University reform, Amazon fires, and post-Covid tourism

Feb 23, 2022 14:05 9 min read (Updated: Feb 23, 2022 14:10)

Hello, and welcome to the Latin America Weekly newsletter! In this issue: a rare bit of common ground for the far-left and far-right in Peru: university reform. Fires in Colombia’s Amazon are on the up. The Dominican Republic scraps all coronavirus restrictions, hoping to continue to attract tourists.

📚 University reform, Amazon fires, and post-Covid tourism

Far-right and far-left make for strange bedfellows in Peru’s university reform

Access all of The Brazilian Report

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Sexual harassment complaints within Brazil’s government at over one per day

Most reported victims are female, white, and aged between 20 and 39 years

What to expect from Brazil’s UN Security Council presidency

Over the course of July, Brazil will head the UN's top body. Brasília correspondent Cedê Silva investigated the country's priorities

How Bolsonaro tries to pander to truckers

Truckers are both vital to the Brazilian economy and a key support base for Jair Bolsonaro. The president has spared no expense to keep them happy, a challenging task as diesel prices soar

Black lawmakers ‘go white’ after being elected

Dozens of Brazilian lawmakers self-declared as black before getting elected, which grants them some benefits when financing their campaigns, only to change their status after taking office

Senate committee hits deadlock on Biden nomination for embassy in Brazil

Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, a longtime donor of the Democratic Party, failed to get a majority in the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee

June Amazon rainforest fires reach a 15-year high

Fuel tax caps enter into force. Governors protest “tax chaos”

Brazil’s unemployment rate below 10-percent for the first time in six years

Decision on Education inquiry request comes next week

Caixa boss out following sexual harassment allegations

States ask Brazilians to wear masks again, as cases soar

CoronaVac vaccines will no longer be produced in Brazil

Pfizer files for approval of boosters for children aged 5 to 11

Data issues mask new Covid rise in Brazil

Over-50s to be offered fourth Covid vaccine throughout Brazil

Electoral courts sets campaign spending caps for 2022

Former Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva to run for House seat

Bolsonaro promises former Defense Minister as running mate

New Datafolha polls shows stability in presidential race

São Paulo electoral court benefits former Bolsonaro minister

Market roundup: Brazil’s debt costs continue to balloon

High inflation and the world’s steepest monetary tightening process have increased pressure on Brazil’s public debt

Bank account ownership grew more in Latin America than in any other global region

Brazil experienced double-digit bank account ownership growth since 2017. Global Findex, a World Bank report produced with Gallup every three years, surveyed over 125,000 adults in 123 economies

Petrobras board greenlights new CEO appointment

Petrobras workers who own shares of the company do not like the nomination and have filed a complaint with the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission

What Elon Musk wants from Brazil

Reports that Elon Musk aims to provide internet to the Amazon may miss the deeper story: the tech mogul’s potential designs on Brazilian nickel

Market roundup: Investor fears give Brazil a bear hug

Brazilian stock exchange felt the weight of the drop in commodities prices and was unable to follow the performance of American benchmarks

Tech Roundup: Government fails to set an example on data protection

The Brazilian government has been lackadaisical in adopting data protection protocols in government agencies

Latin American research is in Google and Microsoft servers. That is a problem

With the pandemic, education institutions moved online en masse and started using ostensibly free systems provided by big tech companies. But not enough questions are being asked about data protection

Tech Roundup: Ten years of the Access to Information Law

Experts warn that Bolsonaro is chipping away and the effectiveness of the Access to Information Law, a crucial piece of Brazil's transparency structure

Supreme Court to rule on its access to social media data

A long-running case on how Brazilian authorities can access data held by Big Tech firms is due to be tried in the Supreme Court. At stake is the celerity of Brazilian investigations into digital crimes

Tech Roundup: Chip shortage delays 5G

Implementation of 5G in major Brazilian cities is likely to take longer than first expected, as companies lack equipment amid semiconductor shortage

Explaining Brazil #204: A second swing at Bolsonaro

The opposition failed to remove Bolsonaro from office with last year's Covid hearings. They want a new congressional investigation to hurt him at the ballot box

Explaining Brazil #203: The president v. Petrobras

While the price of gas isn't exactly the best metric to understand the economy at large, the ubiquity of fuel and its direct impact on people's monthly budgets make it an easy shorthand for the broader economic scenario — especially when prices are going up

Explaining Brazil #202: Where are Dom and Bruno?

It has been 11 days since journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira were reported missing. The police are yet to find the two

Explaining Brazil #201: Is the Monroe doctrine dead?

A deflated Summit of the Americas won't bring many noteworthy resolutions, though it will be interesting to see what transpires from a bilateral meeting between Presidents Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and Joe Biden of the U.S.

Explaining Brazil #200: Hunger haunts Brazil again

Brazil thought the economic growth of the 2000s had rid the country of hunger. But this ghost of the past has returned to haunt the country

Data corroborates fears about growing lawlessness in the Brazilian Amazon

Brazil saw its overall murder rate decrease in 2021, but figures saw significant spikes in the Amazon region, highlighting an ongoing trend of violence in Brazil's North

The (Danish) father of Brazilian paleontology

Peter Lund spent the majority of his life living in Brazil, helping lay the foundations for paleontology and archeology in the country. He also discovered the remains of the oldest hominid in Latin America

How Brazil’s far-right tries to muffle discussions about the Dom Phillips-Bruno Pereira murder

Far-right netizens are pushing online content about the legend of a long-lost Amazon civilization as a way of drowning out news of the murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira, which have reflected negatively on the Bolsonaro government

Exclusive: Brazilian government ignored warnings about “imminent dangers” at Vale do Javari

Journalist Dom Phillips and indigenous expert Bruno Pereira went missing ten days ago in the Vale do Javari reserve. The government was warned about the lawlessness in the region at least four times

Confusion over Amazon disappearances as Brazilian diplomacy relays misinformation

Members of the Brazilian Embassy in London wrongfully told relatives of British journalist Dom Phillips that authorities had found his body and that of indigenous expert Bruno Pereira

Unknowingly, Brazilians are big consumers of shark meat. That is a problem

Lax labeling means that Brazilians often don’t realize that widely consumed dogfish is actually shark or ray meat. A campaign is trying to change that and raise awareness around conservation issues

The future of Amazon journalism after British reporter’s brutal murder

The murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira in a remote area of the western Amazon have drawn attention to the criminal dynamics at play in the rainforest and highlight the challenges and risks of carrying out reporting there

The Belo Monte Dam is killing the Amazon’s ‘house of God’

Satellites over the Amazon capture the choking of the ‘house of God’ by the Belo Monte Dam – they can help find solutions, too

The tensions within the Amazon’s Vale do Javari reserve

A journalist and an on-leave government official have disappeared in a massive reserve coveted by wildcat miners, illegal fishermen, and drug gangs

The Andes are melting, and what are we doing about it?

The imperious Andes region is home to 10 percent of the world's population, but melting glaciers could dramatically transform the area forever