Jul 26 2024 | Nº. 127

Editorial

On Sunday, July 28, Venezuelans will go to the polls in one of the most high-stakes elections the country has ever faced. Amidst a backdrop of severe economic instability, political repression, and widespread humanitarian crises, the outcome will significantly impact Venezuela’s trajectory. The entire region, including neighboring Brazil, will be watching closely to see what the outcome will be and whether the regime of Nicolás Maduro will accept the result if it loses. 

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has always been close to the leaders of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution. In the past, Lula went on the record to support Hugo Chávez, even recording a campaign video at one point. That support carried over to Maduro, Chávez’s successor, to whom Lula has personally leant credibility despite government abuses and worsening mismanagement. All along, Lula has framed his unwillingness to break with the Venezuelan government as a commitment to pragmatism. Brazil has and wants to continue to play the role of mediator for a geopolitical morass that has divided much of the hemisphere. Notably, however, in his third term, Lula has noticeably shifted towards a more critical and nuanced position. He has spent weeks implicitly and explicitly urging Maduro to allow for a free and fair election and to accept its result no matter what. That continued this week, with Lula stating on Monday, July 22 that “I have told Maduro that the only chance for Venezuela to return to normality is to have a widely respected electoral process . . . . He must respect the democratic process.” Lula also said this week he was “frightened” by Maduro’s talk of a “bloodbath” in the case of an electoral loss and announced he’d be sending Celso Amorim, his most trusted foreign policy advisor, to observe Sunday’s election. 

Brazil’s ability to credibly exercise a role of international influence may depend on how it handles major issues close to home. This is clearly a priority for Lula. On Wednesday, July 24 he launched a new effort as part of Brazil’s temporary leadership of the G20 called the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty. “Hunger is not a natural problem. . . . It is a problem of political incompetence,” Lula told reporters. To help steer the international conversation, the Brazilian government is underscoring its commitment to non-controversial basic principles like democracy and the idea that nobody should go hungry. Championing such causes has always been Lula’s favored role on the world stage. He is surely hoping Maduro does not put him in an uncomfortable position by refusing yet again to accept an outcome that does not go his way. 

Highlights

• Fighting hunger. Severe food insecurity fell by 85 percent in Brazil in 2023. In absolute numbers, 14.7 million people stopped going hungry in the country. Severe food insecurity, which afflicted 17.2 million Brazilians in 2022, fell to 2.5 million. Percentagewise, the drop was from 8 percent to 1.2 percent of the population. The data appears in the 2024 edition of the United Nations Report on the State of World Food Insecurity (SOFI 2024), released this Wednesday, July 24, in Rio de Janeiro. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, severe food insecurity is when a person is in fact without access to food and goes an entire day or more without eating. It represents concrete hunger which, if maintained regularly, leads to serious damage to physical and mental health, especially in early childhood development and cognitive formation.

• Taxation of millionaires. President Lula once again defended the taxation of the super-rich to reduce inequalities in the world. During the launch of a program to combat hunger with the presence of representatives from the G20 that took place in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, July 23, Lula stated that billionaires' wealth went from 4 percent to 14 percent of GDP worldwide in the last 30 years. Lula said that the super-rich pay proportionally much less taxes than the working class. At the same event, Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said that a 2 percent tax on large fortunes would generate US$250 billion per year.

• Election observers. Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) reversed its decision to send observers to monitor the Venezuelan presidential elections on Sunday. The decision was taken after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro criticized the electronic voting machines used in Brazil and declared that the Brazilian electoral process is not audited, which is not accurate. Maduro's speech is the same as that of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was condemned in Brazil for spreading unfounded suspicions about voting machines to foreign diplomats in a meeting at the government palace. Instead, Brazil will send Lula's special advisor for International Relations, Celso Amorim, to Caracas.

   

• Hacker attack. A hacker attack classified by the Brazilian government as “a serious cybersecurity incident” affected the systems of new ministries and two other federal public administration bodies. The Brazilian Intelligence Agency (ABIN) and the Federal Police investigated the incident. In the previous attack in April, criminals moved the equivalent of US$1.5 million from the Ministry of Management and Innovation's computer systems. The government recorded 4,797 cyber-attacks in the first half of 2024 alone, more than double the number recorded in the same period in 2023.

• Privatization of SABESP. The government of the State of São Paulo, led by Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, who is an ally of Bolsonaro, concluded this week the privatization of SABESP, which is a basic sanitation company in São Paulo. The sale raised the equivalent of US$2.6 billion. The company sold 32 percent of its shares, and state participation, which was 50.3 percent, fell to 18.3 percent. The sector's workers' unions challenged the operation and the sale values, in addition to warning about the risk of worsening services provided to the population. These organizations tried to prevent the sale in court, but were unsuccessful.

News from the WBO, Organizations and Social Movements

Violence against Indigenous people. On Monday, July 22, the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI) published the most recent edition of the “Report on Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil.” The publication brings together data on violence committed against Indigenous peoples in 2023, a year marked by attacks on rights and little progress in land demarcation. The document is organized into 19 categories, divided into three chapters – Violence against Property, Violence against Persons and Violence due to the Omission of Public Power – and is available in full at this link.

