Monthly Archives: August 2014

Brazil economy slips into recession ahead of elections

Anadolu Agency

SÃO PAULO – The Brazilian economy has fallen into recession a little more than a month before the country’s general elections, according to figures released on Friday by Brazil’s national statistics agency, the IBGE.

Economic output fell 0.6 percent in the second quarter of 2014, compared to the first quarter, the agency said.

Previous figures indicated that the GDP had grown 0.2 percent between January and March, but the revised numbers show the economy had actually shrunk 0.2 percent in the first quarter, signaling a technical recession – defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

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Brazil police break up key Amazon deforestation gang

Anadolu Agency – Image: Deforested area of Mato Grosso, photo by Ben Tavener

SÃO PAULO — Seven people suspected of orchestrating mass logging operations in the Amazon have been arrested as part of a long-running investigation, police in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso confirmed to the Anadolu Agency on Thursday.

Police chief Maria Alice Barros Amorim, who is coordinating the operation, told AA that in all 13 arrest orders had been issued in the state, meaning six individuals are still wanted in connection with logging and other environmental crimes.

Officers from the special environment police department have also carried out searches at 18 locations as part of Operation Fluxo Verde (Green Flow) and say “huge quantities” of illegally-logged wood have been found.

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Brazil holds first 2014 presidential TV debate

Anadolu Agency*

SÃO PAULO — Brazil’s leading presidential candidates went head-to-head late on Tuesday in the first televised debate ahead of October’s general election.

Seven of the 11 presidential candidate took part in the event, including incumbent president and Workers’ Party candidate, Dilma Rousseff, and her two main rivals, Marina Silva of the Brazilian Socialist Party, and Social Democracy Party candidate Aécio Neves.

The rivals were asked to define their positions on crime, education, the economy, and political reform, as well as taking one another to task on other prickly issues, such as the oil giant Petrobras, the legalisation of abortion, and crimes against the LGBT community.

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Four dead in prison riot in Cascavel, Brazil

Anadolu Agency

SAO PAULO (AA) – Four inmates were killed in a prison riot in southern Brazil on Sunday, local media cited the Paraná State Prison Department as saying. 

Two of the dead are known to have been beheaded and a number of others have been injured at the facility in the city of Cascavel. The other two fatalities occurred when a number of prisoners were pushed off the roof.

At least two prison guards are still being held hostage. Some reports say one guard had been freed.

(UPDATE: Monday, 15:00 — Officials who were negotiating an end to the riot suspended work on Sunday night, but restarted efforts this morning. As of 3pm there is still no change in the situation.)

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Brazil Podcast 10: Campos tragedy, presidential Marina Silva and kudos to us

A Brazilian Operating in This Area

We have reached our tenth edition! Thanks to you all.

As usual, our producer and is Sam Cowie, a freelance journalist in Rio.

Our guests are Ben Tavener, a freelance multimedia journalist based in Sao Paulo – he’s Brazil correspondent for the Anadolu news agency, and also contributes for the BBC, Al Jazeera, Mashable and others.

James Young, who writes about Brazil and Brazilian football for The Independent, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, Fusion. His book of short stories about Recife, A Beer Before Lunch, is available on Amazon.

Leo Macario, a film scholar, who holds an MA in Communication and Culture and a PhD in Comparative Literature. His main areas of research include Brazilian Cinema, Carnival music in films and Film and Literature. Léo is Brazil podcast regular, based in Rio de Janeiro.

I am host Maurício Savarese.

We hope to be on iTunes pretty soon…

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Marina Silva confirmed as Brazil presidential candidate

Anadolu Agency

SÃO PAULO — Environmental activist and evangelical Christian Marina Silva will run for president for the Brazilian Socialist Party-led electoral coalition, it was officially confirmed late on Wednesday at the party’s headquarters in the Brazilian capital, Brasília.

Federal deputy Beto Albuquerque was also confirmed as Silva’s vice presidential running mate, in what local media reported as a unanimous decision between the six parties that make up the coalition.

Party leaders were forced to form a new presidential ticket after presidential candidate and former governor of Pernambuco state, Eduardo Campos, was killed last Wednesday in a plane crash.

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Brazil candidates begin daily election broadcasts

Anadolu Agency

SÃO PAULO — Brazil’s presidential candidates took to the airwaves Tuesday as political broadcasts on television and radio kicked off ahead of the country’s upcoming general elections.

All free-to-air television and radio networks must carry the 25-minute slots for presidential candidates twice a day on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays until three days before the first round of voting on 5 October.

Some 26,000 candidates are taking part in October’s general elections, which aside from the president elects members of both chambers of Congress, state governors and state legislatures.

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New poll shows major shake-up for Brazil elections

Anadolu Agency

SÃO PAULO — Marina Silva would place second in the first round of the upcoming presidential elections, forcing a runoff in which she would tie with incumbent president, Dilma Rousseff, according to the first poll taken after the death of presidential candidate Eduardo Campos, killed in a plane crash last week.

Silva was Campos’s running mate and is all but certain to be announced by the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) as its electoral coalition’s new presidential candidate, expected this Wednesday.

According to the new Datafolha poll, Rousseff would take 36 percent of votes in the first round on 5 October, followed by 21 percent for Silva and 20 percent for Aécio Neves — requiring a runoff on 26 October.

A Rousseff-Silva second round would then be technically tied, given the margin or error of two percentage points either way, with 47 percent for Silva and 43 percent for Rousseff.

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