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jair bolsonaro
From Netanyahu to Orbán, Global Far-Right Figures Celebrate Trump Win
A veritable Who's Who of fascist-facing leaders lined up to congratulate the man who said he'd be a dictator on "day one" of his impending presidency.
Nov 06, 2024
Current and former far-right leaders around the world cheered U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's remarkable victory in Tuesday's election, in which the twice-impeached, 34-count convicted felon, self- and court-affirmed sexual assaulter, and insurrection-fomenting 78-year-old Republican won not only the Electoral College but also the popular vote in what some observers described as a "mandate for fascism."
In Israel—which the Biden administration buoyed with massive military and diplomatic support even as it faces a genocide case at the World Court for a war on Gaza that's killed more than 43,000 Palestinians—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Trump's victory is "history's greatest comeback" and represents a "powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America."
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister and leader of the Jewish supremacist Otzma Yehudit party, reposted an earlier message in which he proclaimed, "God Bless Trump."
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who was the first European leader to endorse Trump in 2016, lauded the Republican's "enormous win," which he called "a much-needed victory for the world."
Argentinian President Javier Milei—who campaigned as a libertarian populist but has governed like a neoliberal shock doctrinaire—hailed Trump's "formidable electoral victory."
"Now, Make America Great Again," he added. "You know that you can count on Argentina to carry out your task."
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele—who Trump recently accused of sending gang members to the U.S. to insidiously reduce crime in his country—wished divine blessings and guidance for the president-elect.
Arab dictators—from the monarchs of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi—also congratulated Trump. Some, like Jordan's King Abdullah II, said they hoped Trump's second term would usher in an era of "regional and global peace and stability for all."
However, while Trump's first term saw the signing of the historic Abraham Accords that nominally normalized relations between Israel and some of its former Arab enemies, he also presided over what one of his former defense secretaries called a "war of annihilation" that left thousands of civilians dead and cities in ruins in Syria and Iraq.
Former right-wing leaders also cheered Trump's win. Disgraced former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—who like Trump incited an insurrection following his last election loss, but unlike Trump was slapped with an eight-year electoral ban over it—said Tuesday's result represents "the triumph of the people's will over the arrogant designs of an elite who disdain our values, beliefs, and traditions."
"This triumph is historic," Bolsonaro—sometimes called the "Trump of the Tropics"—continued. "Its impact will resonate across the globe... empowering the rise of the right and conservative movements in countless other nations."
On the flip side, progressive leaders around the world vowed to fight fascism—even as they shuddered at the specter of what horrors may come in Trump's second term.
"We are a global movement, made up of all faiths and backgrounds, united in our opposition to racism and hatred," said leftist U.K. lawmaker Jeremy Corbyn. "We will never abandon hope in a more equal, sustainable, and peaceful world."
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Indigenous Brazilians Rally Against 'Death Decree' Attack on Land Demarcation
"We are fighting for life," said one Indigenous leader. "We do not want our land to be exploited, we want to continue living in harmony with nature."
Oct 31, 2024
Thousands of Indigenous Brazilians rallied and marched in the capital Brasília and staged demonstrations in at least five states on Wednesday in a bid to block a proposed constitutional amendment that critics say could halt or even reverse the process of demarcating native lands.
Constitutional Amendment Proposal (PEC) 48 was introduced in September 2023 by federal Sen. Hiran Gonçalves of the right-wing Progressives party. The amendment would constitutionally enshrine a thesis backed by the country's powerful agribusiness sector under which Indigenous land claims made after October 5, 1988—the date Brazil's current constitution was adopted—would be invalidated.
Many Indigenous Brazilians call the proposal the "PEC of death." The Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), the country's leading nongovernmental Indian advocacy group, says the amendment "is an agribusiness and anti-Indigenous proposal as it violates the original right of peoples to their ancestral territory, already recognized by the 1988 constitution, which PEC 48 seeks to alter."
"The measure also ignores the violence and persecutions that Indigenous peoples have faced for over 500 years, especially during the military dictatorship, which prevented many peoples from being in their territories on that exact date in 1988," APIB added, referring to the U.S.-backed regime that ruled through terror and torture from 1964-85 and in whose army former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsnaro—a big supporter of PEC 48—proudly served.
On September 21, 2023, Brazil's Supreme Federal Tribunal ruled 9-2 that the Temporal Framework thesis is unconstitutional. On the same day, both houses of Brazil's Congress approved PL 2903, which contained provisions to codify the Temporal Framework.
Leftist Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva subsequently issued a veto for parts of the bill dealing with the Temporal Framework and other provisions that abolished Indigenous peoples' right to free, prior, and informed consultation; made it easier to intrude upon Indigenous lands; and would have banned the expansion of previously demarcated Indigenous lands.
However, right-wing Brazilian lawmakers overruled Lula's veto in December 2023. Despite being declared unconstitutional, lawmakers passed Law 14.701, which codified the Temporal Framework and was subsequently challenged in multiple lawsuits. In April 2024, the Supreme Federal Tribunal suspended these cases and suggested a process of mediation and conciliation between Indigenous people and agribusiness interests. That process began in August.
