This is Brazil by the Numbers, a weekly digest of the most interesting figures tucked inside the latest news about Brazil. Random numbers that help explain what is going on around the country. This week: Brazil’s environmental woes; Country risk is down; Bolsonaro’s illegal campaign funds; How Brazilian investors behave.
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BRL 59 billion in unpaid fines
According to a recent report by The Intercept, Brazil’s environmental agency Ibama issued over 603,400 fines since January 1980 (one of them, worth BRL 10,000, was slapped on President Jair Bolsonaro, who in 2012 was caught illegally fishing in an environmental reserve). The fines add up to BRL 75 billion when adjusted for inflation, but a total of BRL 59 billion remains unpaid. This much money is equivalent to 21 times the annual budget for the Environment Ministry. Norte Energia, the company responsible for the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric power plant, accumulates 36 fines alone, worth over BRL 106 million. Companies are able to delay court cases without paying their dues for years—sometimes decades—thanks to a myriad of legal loopholes. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature, an NGO, the data shows an excessive “administrative delay” in Brazil’s justice system when it...
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