Oct 7 2025| Nº. 181

Editorial

This week’s COP30 Leaders’ Summit in Belém opened with mixed expectations amid rising tensions in the region. On Wednesday, November 5, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met with several world leaders to promote the Tropical Forests Forever Fund, a $125 billion plan to reward countries that protect their forests. The measure is key to Brazil’s bid for global climate leadership, but it hit an early setback when the United Kingdom decided not to join, forcing the government to lower its short-term goals. Finance Minister Fernando Haddad attributed challenges to global “disorder,” even as the federal governments has tried to keep the focus on Brazil’s role as a leader in climate action. Lula also announced a last-minute trip to Colombia this Sunday, November 9, for a meeting between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union to address growing tensions between the United States and Venezuela, diverting attention from the climate summit.

Continued trade tensions with Washington also shaped the week’s headlines with no progress yet despite a positive meeting last week between Lula and Trump last week. This Wednesday, November 5, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said he will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Canada next week to discuss the Washington’s unprecedented tariffs on Brazilian exports. Vieira said the talks will center on commercial issues, not the Venezuela crisis, reflecting Brasília’s attempt to protect its economic interests without escalating regional disputes. 

Meanwhile, at home, fallout continued from last week’s deadly police operation in Rio de Janeiro’s Alemão and Penha communities, which left 121 people dead in what authorities called the largest such action in Brazil’s history. Lula said Tuesday that the federal government would open an investigation into what he referred to as “a massacre” of dubious legality. His remarks drew swift backlash. A Real Time Big Data poll found that 74% of respondents disagreed with his criticism, while 55% said any government aid should go only to families of slain police officers. Other surveys painted a similar picture: 62% of Rio residents approved of the operation, according to AtlasIntel, and a Quaest poll showed overwhelming support for tougher penalties against organized crime. While human rights groups and the United Nations condemned the violence, the political momentum appears to favor Governor Cláudio Castro, whose approval rose after the raid. For Lula, the episode underscores a widening divide between his government’s human rights message and the public’s demand for forceful action against crime.

Highlights

• Public Security. Five former Brazilian Ministers of Justice delivered a manifesto to President Lula this week suggesting the creation of a Special Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, endowed with ministerial prerogatives, to "lead the deconstruction of the crisis situation engendered" by recent actions of the Rio de Janeiro police. The group also says that the new Secretariat could "initiate the institutional structuring of the Ministry of Public Security in the country, which is a proposal contained" in Lula's own government program.

• Memory and Justice. The president of the Superior Military Court, Maria Elizabeth Rocha, made a mea culpa on behalf of the Brazilian State for the crimes of the dictatorship in a speech on October 25 in which a tribute was paid to journalist Vladimir Herzog, who died under torture in 1975. The unusual and unexpected attitude provoked reactions. On Tuesday, another minister of the same court, Brigadier Carlos Augusto Amaral Oliveira, expressed disagreement with Maria Elizabeth's speech, who responded by saying that her colleague's criticisms had a misogynistic tone.

• Income tax. The Senate approved this week the income tax exemption for those who earn up to R$ 5,000 per month – one of the main promises made by Lula in the last presidential campaign, which should benefit 25 million Brazilians. To compensate for the loss of R$ 31.2 billion annually in revenue, the government intends to create a tax for those with higher incomes. The measure, which represents a great advance towards fairer taxation in Brazil, had already been approved in the Chamber of Deputies. Now, it only depends on presidential approval to come into effect in 2026.

• Interest rates. On the other hand, also in the economic area, Lula suffered a setback: the Central Bank decided to maintain, for the third time in a row, the basic interest rate fixed at 15% per year. Brazil has one of the highest interest rates in the world. The difference from the U.S. rate is 11 percentage points. Lula argues that high interest rates inhibit consumption and cool the economy, but the Central Bank understands that this is a necessary tool to keep inflation as close as possible to the target.

• Papuda Prison. Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes sent an envoy to analyze the conditions of the Papuda prison in the capital, Brasília. The measure is seen as part of the preparations for the location to receive former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest, but could be incarcerated there as soon as the sentence is handed down for his involvement in the failed coup attempt against Lula.

• Conservatism. The Electoral Court approved the registration of a new right-wing political party, Missão, linked to the Movimento Brasil Livre (MBL), a young and conservative movement that played a central role in the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the rise of Bolsonaro in Brazil. Despite its origins, the party rejects any connection to either Bolsonaro or Novo, another right-wing party seeking to forge its own path.

News from ABO and social organizations and movements:

International solidarity. The Brazil Office Alliance is promoting an international fundraising campaign for vulnerable families living in Penha and Complexo do Alemão, in Rio de Janeiro, where police killed at least 128 people last week. Donations can be made via Pix movimentomolequerj01@gmail.com or through the Fundrazr platform. The funds will go to Movimento Moleque, a non-profit civil society organization that has been working with families victimized by state violence for almost 20 years.

General condemnation. Several Brazilian civil society organizations reacted strongly to the massacre committed by the police in Rio de Janeiro last week. Amnesty International said that the episode exposes the failure and structural violence of the state's security policy. The Instituto Sou da Paz stated that this type of operation does not bring sustainable results, in addition to representing a lethal threat to the population. The Marielle Franco Institute filed a complaint with the UN and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), stating that "Brazil cannot continue to normalize the extermination of its own population." The Black Coalition for Rights said that what happened is yet another expression of Brazilian genocidal and racist politics. Uneafro Brasil particularly criticized the role of Governor Cláudio Castro, while Transparency International stated that nothing justifies the disproportionate violence seen in this case.

