Good morning! Today, we talk about Brazil’s rising poverty rates. The state of relations with Venezuela. A controversial bill goes before the Senate today. And a sexual harassment scandal rocks a major public bank.
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Poverty rate tops 40 percent in 14 states
Fourteen of Brazil’s 27 states have over 40 percent of their population living below the poverty line. In four states — Maranhão, Amazonas, Alagoas, and Pernambuco — a majority of people live on less than USD 5 per day, per a new study by think tank Fundação Getulio Vargas.
Why it matters. During the pandemic, 9.6 million people fell below the poverty line. That is almost equivalent to the entire population of Portugal.
Two Brazils. Economic data also mirrors voting patterns. As we showed in 2018, cities with a lower human development index vote more to the left, and vice versa.
- Political scientist Alberto Carlos Almeida, who has studied voting behaviors in Brazil, says people who depend more on the state vote for candidates who back a bigger...