Having to prove that you are who you say you are, filling out endless forms, walking around with different documents, wasting time in countless queues at state agencies. These are common ordeals for Brazilians who have to face state bureaucracy. Brazil remains one of the only countries in the world where a signature alone isn’t… Read More »
Over the past 11 years, Brazil’s agricultural production has experienced a major leap, as proven by the 2017 agricultural census. The area of newly cultivated land is equivalent of the territories of Portugal, Belgium, and Denmark – combined. But this growth has by no means been equal across all states. Pará in the North and… Read More »
If you look for reading material about Brazilian history, chances are they begin telling the story about Latin America’s largest country in 1500, when Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral first set foot on our shores. Sources that go a bit deeper might even talk about another explorer who came two years prior, in a sort… Read More »
2018 Election
You can’t understand Brazilian politics without knowing the Portuguese word coronel (colonel). This term dates back to 1830s Brazil when the monarchy decided to create the National Guard in response to several separatist movements which erupted across the country. This force was sponsored by rich landowners, who bought their military ranks and became lieutenants or… Read More »
The concept of Brasília was born on April 4, 1955, in Jataí, a village with no more than 1,000 residents at the time located in central Brazil. Juscelino Kubitschek, or JK, then-candidate for the presidential election held that year, was questioned about his plan to develop the countryside. At that time, there was an immense… Read More »
Early in the morning on March 17, 2014, federal marshals launched the so-called Operation Car Wash. A group of detectives had been investigating a gang that had used a gas station just three kilometers away from Congress as a front for money laundering schemes. But what began as a small, unpublicized operation would later evolve… Read More »
Public trust in the U.S. legal system might hover at around 50 percent, but it’s even lower in Brazil. According to a recent study from think-tank Fundação Getulio Vargas, just 29 percent of Brazilians trust their country’s legal system. A quick glance at some of the adjectives most frequently ascribed to Brazil’s justice system might… Read More »
In April 2005, Carlos Velloso ruled on one of the strangest cases he can remember. In his decades-long career, Velloso had served on some of Brazil’s most important courts before arriving to the Supreme Court in 1990. And yet, despite his weighty title of Supreme Court Justice, he had to rule on the man standing… Read More »
Foreigners sometimes seem dazzled by the high voter turnouts in our elections – it’s above nearly all developed nations – without understanding that voting in Brazil isn’t just a right, it’s also a legal obligation. Citizens between 18 and 70 years old, regardless if they’re living abroad, are required by law to vote (or else… Read More »
If you’re at all familiar with Brazil, then you’ve probably heard about the “jeitinho brasileiro” – or the Brazilian way. This expression refers to our informal way of handling problems. And though this motto is by no means exclusive to Brazil, it has indeed become a defining aspect of the quintessential Brazilian life. In essence,… Read More »