Good morning! Today, we talk about the developments in the Mariana disaster case. Brazil’s outstanding debt to multilateral bodies. And new oil optimism in southern Brazil.
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Federal courts begin hearing Mariana defendants
Eight full years later, a federal court has begun hearing testimony from the defendants accused of being responsible for the 2015 Mariana dam disaster — the worst environmental tragedy in Brazil’s history. Seven individuals and four companies will be interrogated, accused of aggravated flooding, structural collapse, and numerous other environmental crimes.
Remember. On November 5, 2015, an iron ore tailings dam collapsed in the municipality of Mariana, about 65 kilometers from Belo Horizonte — the state capital of Minas Gerais. It released the equivalent of 25,000 Olympic swimming pools of toxic sludge, destroying entire towns and killing 19 people. The relatively low death toll was nothing short of miraculous given the sheer scale of the disaster.
- It also devastated the Rio Doce, a major river in the region. Thousands of animals were killed, and experts at the time...