Bolsinaro Goes On Trial

Down and Out in Brazil: Former Brazilian Leader Goes On Trial For Attempted Coup Brazil Former Brazilian Infrastructure Minister Tarcísio de Freitas recently testified on behalf of his one-time boss, Jair Bolsonaro, the ex-president of Brazil, who is currently on trial for allegedly organizing an attempted coup to remain in office and plotting to murder the current president and a supreme court justice. “During the period I was with the president during the final stretch (of his term)…he never touched on that subject, never mentioned any attempt at constitutional disruption,” said Freitas, who is the current governor of the state of São Paulo. A conservative and populist, Bolsonaro faces 40 years in prison if he’s found guilty of seeking to seize control of the government after he lost his reelection bid to current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, a leftist, in late 2022, reported Agence France-Presse. He would also be banned permanently from holding office. Soon after the election, his supporters stormed the Brazilian Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential palace in the capital of Brasília, the Buenos Aires Herald explained. Bolsonaro claims the prosecution is politically motivated and aims to prevent him from running for office again in 2026, the BBC noted. The case against him, meanwhile, appears strong, analysts add, pointing to a mountain of evidence, including testimony by some of his own supporters. In mid-May, Gen. Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, a former army commander under Bolsonaro, took the stand in a pre-trial hearing and told the court that he met with Bolsonaro ahead of the inauguration of Lula in early 2023 to discuss a “state of siege” as a possible way to overturn Bolsonaro’s election defeat, according to Agence France-Presse. Another military official under Bolsonaro, Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, told the court he also took part in meetings in which Bolsonaro discussed “the hypothetical possibility of using legal instruments” to overturn the election results and justify military intervention. Both Gomes and Júnior said they refused to comply. Gomes said that he warned Bolsonaro of the judicial implications of declaring a state of siege and even threatened to have him arrested if he followed through with the plan. More than 80 witnesses, including senior military officers, former government ministers, and officials from the police and intelligence services, are testifying in this preliminary trial phase. Among them is Bolsonaro’s former personal assistant, Lt. Col. Mauro Cid, who has made a plea deal. Still, British-Canadian writer Gwynne Dyer saw holes in the prosecution’s case. Writing in the Bangkok Post, he argued that the civilians who vandalized government buildings were incompetent and half-hearted in their attempt at regime change. Soldiers never left their barracks. And Bolsonaro was “on vacation” in Florida. Meanwhile, it’s not clear a judge would imprison the former president if he is found guilty. Bolsonaro, 70, is recovering from his sixth operation for intestinal damage related to a 2018 assassination attempt. Pain and discomfort have impeded his campaign efforts for his party in next year’s presidential election, the Associated Press wrote. Bolsonaro’s downfall represents an especially remarkable reversal of fortunes in contrast to the comeback of his arch-nemesis, Lula. Lula left office in 2010 after serving two terms as a popular president. His handpicked successor, former President Dilma Rousseff, was impeached and ousted in 2016. Then, a year later, prosecutors convicted Lula in a bribery and corruption scandal, imprisoning him for almost two years. In 2021, the country’s Supreme Court annulled his conviction, letting him run for office again. Holding on to power is a long game in Brazilian politics, analysts say. Bolsonaro is already banned from holding office until 2030 for abuse of power and for making unfounded claims that Brazil’s electronic voting system was vulnerable to fraud. Despite the ban, he said he plans to run again in the 2026 presidential election. After all, Lula became president again in spite of his conviction, observers add. “One of the strange paradoxes in politics is that populists gain from anger at the political system no matter how much they contributed to the system’s failures,” wrote World Politics Review. “Brazil’s prosecution (of) Bolsonaro for the attempted coup he plotted is salutary. But that does not guarantee the country won’t fall into this same trap.” Share this story

Brasil Is On Track To Become The #1 Cattle Producer in the World!

