Tag: brazil
Brazil Human Rights Defender Found Drowned in Dam
The bodies of murdered women should not have to be the catalyst for responsible development, writes Erin Kilbride.
Last week, a human rights defender’s body was found drowned in the hydro-electric dam she spent three years fighting. Nilce de Souza Magalhães was a fierce opponent of the Usina Hidrelétrica Jirau, a rock-fill dam in north-western Brazil. She was murdered in January 2016 by a man who said he wanted to ‘silence’ her. On 21 June, dam workers found Nilce’s body washed up on the side of the dam’s river bank. Her hands and feet had been tied with ropes and attached to large rocks that kept her body submerged under water for six months.
Brazil is one of the deadliest countries in the world for those who work to defend people’s right to land. Front Line Defenders has documented almost 30 killings of environmental, indigenous, and land rights defenders in Brazil in 2016 alone – Nilce is the 27th. In 2015, Global Witness ranked Brazil as the deadliest country in the world for environment rights defenders.
First Brazil, Next Venezuela: Will the World See a Coup in Caracas?
(Sputnik) – Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro declared a state of emergency in January, which was extended for two months last week, as opposition ramps up to remove him from office. Meanwhile, in Brazil, rumors are spreading about the government selling off state assets just days after President Dilma Rousseff was suspended pending an impeachment trial.
Speaking about the extension of the state of emergency in Venezuela, Dr. Francisco Dominguez said that there were “threatening noises” from the May 12-13 Concordia Summit in New York. The “noises,” according to Moniguez, suggest that measures should be taken to “sort out difficulties that the United States have with governments like Venezuela.”
Brazilian Musicians Mount an Orchestra Against Brazil’s Interim Government
(GVO) – A few weeks ago, a famous Brazilian musician and critic wrote a poignant article pointing out how the events that have recently rocked Brazil lack a soundtrack, a musical dimension as in previous political upheavals in the 1960s and 1970s, when Brazilian popular music was at the center stage.
Well, perhaps no more: Brazilian musicians are occupying and organizing in social media classical concerts in buildings owned by the Ministry of Culture, which was recently extinguished by Brazil’s interim president Michel Temer.