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Shock in Brazil after woman is arrested and charged with violating a corpse and attempted theft through fraudWhen Érika de Souza Vieira wheeled her lethargic-looking uncle into a Brazilian bank, clerks quickly sensed something was amiss.“I don’t think he’s well. He doesn’t look well at all,” remarked one distrustful employee as Vieira tried to get her elderly relative to sign off on a 17,000...

Advocates fear situation could escalate in Javari valley, a region plagued by violence and poor healthcareMore than 100 Indigenous people in Brazil’s Javari valley have been diagnosed with flu-like symptoms, raising fears that the situation could escalate into an epidemic.The valley, where Indigenous advocate Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips were killed in 2022, is home to the largest population of Indigenous people in...

Footage showing former president spent two nights apparently hiding from potential arrest at mission was leaked to mediaThe Hungarian embassy in Brasília has reportedly fired two Brazilian employees after the leaking of security footage that revealed how Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro had spent two nights “hiding” inside the mission.According to the network CNN Brasil, the sackings were punishment for the embarrassing leak to...

President of amnesty commission investigating crimes of 1964-85 regime makes first-ever apology to Indigenous leaderBrazil has issued its first-ever apology for the torture and persecution of Indigenous people during the military dictatorship, including the incarceration of victims in an infamous detention centre known as an “Indigenous concentration camp”.The apology was made on Tuesday by an amnesty commission attached to the human rights ministry that...

Brazil’s president has nixed commemorations of the 1964 coup, possibly to avoid irking the military as senior officers facing jail for allegedly conspiring to stop Lula taking power after 2022 electionRelatives of the victims of Brazil’s brutal two-decade dictatorship have voiced anger and dismay over President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s reported decision to block official remembrance events marking the 60th anniversary of the...

South American neighbours respond to blocking of Corina Yoris, who was favoured to beat strongman Nicolás Maduro in electionsA chorus of Latin American nations, including Brazil and Colombia, have voiced concern over the deteriorating political situation in Venezuela after the opposition politician best-positioned to challenge its strongman leader, Nicolás Maduro, in July’s presidential election was prevented from registering for the vote.Corina Yoris, an 80-year-old...

Former Brazil president spent two nights at legation after two close aides were detained in February over alleged coup plotBrazil’s foreign ministry has summoned the Hungarian ambassador to explain why the South American country’s embattled former president Jair Bolsonaro spent two nights “hiding” at Hungary’s embassy in Brasília last month as federal police investigators closed in on some of his closest allies.Security footage obtained...

Ex-Barcelona footballer on provisional release from prison term while he appeals against rape convictionThe former Brazil international footballer Dani Alves has been allowed out on bail having served 14 months of a four-and-a-half-year sentence for rape.One of the world’s most decorated footballers, Alves, 40, was found guilty last month of raping a young woman in the VIP bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub in the...

Heavy rainfall brings landslides to country’s south-east. Elsewhere, a wild temperature fluctuation in IberiaBrazil was hit by devastating floods over the weekend that have so far claimed 20 lives in the resultant landslides and mudslides. There was heavy rainfall in parts of the south-east, including Rio de Janeiro, Petrópolis and the larger Espírito Santo region, with hourly rainfall totals of about 20mm recorded in...

The Rio de Janeiro councillor and her driver were assassinated in 2018, sparking an international outcryTwo powerful politicians and Rio de Janeiro’s former chief of police have been arrested as part of a federal police operation targeting the suspected masterminds of the 2018 assassination of Rio councillor Marielle Franco.The operation – named Murder, Inc – was launched at the crack of dawn on Sunday...

Former Manchester City striker taken into custody after court in Brazil ruled he should serve a nine-year sentence for offence committed in ItalyThe former Brazil and Manchester City striker Robinho has been arrested by federal police at his home in the city of Santos after a Brazilian court ruled he should serve a nine-year prison sentence for a rape he was convicted of committing...

Former president allegedly inserted false information into public health database to make it appear he received Covid vaccineBrazil’s federal police have accused Jair Bolsonaro of criminal association and falsifying his own Covid-19 vaccination data, marking the first indictment for the embattled far-right leader with others potentially in store.The supreme court on Tuesday released the police’s indictment which alleges Bolsonaro and 16 others inserted false...