he Americas | Cash cows Brazilian supercows are taking over the world What a bovine beauty pageant says about the future of the world’s beef supply A stockman watches over the Nelore cow known as Viatina-19 at a farm in Uberaba, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Dear Dairy, today I had my pedicurePhotograph: AP May 14th 2025|Uberaba Save Share Give Listen to this story The master of ceremonies at ExpoZebu, a cow gala in the state of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil, could see the dilemma. One animal had “elliptical eyes” and an “excellent mammary apparatus”. The other had a delicate neck and a curvaceous rump. The judges faced “a difficult decision”. When he finally announced the winner of the contest (they plumped for the rump), cowhands shed tears of joy and the crowd erupted with a riotous “yeehaw”. ExpoZebu is the world’s largest fair of zebu, an Indian strain of cattle whose distinguishing features are a humped back and sagging dewlaps. Brought to Brazil in the 19th century, it proved more resistant to heat and parasites than European breeds. Today zebus make up 80% of Brazil’s 239m-strong herd of cattle. Their proliferation has helped to transform Brazil from a country where hunger was common to the world’s largest net exporter of food. Brazil’s agricultural revolution began in the 1970s, when a series of military governments poured money into rural credit and created Embrapa, the state-owned agricultural-research firm. Its scientists developed crops well adapted to tropical weather, in particular a tall, drought-resistant grass from Africa called brachiaria. This opened the country’s vast interior up to farming and cattle ranching (at the cost of massive deforestation). Breeding programmes then began beefing the zebus up. The average weight of a slaughtered cow in Brazil has gone up by 16% since 1997. In a country of tropical supercows, crowning bovine beauty queens is a big deal. Buyers flock to ExpoZebu from as far afield as Angola and India to see the finest creatures. They then bid in auctions to buy elite genes from champion cows and bulls. The wealthiest ranchers compete for shares in the cows themselves. This year’s fair attracted 400,000 visitors. Its auctions raised $35m. The ultimate prize is a cow like Viatina-19 (pictured below), a zebu that fetched $4m in 2023 to become the most expensive ruminant ever sold at auction. She weighs 1,100kg (2,400 pounds), more than twice the average of less distinguished counterparts. In an auction in November her crown was stolen by Carina, another Brazilian beauty. Each animal has three owners, each with the right to harvest eggs from their cow for four months of the year, for sale to keen breeders. The cows have been cloned to insure their genes. Famous country singers and powerful politicians roam ExpoZebu, but the cows are the stars (with names like “Genghis Khan” and “Lady Gaga”). Champions seem aware of their celebrity. When photographed, Viatina appears to straighten her legs, lift her head and peer thoughtfully into the distance. Picture taken, she returns to munching her feed. Lorrany Martins, a vet whose family co-owns Viatina, says the cow is given daily baths with a clarifying shampoo to keep her hair gleaming white. Her horns are moisturised with sunflower oil and she receives regular pedicures. She is watched over by surveillance cameras and travels in her own lorry while her brethren cram into pickup trucks. The improvements that Viatina embodies have allowed Brazil to account for almost a quarter of the world’s beef exports. That share is set to expand. The World Organisation for Animal Health, based in Paris, is expected soon to declare Brazil free of foot-and-mouth disease. The move “will totally change Brazil’s image”, says Luiz Josakhian of the Brazilian Association of Zebu Breeders. Protectionist countries may find it harder to refuse cheap Brazilian beef imports on sanitary grounds. Indeed, exports to the United States are soaring despite President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Beside the road out of Uberaba, an advertisement featuring muscular cows boldly declares Brazil’s mission: “Better cows for a better world.” ■ Sign up to El Boletín, our subscriber-only newsletter on Latin America, to understand the forces shaping a fascinating and complex region. Explore more World The Americas Agriculture Brazil

Nazi War Criminals Allegedly Paid $200 Million In Bribes To THe Peron Government in Argentina