In a Wednesday interview with Agência Brasil, APIC executive coordinator Alberto Terena of the Terena Indigenous community said that PEC 48 "is a threat against our demarcated lands" that will exacerbate the planetary climate emergency.
"As soon as we stop protecting the environment, the climate crisis will be even worse," he argued. "Indigenous lands are the territories with the greatest preservation of the environment, the greatest biodiversity. We are fighting for life. We do not want our land to be exploited, we want to continue living in harmony with nature."
The demonstrations in Brazil came as a United Nations biodiversity summit (COP16) is underway in neighboring Colombia. Indigenous rights advocates reported that Amazon defender Txai Suruí, one of Brazil's best-known Indigenous activists, was accosted at COP16 after speaking out against the Temporal Framework.
Takakpe Tapayuna Metuktire of the Raoni Institute, which promotes Indigenous rights and sustainability, toldg1 that the Temporal Framework is a death decree for us and our children."
Brian O'Donnell, head of the international advocacy group Campaign for Nature, said in a statement Thursday that "if the world is to maintain its important cultural diversity, or achieve its biodiversity and climate goals, Indigenous peoples' territories must be recognized and secured."
"We are outraged by the assault on Indigenous territories and the disenfranchisement of Indigenous people," O'Donnell added. "Their rights to their ancestral lands must be secured. We stand in solidarity with Indigenous people in Brazil and around the world, who are calling for this ill-conceived set of policies to be scrapped and for world leaders to recognize the territorial rights of Indigenous peoples."
In addition to the Brasília rally and march, Indigenous-led demonstrations saw road blockages and other actions across the country of 200 million inhabitants. Protests took place in the states of São Paulo, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul, Maranhão, and Roraima.
"We will not stop our mobilization as long as there is this assault on our rights," said Terena. "This march is not only in the streets, but in Congress and other government agencies... We want the constitution to be respected within this country."
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Brazilian Judge Orders Slaughterhouses and Ranchers to Pay for Harming Amazon
"The invaders and their main business partners—loggers and meatpacking companies—make the profits their own while passing on to society the costs of environmental damage," notes one of numerous lawsuits.
Sep 06, 2024
A Brazilian judge on Thursday ordered two slaughterhouses and three ranchers to pay $764,000 in combined penalties for trading cattle raised in a protected area of the Amazon rainforest.
The decision by Judge Inês Moreira da Costa in Rondônia—the most severely deforested state in the Brazilian Amazon—came in response to a flurry of lawsuits filed by green groups seeking millions of dollars in damages from defendants including Distriboi and Frigon, two meat processing firms accused of trading cattle in the Jaci-Parana protected zone.
"When a slaughterhouse, whether by negligence or intent, buys and resells products from invaded and illegally deforested reserves, it is clear that it is directly benefiting from these illegal activities," the plaintiffs' complaint states. "In such cases, there is an undeniable connection between the company's actions and the environmental damage caused by the illegal exploitation."
The slaughterhouses and ranchers are but two of numerous parties being sued, including other ranchers and JBS, the Brazilian meat giant that bills itself as the world's largest protein producer.
According toThe Associated Press—whose reporting on the cattle trading documents prompted the lawsuits:
Brazilian law forbids commercial cattle inside a protected area, yet some 210,000 head are being grazed inside Jaci-Parana, according to the state animal division. With almost 80% of its forest destroyed, it ranks as the most ravaged conservation unit in the Brazilian Amazon. A court filing pegs damages in the reserve at some $1 billion.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuits are seeking to put a price on the destruction of old-growth rainforest, asserting that "the invaders and their main business partners—loggers and meatpacking companies—make the profits their own while passing on to society the costs of environmental damage."
The Amazon rainforest is one of the world's most biodiverse ecosystems and is a crucial carbon sink, meaning it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The world lost around 3.7 million hectares of primary tropical forests last year—a rate of approximately 10 soccer fields per minute, according to data from the University of Maryland's Global Land Analysis and Discover laboratory. While this marked a 9% reduction in deforestation compared with 2022, the overall deforestation rate is roughly the same as in 2019 and 2021. Felling trees released 2.4 metric gigatons of climate pollution into the atmosphere in 2023, or almost half of all annual U.S. emissions from burning fossil fuels.
In Brazil, the government of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has taken steps to combat deforestation, resulting in a more than one-third reduction in forest loss. Progress in reversing the rampant forest destruction wrought by the previous far-right administration of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—who was nicknamed "Captain Chainsaw"—were partially offset by a 43% spike in deforestation in the Cerrado region last year.
Earlier this year, Marcel Gomes—a Brazilian journalist who worked with colleagues at Repórter Brasil to coordinate "a complex, international campaign that directly linked beef from JBS... to illegal deforestation"—was one of seven winners of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize.
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