Brazil's lower house until February 2021. Photo: Marcelo Camargo/ABr

Opinion

How Congress increased its powers over Brazil’s political agenda

In an interview with the American University in Washington, ex-House Speaker Rodrigo Maia analyzed his legacy, his views on representative democracy in Brazil, and legislative effectiveness

3 days ago • Beatriz Rey

Opinion

Tax reform is back – but can it be passed in these turbulent times?

House Speaker Arthur Lira has committed to passing tax reform legislation. But the political scenario is too volatile to predict a positive outcome at this stage

4 days ago • Leonardo Barreto

Opinion

400,000 deaths and little room for hope

After just 14 months, this pandemic is already the deadliest event in Brazilian history — barring colonization and slavery, which lasted for centuries

7 days ago • Gustavo Ribeiro

The Bolsonaro government's disregard for education in Brazil

Opinion

How Bolsonaro is wrecking Brazil’s education system

The education system may be the ultimate loser of President Bolsonaro's funding decisions and policy choices

1 week ago • Beatriz Rey

In full protective gear, a gravedigger at Vila Formosa cemetery looks on burying another Covid-19 victim. Photo: Vincent Bosson

Opinion

A night at Latin America’s biggest cemetery

Photographer Vincent Bosson produced a photo essay at São Paulo's Vila Formosa cemetery, accompanying the burials of Covid-19 victims and reflecting on a pandemic out of all control

2 weeks ago • Vincent Bosson

Tourism

When Hollywood royalty traded it all for a Brazilian farm

In the mid-20th century, a group of Hollywood movie stars gave up the glitz and glamor to become farmers in the Brazilian state of Goiás

4 weeks ago • Renato Alves

Stone City Pireneus lost hidden history Brazil

Tourism

The ancient stone city of Pireneus: Brazil’s best-kept secret

The city of Pirenópolis attracts tourists from all over for its lavish vegetation. But its most stunning attraction is remains unknown

1 month ago • Renato Alves

Tourism

Businesses in Brazilian tourist city organize their own voluntary lockdown

Small business-owners in Alto Paraíso de Goiás took matters into their own hands after the local mayor failed to do so

2 months ago • Renato Alves

Coronavirus

Foreign residents in Brazil being turned, despite right to enter

The government decreed that visitors from the UK would be denied entry, except for permanent residents. However, this has not been observed

3 months ago • Lucas Berti

Tourism

The show must not go on for Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival

The world's most iconic carnival destination has definitively canceled its 2021 celebrations, causing huge losses to multiple sectors

3 months ago • Renato Alves

Guide to Brazil

The real story behind Portugal’s “discovery” of Brazil

School books will tell you that Brazil was discovered by Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500. Records show the country had visited the new land years before

2 weeks ago • Renato Alves

Business

How to get a Brazilian investor visa

Brazil offers indefinite residence permits for foreigners who invest in Brazilian companies, or set up their own enterprise

1 month ago • Iure Pontes Vieira

Guide to Brazil

How to become a Brazilian citizen

Migratory processes in Brazil are notoriously cumbersome and time-consuming, but the country's requirements for naturalization are fairly liberal

3 months ago • Iure Pontes Vieira

Guide to Brazil

Looking back at South America’s bloodiest war

The Paraguayan War was a brutal conflict opposing Paraguay and an alliance between Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. It ended 150 years ago

4 months ago • Natália Scalzaretto

Guide to Brazil

Marechal Rondon: the legacy of a lifelong defender of indigenous rights

Cândido Rondon devoted his life to protect indigenous communities and inspired generations with a humanistic approach to native peoples

4 months ago • Euan Marshall and Lucas Berti

All

Brazil plans to repatriate foreign funds to foot Covid-19 bill

The Senate is working on a proposal to settle the undeclared foreign assets of Brazilian citizens, hoping to go some way toward covering the country's record pandemic-related deficit

Key takeaways from day one of Covid hearings testimony

Former Health Minister Mandetta spoke before the committee for nearly seven hours. It was a tepid outing, but which showed the extent of Bolsonaro's Covid-19 denialism

Deadly storms ravaged fruit crops in Central America’s original banana republic

Sputnik V vaccine’s controversy in Brazil, explained

Manufacturers claim the regulator acted unethically, but Anvisa stresses inconsistencies with the immunizer

Bolsonaro strategy to muffle the Senate’s Covid hearings

Trying to hijack the news, Jair Bolsonaro moved a major telecom event to a Senate function room, just meters from the Covid inquiry

How Congress increased its powers over Brazil’s political agenda

In an interview with the American University in Washington, ex-House Speaker Rodrigo Maia analyzed his legacy, his views on representative democracy in Brazil, and legislative effectiveness

Indigenous lives during Covid-19, through a camera lens

Genilson Guajajara has become one of the leading references in documenting the daily cultures and struggles of Brazil's indigenous communities

Tax reform is back – but can it be passed in these turbulent times?