Nazi criminals allegedly paid $200M in bribes to Perón government By Macarena Hermosilla, 6 hours ago ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay, May 23 (UPI) -- Recently declassified files suggest that Nazi criminals may have paid $200 million in gold bribes to Argentine authorities to secure refuge in the country after World War II. Then U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon speaks near a portrait of former Argentinean President Juan Domingo Peron and his wife Eva Duarte de Peron, during a visit to the Bicentenary Museum at the Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2011. File photo by Leo La Valle/EPA-EFE The files indicate German submarines transported the gold to Argentina's southern coast, where it was delivered to Eva Duarte, wife of then-President Juan Domingo Perón. The money was reportedly later handled by German bankers Richard von Frente, Ricardo Stauch and Rodolf Freude. The released material includes 1,850 documents compiled into seven files dating from 1950 to 1980. The records confirm that Third Reich fugitives arrived in Argentina beginning in 1945 with the protection of Perón, and that their arrival was not isolated but part of a larger effort. Nazi ideology had gained notable support in Argentina as early as the 1930s. On April 10, 1938, nearly 10,000 people attended a rally organized by the German embassy at Luna Park stadium in Buenos Aires. Perón was reportedly an admirer of fascist aspects of Nazi Germany. "The German government encouraged that sympathy by promising major trade concessions after the war. Argentina was full of Nazi spies. Argentine officers and diplomats held important posts in Axis Europe," said Christopher Minster, a Latin American history and literature expert, in an interview with ThoughtCo. Among the most prominent Nazis who found refuge in Argentina were Josef Mengele, known as the "Angel of Death," Adolf Eichmann, one of the main architects of the Holocaust and leader of the so-called "Final Solution," and Josef Schwammberger, who commanded the Krakow concentration camp from 1942 to 1944. Mengele evaded capture for years, living under a false identity in Argentina and Paraguay. He drowned off a Brazilian beach in 1979 and was buried under the name Wolfgang Gerhard. Eichmann was captured by Mossad in a covert operation and brought to Israel, where he was tried and executed by hanging on June 1, 1962. He had entered Argentina under the alias Ricardo Klement. Schwammberger was arrested in 1987 and extradited to Germany, where he was sentenced to life in prison.

Argentina: Protests For Higher Pensions Escalate As Pensions Hike Fails

Protests for Higher Pensions Escalate as Pensions Hike Fails Argentina Dozens of people were injured in clashes with police this week in Buenos Aires after protests broke out in front of Argentina’s Congress following a failure by lawmakers to approve higher pensions, the Associated Press reported. Earlier this week, Argentine lawmakers failed to reach an agreement on various bills, including pension increases and other benefits for the retired. The administration of President Javier Milei, which has been focused on rescuing the economy and tackling high inflation while cutting public spending, opposed the proposals. Protests for pension increases have become common in Argentina after Milei implemented austerity measures over the past year. During these demonstrations, retirees are often joined by other groups, such as unions or soccer fans. The government says that austerity measures are necessary to bring down inflation, and promote investment and economic growth. Economists and business folks say the tough medicine of Milei, the self-declared “anarcho-capitalist” who rode to power in 2023 promising to “blow up” the central bank, punish elites, axe a bloated government, and defeat sky-high inflation, is working. And he is being rewarded for these moves, too. Milei’s right-wing party, La Libertad Avanza (LLA), in an election upset, took first place with more than 30 percent of the vote in local elections in Buenos Aires on Sunday, traditionally considered the stronghold of the center-right Propuesta Republicana (PRO), which placed third, according to Euronews. The party also beat the left-leaning Peronist party, which governed Argentina for most of the past 20 years and came in second in the elections.

Forged In Blood: The Friendship Between President Pinochet and a Nazi War Criminal

