Free Republic

Thousands of supporters of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have descended on Brazil's economic and political capitals, hoping to rally behind the embattled president, sparking fears of a military coup. Bolsonaro is expected to address packed Independence Day rallies in Brasilia and Sao Paulo on Tuesday. The president has called for support for his attacks on the country's Supreme Court that has raised fears around South America's largest democracy. Bolsonaro on August 14 called on the Senate to bring charges against two Supreme Court justices, warning Brazil could face a political "institutional rupture" if the charges were not brought. One...

There is a popular legend that 19th-century Italian priest Don Bosco, the founder of the Catholic Salesian Order and a revered saint, had a prophetic dream in 1883 that predicted a flourishing, futuristic city between parallels 15 and 20 in central Brazil. Many Brazilians believe the dream of Dom Bosco, as they call him, found fulfillment in the modern capital city of Brasilia, built between 1956 and 1960. Indeed, even before Brasilia was completed, a shrine, located directly on the 15th parallel, was sculpted and dedicated to Dom Bosco. Today’s Brasilia is filled with references to him, including the Santuario...

China’s state-run Global Times panicked over the election of Jair Bolsonaro as president of Brazil, penning a Monday editorial sternly lecturing the new Brazilian leader that shifting trade away from China to the United States would be “unthinkable...On the other hand, Reuters found Chinese officials and senior executives eyeing Bolsonaro with “varying degrees of concern,” particularly when he talks about tightening Brasilia’s grip on the supremely valuable niobium industry. Bolsonaro has been critical of China’s efforts to dominate Brazilian mines, but might be obliged to mute his criticism because China has become such an important customer for Brazilian iron and...

More than two and a half years after President Barack Obama delivered a speech in Brasilia, Brazil, to reveal that he had unilaterally ordered the U.S. military to intervene in Libya’s civil war in order “to protect Libyan civilians” and enforce “the writ of the international community,” Obama says Libya still needs “a representative and inclusive government” that can provide its people with “basic security.” “Today I authorized the Armed Forces of the United States to begin a limited military action in Libya in support of an international effort to protect Libyan civilians,” Obama said in his March 19, 2011...

BY TIM JOHNSONtjohnson@herald.com A Venezuelan army soldier directs traffic at the entrance to a gas station in Caracas on Thursday, the 32nd day of a nationwide strike. Chavez and his opposition traded allegations Thursday on the state of Venezuela's oil industry, saying that oil production would return to its normal level of 3 million barrels a day within 45 days. ANDRES LEIGHTON/AP WASHINGTON - President Hugo Chávez pledged Thursday to return oil production to normal within 45 days in strike-crippled Venezuela, but U.S. analysts dismissed his claim and fretted over a sharp decline in U.S. crude imports.The Energy Department...

By Rick Manning – President Obama visited both Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia, Brazil this weekend including their capital city of Brasilia, to meet with that nation’s leaders.While many in the United States have commented on the bitter irony of Obama urging the development of Brazil’s offshore oil reserves right off the legendary beaches of Rio de Janeiro while killing efforts to develop our oil reserves domestically, I was struck by something completely different.Obama met with Brazil’s President in a city that stands as a shining example of big government good intentions gone awry — Brasilia.In 1956, Brasilia did not...

Honduras' deposed President Manuel Zelaya said on Sunday that he would stay in the Brazilian embassy in the Honduran capital for as long as Brasilia allowed him to and that he would be willing to talk to the new president-elect. Leftist Zelaya, who was ousted by the army in a coup on June 28, slipped back into Honduras in September and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, from where he has been demanding his reinstatement. The United States and Brazil have been pushing for Zelaya's return to power but his fate remains uncertain after the Honduran Congress voted...

Brazil honoured the great Pele on Thursday and the other eight surviving players from its maiden FIFA World Cup™ triumph in 1958, a victory that put the nation on the football map and paved the way for four more titles. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gave the nine men medals of honour at a banquet dedicated to their 5-2 final victory over hosts Sweden 50 years ago. "You helped us understand...we could make Brazil a winner," Lula told the players at the ceremony. Brazil, the most successful football nation with five FIFA World Cup titles, is now in a...

Nearly half a million Brazilians were murdered in the past decade but the homicide rate is gradually falling ... In the 10 years from 1996 to 2006, around 465,000 people were murdered, according to a study published by two aid groups and the federal government. The vast majority were shot. Gang-related violence routinely shakes Brazil's major cities, temporarily shutting down neighborhoods and killing innocent bystanders. the number of homicides in 2006 fell for the third consecutive year to 46,660 from a peak of 50,980 in 2003...

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - A Brazilian passenger plane with 155 people on board disappeared over the Amazon jungle on Friday after colliding with a small plane, the company and news reports said. Gol flight 1907, flying from the principle Amazon city of Manaus bound for the national capital Brasilia, disappeared after losing radar contact, the company said. The head of Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said the Gol aircraft collided with another smaller plane, Globo news agency reported. The smaller plane, an executive jet, was able to land in a town called Serra do Cachimbo even though it suffered wing...

Brazil's Congress on Tuesday approved stricter gun controls in a nation said to have the world's highest number of murders. The nation's Senate passed a bill which allows President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to sign into law some of the strictest gun laws in Latin America, after a six-year fight over the legislation. "The country is going to start to have efficient gun controls, something it's not had up to today," Antonio Rangel of Rio de Janeiro anti-violence group Viva Rio told reporters in Congress. Most Brazilians know someone who has been affected by violence. About 45,000 Brazilians are...