Defense of democracy. In July, the Pact for Democracy launched its “Guide for Democracy: Defending the Electoral Process.” The publication provides a history of the actions of the coalition made up of more than 200 civil society organizations in defense of the electoral process, in addition to providing tips and guidance on how organizations can carry out similar actions. The content is the result of learning from the Pact for Democracy network, which worked to defend the integrity of the Brazilian electoral system and joined forces to develop unprecedented actions, covered in the guide, which were essential to guarantee the integrity of the electoral process in Brazil in 2022. Access the publication via the link.

Black women. Several civil society organizations marked July 25th, International Day of Latin American and Caribbean Black Women, with actions and publications. The date was established in 1992, during the First Meeting of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Caribbean Women, held in the Dominican Republic. In Brazil, this same date also marks the National Day of Tereza de Benguela and Black Women, in honor of the leader of the Quilombo Quariterê, who fought against slavery in the eighteenth century. In this edition of the bulletin, the WBO brings an opinion article on the matter. Geledés – Instituto da Mulher Negra Coordinator Maria Sylvia de Oliveira also presents a reflection on the importance of this date.

Public health. Brazil's Unified Health System (SUS) was the subject of an important article published by the influential BMJ Group bulletin, an entity that since 1840 has invested in the dissemination of scientific studies about medicine and public health. The article, written by Brazilian researcher Deisy Ventura and a group of five other researchers, deals with the SUS as a decolonial health project. The publication also includes two other articles that deal with different aspects of Brazil's leading role in the G20.

Feature Article

Latin American and Caribbean Black Women's Day: Who are We Talking About?

By Benilda Brito and Ayana Odara*

This article is dedicated to Terezas, Donas Valdetes and Aunts Mercês, Black Women of the world.

Among the various themes we have in common, our first article together talks about ourselves: mother and daughter, two Black women from different generations. Yes! We weave together here a story about affection, ancestry, and identity.

In 1992, Black Latin American and Caribbean women gathered in the city of Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic at the First Meeting of Black Latin American and Caribbean Women to give visibility to racism, violence, and sexism that do not respect geographical limits and plague brutally the lives of Black women around the world. This meeting made history and, already in 1992, the United Nations recognized July 25th as the International Day of Latin American and Caribbean Black Women. The tribute at that time was paid to quilombola Tereza de Benguela, who led Quilombo do Quariterê, in the current state of Mato Grosso, with mastery, a sense of justice and strategy, shortly after the death of her husband. Still feeling the absence of love, she did not allow pain to overcome her, and her inclusive leadership is recognized throughout history.

In Brazil, then President Dilma Rousseff sanctioned Law No. 12,987/2014, which places this date on the official Brazilian calendar. And since 2016, Belo Horizonte City Hall has made the date official as Municipal Black Women’s Day “D. Valdete da Silva Cordeiro’ – a name that pays homage to an important social and political activist in the city, who influenced and still influences the lives of thousands of people from Belo Horizonte. D. Valdete, from Alto Vera, on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte, observed with concern how racism, violence, and social inequalities increasingly sickened Black women in her community, increasing their consumption of alcohol and medication against depression. She beautifully organized several conversation circles and opted for corporeality and orality as a cure. She created the Grupo Meninas de Sinhá, where Black women from their 50s until their 80s and over dance in circles with full skirts and sing about their pain, victories, and resistance. She passed away in 2014, but her legacy is still alive and well.

It was the Minas Gerais singer Milton Nascimento who narrated the daily life of our quilombo, Quilombo do Açude in Serra do Cipó in Minas Gerais in the song “Casa Aberta,” in 2002. The words sung remind me of my childhood, washing pots and clothes in the stream, watching Grandma Benigna, Mom Zaira and my aunts and cousins. There, I learned and experienced another form of political and social organization – the practice of good living, Black feminism, and collective care through plants, food and parties. The vivacity and survival strategies of my elders in the face of all the challenges imposed by racism, sexism, scarcity, made our childhoods true practices of love. From them, I learned what I know today and live with other women and our sons and daughters. To this day, the drum played by Tia Mercês, matriarch of our Quilombo do Açude, echoes denunciations of violations, agendas of historical political demands for us, Black women, but also rhythms of visibility of Black women in spaces of political debate and decision-making, of care, affection, rewriting narratives, and building a political project of a decent life for Black women.

“At the open house

It's party night

Geralda, Helena, Flor dance

At the riverside

I listen to Ramiro

Dona Mercês plays the drum”

Despite advances, Black women still face significant inequalities in areas such as access to education, the job market, health, and social justice. The date serves as a call to action to combat structural racism and promote inclusive policies that guarantee equal opportunities.

That's why we marched in 2015, and we will return in 2025, with one million women in the streets. There is still a long way to go for the world to learn the strategies of Black women, leadership strategies, to guarantee spaces of love and life. Gratitude to our ancestors. As it is taught in our Quilombo: “The needle pulls the thread.”

*Benilda Brito is a Black woman, mother, lesbian, Axé, quilombola and griot at Múcua Consultoria. Ayana Odara de Brito is a Black woman, public manager, intersectionality researcher and daughter of Benilda Brito.

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.