Culture | Forged in blood The friendship of a Chilean dictator and a Nazi war criminal Philippe Sands traces the connections between Augusto Pinochet and Walter Rauff in his new book Augusto Pinochet signing a decree naming new ministers, Santiago, Chile, 1983 Sitting, not in the dockPhotograph: Getty Images May 8th 2025 Save Share Give Listen to this story 38 Londres Street: On Impunity, Pinochet in England and a Nazi in Patagonia. By Philippe Sands. Knopf; 480 pages; $35. W&N; £25 THE TWO men had a lot in common. They shared an affinity for German culture and a disdain for communism; they also both committed mass murder, only on different continents, decades apart. One was Augusto Pinochet (pictured), a Chilean dictator from 1973-90 who murdered thousands of people. The other was Walter Rauff, an SS officer who developed the mobile gas chambers that killed some 100,000 people in the second world war. In “38 Londres Street”, a gripping new book, Philippe Sands shows that the long-rumoured connection between the men was real. After fleeing an Italian prison camp at the end of the war, Rauff ended up in South America. In Quito, Ecuador, in the 1950s, he befriended Pinochet, who encouraged Rauff to move to Chile. Rauff settled in Punta Arenas, a city in the country’s south, where he carved out a new life as the manager of a king-crab cannery. Years later, when Mr Sands visits, many residents recall fond memories of Rauff (and of Pinochet’s dictatorship). A woman who worked at the factory says Rauff “seemed like a good person”. A magazine feature from the time includes a glowing endorsement from the mayor: Rauff “creates no problems for anyone”. Was that really true? Mr Sands sets out to verify another rumour: that the former Nazi helped Pinochet’s secret police torture and disappear people. (The book’s title refers to a building in Santiago that became a detention centre.) Mr Sands’s investigative work leads him to survivors and perpetrators, many of whom claim to remember Rauff. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide whether their testimonies are reliable. “38 Londres Street” is the third book in Mr Sands’s loose trilogy about Nazis, justice and impunity. “East West Street” (2016) chronicled the work of two Jewish lawyers from Lviv, in Ukraine, in defining the legal concepts of crimes against humanity and genocide which were used at the Nuremberg trials. “The Ratline” (2020) retraced the steps of a Nazi fugitive as he tried to flee to South America. As in those books, Mr Sands weaves together travelogue, detective story and legal drama. Walter Rauff leaves the Supreme Court after being taken into custody in Punta Arenas at the request of the West German Government, in Santiago, Chile, December 6th 1962 Photograph: Alamy The author finds he has a personal connection to the events and characters. Some of his Jewish relatives probably died in Rauff’s gas vans; during his research he learns that he is related by marriage to one of Pinochet’s victims, a United Nations diplomat tortured and killed in 1976. Yet his response to the material he uncovers is often fascination rather than horror. He is a curious scholar, not a justice warrior. In 1998 Mr Sands, who is a practising barrister, played a minor role in the efforts to extradite Pinochet from London, where he had been arrested while seeking medical treatment, to Spain, where he had been indicted. Pinochet’s arrest was the first time a former head of state was apprehended abroad under the doctrine of “universal jurisdiction” for large-scale human-rights abuses. A legal battle ensued: the prosecution wanted Pinochet extradited and the defence argued that he had immunity as a former head of state. Mr Sands interviews nearly every lawyer, judge and diplomat involved in the 17-month saga. In the end, Rauff and Pinochet shared another experience: they never faced justice. Pinochet was spared from extradition on flimsy medical grounds. He returned to Chile in a wheelchair, then abandoned it on the tarmac once he reached home soil. He faced prosecution in Chile in his final years, but died in 2006 without standing trial. Rauff also survived extradition attempts and died in Santiago in 1984. Mr Sands concedes that “justice has been limited”, but shows that the law works in indirect ways. Pinochet’s case helped persuade Chile’s Supreme Court to exclude human-rights abuses from a sweeping amnesty law that Pinochet himself signed in 1978, allowing hundreds of cases to be brought against officials in the army or secret police. Rauff and Pinochet may have enjoyed impunity, but some of those complicit in their crimes have died, or will die, behind bars. ■ For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter Explore more Culture This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Forged in blood”

