Brazil

Earlier this month, reports emerged of a massacre by illegal prospectors of approximately 20 indigenous people from the Warikama Djapar tribe in Vale do Javari, along Brazil’s border with Peru. If confirmed, it would be the deadliest incident between miners and indigenous people since the 1993 Haximu massacre. The news ...

Brazil is increasingly becoming a less stable country and has been ranked one of the most worsened countries over the past year by the 2017 Fragile States Index report from the Fund for Peace. The FSI measures a nation’s vulnerabilities based on a series of stability indicators. The Cipher Brief’s ...

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has called for military exercises on August 26 and 27, after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he would not rule out a “military option” to quell the turmoil in the South American country. Vice President Mike Pence, who is traveling through South America this ...

Brazil’s Senate has voted 61-20 to remove President Dilma Rousseff from office, finding her guilty of manipulating the country’s budget. Rousseff’s Vice President Michel Temer, who has been the country’s Interim President throughout the impeachment proceedings, will remain President until the end of his term on January 1, 2019. The ...

The Olympic Games have come to an end – without a major hitch – and now Brazil must once again face its internal issues: a political crisis threatening to oust suspended President Dilma Rousseff and an economy that has been on the downturn for quite some time. The Cipher Brief’s ...

The Olympic Games have been a nice distraction for Brazil but will leave the country with nothing gained – the negatives balancing out the positives – and needing to quickly refocus on its own political and economic misfortunes. “The affect of the Olympics is almost null,” Director-General of the Rio-based ...

With the Rio Olympics wrapping in just a few days, The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder spoke with Director of Research at the Rio-based Igarapé Institute, Robert Muggah about what’s next for Brazil. TCB: When the Olympics end, suspended Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment trial begins. How do you see this ...

The Olympic Games are supposed to bring international prestige to host countries, if all goes well. But Rio 2016 is an example of a government placing desire for prestige before sound policy, says Phil Chicola, the former Chargé d’Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Brasília, Brazil (2005-2006). The Cipher Brief’s ...

The Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro – starting today – had the potential to boost Brazil’s international image. Director of the Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute and Brazil native, Paulo Sotero, tells The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder that this was always an exaggeration. However, he says the Games are somewhat ...

The Rio Olympics – which kicks off tonight with the opening ceremony at the Maracanã Stadium – is a missed opportunity for Brazil to assert itself on the world stage, experts and Brazilian natives tell The Cipher Brief. That being said, the expectations for the Games are so low that ...

The Olympic Games kick off today in Brazil – a country plagued by a political crisis and economic downturn. The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder spoke to Andrea Murta, associate director at the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, about the stakes for Brazil. Murta, a Brazil native, says expectations ...

The threat level of an organized Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) attack during the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – which kick off next week – is low, analysts tell The Cipher Brief. Still, Brazilian authorities have arrested a dozen suspected ISIS sympathizers, who may ...

Brazil President Dilma Rousseff has been suspended from office and will face an impeachment trial after the vote on Thursday in the country’s senate. Although Vice President Michel Temer — who assumes the presidency while Rousseff’s trial gets underway — has been seen as a market-friendly politician, is there really ...

Brazilians have been engulfed in the worst crisis to afflict the country since the end of the military dictatorship in the mid-80s. Although Brazil impeached its first democratically-elected president in 1992, suffered through bouts of hyperinflation, confronted several failed attempts at economic stabilization, and was victimized by serial financial crises ...

367 members of Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted Sunday to advance impeachment proceedings aimed at ousting Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. That’s 25 more votes than the requisite two-thirds majority and may boost Brazil markets today. Camila Abdelmalack, the chief economist of brokerage at São Paulo-based CM Capital Markets, told ...

On November 30, 2015, on the sidelines of the United Nation COP21 Climate Change Summit in Paris, the Presidents of Peru and Russia signed an agreement establishing a strategic partnership. The accompanying joint declaration included expanded cooperation in defense, counternarcotic activities, development, next year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in ...

Through hybrid warfare and the Gerasimov Doctrine, Russia is increasingly blurring the lines between war and peace, business and crime.  Russia’s involvement in Latin America is starting to follow a similar course. Douglas Farah, President of IBI Consultants, explains why he does not believe Russia’s presence in Latin America is ...

As a native Costa Rican and Professor of political science, Constantino Urcuyo Fournier has a unique perspective into Russia’s increasing involvement in Latin America.  As opposed to China’s growing economic activity in the region, Urcuyo Fournier says Russia is building strategic relationships to irritate the U.S., but he warns the ...

With global attention focused on Russia’s role in the Syria quagmire, the media is barely covering Vladimir Putin's aggressive maneuvers in Ukraine, let alone his foreign policy in America’s own backyard—Latin America. Since Putin came to power, he has attempted to restore Russia’s superpower status around the world, especially in ...

Unstable, corrupt, plagued by scandal—these describe Brazil’s current economic and political climate, a big transformation from its image of an advancing economy with secure investment opportunities.  How did Brazil, one of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, & South Africa) countries, go from boom to bust so rapidly? It begins ...

The current fiscal crisis in Brazil is the result of a long period of economic mismanagement by the Workers Party (PT).  Beginning in 2003 with the inauguration of President “Lula” da Silva, the government enjoyed a massive increase in revenues created by the demand from China for the country’s raw ...

The Cipher Brief discussed the political dynamics of Brazil with Phil Chicola, a former Chargé d'Affaires to Brazil from 2005 to 2006. Chicola discussed the country’s political and economic crises and offered his thoughts on what western companies can do to manage uncertainty in the near-term.  The Cipher Brief: President ...

Optimism is in short supply here in Brazil and for good reason. Consumer confidence is at its lowest level in 10 years; both inflation and unemployment are increasing, and debt as a percentage of household income is approaching 50% -- perhaps not surprising when the annual interest rates on most ...

One of the most controversial companies operating globally may be Uber, and it came under attack most recently on Tuesday in Rio de Janeiro, where the city council voted to ban unregulated ride-sharing services.  Mayor Eduardo Paes now has 15 days to decide whether to approve and sign the vote ...

Violent crime is rising in Brazil and, if past trends hold true, that could be bad for the business community during a time when the Brazilian economy is already suffering. Last Thursday night, Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil, saw the deadliest of six massacres this year.  At least ...