House Speaker Arthur Lira has committed to passing tax reform legislation. But the political scenario is too volatile to predict a positive outcome at this stage

Key takeaways from day one of Covid hearings testimony

Former Health Minister Mandetta spoke before the committee for nearly seven hours. It was a tepid outing, but which showed the extent of Bolsonaro's Covid-19 denialism

Sputnik V vaccine’s controversy in Brazil, explained

Manufacturers claim the regulator acted unethically, but Anvisa stresses inconsistencies with the immunizer

Bolsonaro strategy to muffle the Senate’s Covid hearings

Trying to hijack the news, Jair Bolsonaro moved a major telecom event to a Senate function room, just meters from the Covid inquiry

Economy Minister Guedes picks his job over his beliefs

Increasingly marginalized since taking office, Economy Ministry Paulo Guedes has been pushed into a large reshuffle of his department. Will it be enough to save his credibility?

A tense first round of the Covid hearings committee

The first session of the Covid hearings laid bare some of the tactics that will be used over the next 90 days

Brazil plans to repatriate foreign funds to foot Covid-19 bill

The Senate is working on a proposal to settle the undeclared foreign assets of Brazilian citizens, hoping to go some way toward covering the country's record pandemic-related deficit

Brazil takes controversial step towards breaking Covid patents

A bill that would allow the country to sidestep patents on drugs, testing, and – crucially – vaccines has passed in the Senate. We break down its legal implications

Brazil hopes to finally make money from “world’s best” satellite launch center

Located just south of the equator, expeditions from the Alcântara Launch Center are cheaper, more efficient, and more predictable. But Brazil has consistently failed to profit from the base

Northeastern Brazil to build world’s biggest green hydrogen plant

The state of Ceará hopes to become a global supplier of green hydrogen, seen by experts as the fuel source of a sustainable future

Planning an IPO, Wise owes Brazil an explanation

A former partner in Brazil claims the London-based fintech was involved in fraud schemes

Tech Roundup: Searching for unicorns in the Amazon

This is our weekly tech roundup, a digest of the most important news on technology and innovation in Brazil

Brazilian Air Force turns to homemade drones in Embraer deal

The Air Force and Embraer reached an agreement to develop military drones made in Brazil. One private company has beaten the pair to the punch, however

Tech Roundup: Creating a Latin America-wide DNA database

This week: a possible DNA database. Brazil's controversial AI guidelines. And the IADB's push for digitizing the Brazilian government

Brazilian court sides with angry neighbors in Airbnb trial

A panel of judges ruled that housing complexes can forbid owners from renting their property on Airbnb — a ruling which could set a precedent for similar cases

Tech Roundup: The importance of a national data council

Brazil's Data Protection Council is one step closer to creation, which will give regulators a huge boost in decision-making and research

Explaining Brazil #150: Vaccine diplomacy in Latin America

When Latin American countries received their first vaccines, they didn't get them from Western powers — but from China and Russia instead. But these deals often came with strings attached

Explaining Brazil #149: The Brazilian Epstein?

One of Brazil's biggest business success stories may have covered a child sexual abuse ring

Explaining Brazil #148: Bolsonaro fighting on multiple fronts

The Brazilian president has a lot on his plate right now, with the resolution of the 2021 budget, a crucial climate summit, and a Senate investigation into the government's pandemic response. Can his administration survive?

Explaining Brazil #147: What to make of South America’s Super Sunday

Elections in Ecuador and Peru were filled with surprises. Latin America correspondent Lucas Berti breaks down what they mean for the region

Explaining Brazil #146: A Brazilian vaccine on the way?

President Jair Bolsonaro and São Paulo Governor João Doria are in a race toward the first coronavirus vaccine fully produced in Brazil

Footballers sleep on airport floor after testing positive for Covid-19

Bolsonaro suggests coronavirus is part of China’s biological war

Teich tells Senate inquiry chloroquine pressure pushed him out of office

Paraguayan senator resigns after leapfrogging vaccine line

Brazil has only purchased half of announced vaccines

Indigenous lives during Covid-19, through a camera lens

Genilson Guajajara has become one of the leading references in documenting the daily cultures and struggles of Brazil's indigenous communities

Scarred by Zika, Brazilian women say ‘no’ to pandemic pregnancies

Brazilian data production faces “uncertain future” as census is postponed

Brazil was once lauded for its ability to produce reliable statistical data, but successive funding cuts have thrown this reputation into jeopardy

Pandemic cuts Brazil’s life expectancy, experts say recovery will take time

Average Brazilian life expectancy fell for the first time since 1945 last year, and is set to slip even further

The forgotten stories of Brazil’s concentration camps

After entering World War II on the side of the Allies, the Brazilian government opened a series of concentration camps housing German, Japanese, and Italian immigrants

Escazú Climate Agreement: Brazil among notable absences

Twelve Latin American countries ratified a landmark agreement to strengthen civil participation in environmental issues and help punish wrongdoings

Tons of waste wash up on beaches in Brazil’s Northeast

Dozens of tons of solid waste have been cleared from a series of beaches in Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte. Authorities have yet to ascertain a cause

Widely criticized, Brazil’s Environment Minister isn’t going anywhere

Many in Brazil and abroad want Ricardo Salles removed as Brazil's Environment Minister. But he may well be untouchable within the Bolsonaro administration

As U.S. and Brazil discuss the Amazon, civil society says “don’t trust Bolsonaro”

The two countries are set to discuss terms over potential U.S. financial aid to help Brazil fight deforestation

New “pre-salt” oil reserves on the Amazon coast excite markets

Researchers claim to have found new deepwater oil reserves off Brazil's northern coast. However, environmental agents say coral reefs could be destroyed by oil extraction activities