Suriname Tries To Put Its Past Aside

New Dawn: Suriname Tries To Put Its Past Aside Suriname Dési Bouterse, the former leader of Suriname, died recently. But analysts say his shadow will haunt the country for years to come. The 79-year-old became president after leading the army’s coup in the former Dutch colony in 1980. Seven years later, he stepped down after coming under international fire for inciting political violence, reported Agence France-Presse. In 1990, he returned to power in a bloodless coup but resigned a year later. In 2010, voters elected him president, a position he held for a decade, transforming himself into a dictator while becoming the subject of national and international arrest warrants for murder and drug-trafficking. As some in the South American country continue to mourn Bouterse, others say Suriname is trying to put its past in the rearview mirror. “Now that Bouterse has passed away, it might be worth investigating whether it makes sense to start a process of truth-finding, as happened in South Africa after the apartheid regime fell,” wrote Suriname’s local newspaper, de Ware Tijd, referring to the political murders of hundreds of people under the Bouterse regime. “Suriname’s development will be able to proceed more quickly if there is a certain degree of unity among the population.”  The country of almost 700,000 people, one of the most diverse in the world, is now hoping to see the fruits of exploiting a treasured resource that lies off its Atlantic shores. As OilPrice.com reported, leaders in Suriname are now hoping to mimic neighboring Guyana, where the gross domestic product per capita increased 41 percent last year to almost $31,000 annually, more than four times greater than Suriname’s $7,600 per capita. The recent approval of the $12.2 billion, 1.4 million-acre GranMorgu project in Suriname is expected to deliver similar windfalls. By 2028, the project is expected to pump as much as 220,000 barrels per day from offshore fields containing 760 million barrels in total, added Offshore Energy. GranMorgu, incidentally, is a word for a massive grouper fish but also has a double meaning – “great morning” or “new dawn” in the local Sranan Tongo language, said French oil company TotalEnergies in a statement. Meanwhile, drillers have already generated more than $300 million a year for Suriname’s treasury for three years in a row – a previously unheard-of haul there, noted Radio Jamaica News. Surinamese hope to have a say in how the country spends the money. As BNamericas wrote, politicians and activists are calling for greater transparency and public oversight of the oil industry. Campaigns for the general election on May 25 already include demands for the government to dole out larger tranches of oil revenues to communities and interest groups. Held under new rules that will foster new political parties to enter parliament, the election is still a battle between President Chan Santokhi’s Progressive Reform Party and the late Bouterse’s National Democratic Party, the Center for Strategic and International Studies explained. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the country in April before the vote was a sign of how powerbrokers in the Western Hemisphere also see the country’s potential. “Energy security in the Caribbean region,” was a major talking point during Rubio’s meeting with Santokhi. Meanwhile, the country is struggling with its economy, left bankrupt by the former president, corruption, and balancing its relations with China with new interest from the US, wrote Global Americans. Regardless, Suriname can expect big changes in the coming years. How they manage these changes is the tricky part, say analysts. Suriname has seen similar promises of economic growth through oil exploration for a decade now,” wrote Semafor. “People are still waiting.”

Brasil's Top Court Starts Bolsonaro's Coup Trial

Brazil’s Top Court Starts Bolsonaro’s Coup Trial Brazil Brazil’s Supreme Court this week began hearing key witnesses in the prosecution of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, accused of plotting a coup to retain power after narrowly losing the election in 2022, France 24 reported. Gen. Marco Antônio Freire Gomes, a former army commander under Bolsonaro, took the stand on Monday and said that he met with Bolsonaro between the victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his inauguration in early 2023 to discuss a “state of siege” as a possible way to overturn Bolsonaro’s election defeat, according to Agence France-Presse. Another military official under Bolsonaro, Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior, told the court he also took part in meetings in which Bolsonaro discussed “the hypothetical possibility of using legal instruments” to overturn the election results and justify military intervention. Both Gomes and Júnior said they refused to comply. Gomes said that he warned Bolsonaro of the judicial implications of declaring a state of siege and even threatened to have him arrested if he followed through with the plan. More than 80 witnesses, including senior military officers, former government ministers, and officials from the police and intelligence services, are expected to testify in this preliminary trial phase, which is expected to continue for at least two weeks. Bolsonaro, who joined the hearing wearing the yellow Brazilian football jersey in a symbol of solidarity with his right-wing voters, faces allegations of plotting to retain power despite his 2022 election loss, a plot that prosecutors say includes plotting to murder the current president and a supreme court justice, the BBC noted. If found guilty, he faces up to 40 years in jail and would also be banned from holding office. Bolsonaro is already facing a ban from holding office until 2030 after alleging that the Brazilian electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud. Despite the ban, he said he plans to run again in the 2026 presidential election.