10 years since Mariana. The Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB) has been carrying out a series of events this month to commemorate and denounce the tenth anniversary of the collapse of the Fundão dam, owned by Samarco, in the municipality of Mariana, which left 19 dead and a trail of more than 800 km of environmental devastation. To this day, no one has been held criminally responsible for the tragedy. The organizations involved in this struggle, however, positively assess the renegotiation mediated by the Judiciary with the companies involved. The agreement transfers private funds to the State as reparations, which are then passed on to those affected. Read more.

COP30. The Health and Happiness Project joined forces with the Sumaúma news agency in an initiative called “Sailing Against the End of the World,” in which a flotilla of boats crewed by quilombola people, riverside dwellers, extractivists, scientists, journalists, and activists traveled the distance between Santarém and Belém, to disembark at COP30 full of reflections, proposals, and projects to “reforest minds and engage in debates.” Read more.

Feature Article

Between the Brazilian Supreme Court's Democratic Legacy and the Risks to Civic Space

By Bruno Brandão*

In recent years, the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) has played a decisive role in defending democratic institutions against threats and attacks from the Bolsonaro government. The Court also prevented the implementation of several harmful policies by that government and Congress, which threatened the rights of minorities, public health, and the environment, and advanced the accountability of former President Jair Bolsonaro and his conspiratorial group for the attempted coup. This week, in judging members of the so-called "fake news nucleus," it reaffirmed that disinformation cannot hijack public debate or intimidate institutions.

This history makes the repeated conduct of Supreme Court Justice Gilmar Mendes even more worrying. Since 2019, he has been attacking Transparency International (TI), its Brazilian chapter, and its team, promoting disinformation about the organization's work.

On October 15, in his declaration of his vote that was broadcast live, the justice again repeated the false narrative that TI has received or managed resources from leniency agreements—an allegation already exhaustively refuted by various authorities, including the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the Attorney General's Office, and, recently, the Federal Court of Accounts.

The origin of this fake news dates back to November 2019, when the justice used the reading of a declaration of his vote to launch unfounded accusations against TI, a few days after the publication of a critical report on setbacks in the anti-corruption framework, presented to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This report mentioned the Federal Revenue Service audit that included the wives of Supreme Court Justices Dias Toffoli and Mendes—an audit that was suspended and never resumed. 

In 2020, the narrative gained traction with an internal memo from the Attorney General's Office, signed by then-Attorney General Augusto Aras, insinuating that Transparency International was able to manage resources from the leniency agreement with the J&F business group—something factually and legally impossible, since the Memoranda of Understanding with the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (2014 and 2017) expressly prohibited any transfer of funds, did not foresee any role in resource management, and expired in 2019. The document was leaked, fueled headlines, and was refuted by Deputy Attorney General Samantha Dobrowolski, but continued to be recycled in proceedings and speeches.

It is important to note how the distortions about Transparency International's relationship with Operation Lava Jato (Car Wash) also served—and still serve—as a basis for attacks on the organization. Evidently, Lava Jato played an extremely relevant role in the global Transparency International movement, by uncovering transnational schemes of macro-corruption that severely impacted countries institutionally and socially even more fragile than Brazil, in Africa and Latin America, where we maintain active chapters in practically all of them. The use of messages from Transparency International members in the so-called "Vaza Jato" leaks was crucial for the fabrication of all kinds of narratives aimed at the absolute delegitimization of any actor surrounding the operation. Excerpts were selected and decontextualized to support biased versions, while messages and public statements that evidenced disagreements, criticisms, and warnings from Transparency International regarding the operation itself were omitted.

We paid dearly both when we supported measures that we considered virtuous and when we criticized excesses and the rapprochement of leading figures of Lava Jato with Bolsonarism, which hijacked the anti-corruption discourse. We paid even more dearly when we denounced the conduct of some of the most influential authorities in the judiciary and large business groups. This is the reality that proves our independence: we are attacked by the left, by the right, and, above all, by those at the top.

For more than five years, Transparency International Brazil has faced judicial harassment in different instances. The most serious case is the criminal investigation opened in the Brazilian Supreme Court in February 2024, which remains active even after repeated requests from the Attorney General's Office for its dismissal due to a complete lack of evidence and the Court's lack of jurisdiction.

This situation was mentioned in the Third Regional Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Human Rights Defenders in the Americas, which warns of practices of criminalizing civil society and explicitly cites the case of Transparency International Brazil. The fact that the country's highest constitutional court is cited in a document that monitors risks to democracy and the freedom of action of defenders throughout the continent is an alarm bell that cannot be ignored.

The contradiction is evident: the same Court that distinguished itself in defending democratic institutions coexists with discourses and procedures that weaken civic space and normalize disinformation against those who fight corruption. This results in institutional and reputational costs for the country and discourages the civic collaboration essential to controlling power. The political context helps explain the permeability of these narratives. Polarization and the hijacking of the anti-corruption discourse by Bolsonarism—supported by exponents of Lava Jato—have alienated progressive sectors from this agenda. This scenario has allowed manipulated versions to be accepted even among peers in civil society, dampening solidarity reactions in the face of evident attacks on freedom of expression and association.

None of this diminishes Transparency International's confidence in the ethical majority of the judiciary nor the institutional respect due to the Brazilian Supreme Court. But it is urgent to re-establish the facts: TI has never received or managed resources from leniency agreements; its agreements with the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office prohibited any transfer of fund; it did not play any role in resource management, and expired in 2019; and the competent authorities have already refuted this fake news on several occasions. It is also essential that the requests of the Attorney General's Office be considered and that the use of judicial bodies to prolong unfounded suspicions against civil society organizations cease. Protecting the civic space is a condition for Brazil to preserve democratic credibility, guarantee security for those who act in the public interest, and rebuild the anti-corruption agenda as a state policy, free from political instrumentalization and authoritarian narratives.

*Bruno Brandão is the executive director of Transparency International – Brazil and a member of the Board of Directors of Transparency International.

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