Testimony contained in documents released by supreme court details alleged plot to overturn result of 2022 Brazilian electionBrazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro presented top military officials with a plan to carry out a coup d’état after his defeat in the October 2022 election, two former commanders have told the police, according to newly released judicial documents.In testimonies made public on Friday, former army commander...

In the 1800s, Luiz Gama defied fate to become Brazil’s first Black lawyer. Nearly a century and a half later, Portela’s parade puts his struggle center stageBorn in 1830 to a trafficked African woman who escaped enslavement and led uprisings, Luiz Gama defied fate and the Brazilian empire to become the country’s first Black lawyer and a leading abolitionist.When he was 10 his father,...

Feira de Acari is closed down by the mayor after claims that gangsters used it to sell stolen goodsManoel Ribeiro has never known a world without Rio de Janeiro’s best-known flea market, the Feira de Acari.The swarming suburban bazaar was founded outside his home in 1970, the year of his birth. It existed in 1993 when the market trader was shot nearby during an...

Police seize passport as agents carry out 33 searches and four arrests across Brazil, targeting allies of far-right former presidentBrazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has surrendered his passport as part of a police investigation into the attempted coup on 8 January 2023, which sought to keep him in power, his lawyers have said.In operations that also targeted key allies of the former far-right leader,...

Emergency measures taken as 364,855 cases of mosquito-borne infection reported this year, a fourfold increase on year beforeDengue fever has surged in Brazil’s hot rainy season, forcing health authorities to take emergency measures and start mass vaccination against the mosquito-borne illness.In the first five weeks of this year, 364,855 cases of infection have been reported, the health ministry said, four times more than dengue...

Ex-president’s family retreat targeted early on Monday as nine search warrants executed in other parts of the countryBrazilian police have raided the holiday home of former president Jair Bolsonaro as part of an expanding investigation into an illegal spying racket that allegedly existed during his far-right government.Federal police officers reportedly arrived at Bolsonaro’s family retreat in Mambucaba, a picturesque seaside village 126 miles west...

Mining companies and their joint venture Samarco ordered by Brazilian judge to pay AU$14.7bn over disaster that killed 19 peopleA Brazilian judge has ruled that mining companies Vale and BHP and their joint venture Samarco must pay 47.6bn reais (AU$14.7 bn) in damages for a 2015 tailings dam burst, according to a legal decision seen by Reuters.Vale, a Brazilian company, and BHP, an Australian...

Alexandre Ramagem ran Brazil’s intelligence agency under Bolsonaro, allegedly using spyware to track political opponentsFederal police agents have raided the home and offices of Brazil’s spy chief under the former president Jair Bolsonaro as part of an investigation into the alleged illegal monitoring of thousands of people, including two supreme court judges and a key ally of the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da...

Brent Sikkema, co-owner of a prominent New York art gallery, found dead with 18 stab wounds in his Rio de Janeiro apartmentPolice in Brazil have arrested a man in connection with the killing in Brazil of an American art dealer who was the co-owner of a prominent gallery in Manhattan, police said on Thursday.Brent Sikkema, 75, was found dead on Monday with 18 stab...

Brazil president hosts summit amid criticism that easing of crackdown had allowed outsiders to return to forest areasThe Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has insisted his government must not lose the “war” against the environmental criminals devastating Indigenous lands in the Amazon after claims that thousands of illegal miners were resisting eviction from the country’s biggest such territory.After taking power last January,...

Brazilian leaders mark first anniversary of insurrection in Brasília that saw Bolsonaristas attempt to topple new governmentBrazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has hailed the “victory of democracy over authoritarianism”, one year on from the 8 January insurrection in Brasília in which supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro stormed government buildings in an attempt to topple the newly inaugurated leftist government.Several hundred people...

Pedro, five, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma; a fund has been set up so that his family can afford expensive chemotherapy drugLeading artists, Indigenous activists and politicians across Brazil are urging people to contribute to a fund to help the son of the slain Amazon activist Bruno Pereira, who has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.Pedro Pereira, five, the son of anthropologist Beatriz...