Mar 27 2026| Nº. 198

Editorial

This week in Brasília opened with a significant turn in the long-running legal saga surrounding former president Jair Bolsonaro. On Tuesday, Justice Alexandre de Moraes authorized Bolsonaro’s temporary transfer to house arrest, conditioned on the use of an electronic ankle monitor. The decision, framed as a calibrated measure balancing health concerns and judicial supervision, offers the former president a reprieve without fully loosening the constraints imposed by his twenty-seven-year prison sentence for attempting to subvert the 2022 presidential election. Politically, the move may lower immediate tensions while possibly allowing him to influence his allies more directly—an outcome that quietly reshapes the terrain as electoral maneuvering accelerates ahead of the October elections.

The unfolding Banco Master scandal also seemingly entered a new stage as the prospect of plea agreements introduced new uncertainty into an already complex investigation. On Wednesday, reports indicated that disgraced CEO Daniel Vorcaro is expected to present a formal proposal for a colaboração premiada (plea bargain) within weeks, signaling a potentially pivotal phase for federal prosecutors and the Federal Police. His anticipated plea could illuminate alleged links between financial actors and prominent political figures, raising the stakes for multiple camps in Brasília. As with past corruption probes, the strategic use of plea bargains may accelerate revelations. It also, however, risks reviving disputes over selective accountability and institutional overreach that could unfold in unpredictable ways.

These domestic developments fed into a broader rhetorical escalation from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the international stage. Speaking Friday at the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), a regional bloc intended to coordinate political and economic positions independent of U.S. influence, Lula sharpened his critique of global power asymmetries, denouncing what he characterized as enduring forms of neocolonial domination in institutions like the United Nations. “We cannot accept a new colonialism,” he argued, framing Latin American sovereignty as both a political and economic imperative. The timing was notable: as legal and financial scandals roil Brasília, Lula has increasingly leaned on foreign policy—and the language of historical redress—to consolidate legitimacy and reassert Brazil’s role in a shifting geopolitical order. This will mark a sharp contrast with the Bolsonaro camp, which argues for close alignment with the Trump administration.

Highlights

• Resignation. Cláudio Castro, the governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro, resigned on Monday, March 23, when he continues to be on trial regarding a political scandal involving the use of public resources to finance electoral campaigns. With his resignation, Castro hoped to avoid impeachment and thus maintain the right to run in upcoming elections. However, the Superior Electoral Court decided the following day to make him ineligible for eight years. With this, all governors elected in Rio de Janeiro in the last 30 years have been removed from office or imprisoned.

• Armament industry. President Lula da Silva participated this Wednesday, March 25 in the christening of the first supersonic military fighter jet produced in Brazil. The ceremony, which took place in Gavião Peixoto, in the interior of São Paulo, was a celebration of the partnership between the Swedish company Saab and the Brazilian company Embraer. Since 2014, the project has spent R$ 16 billion. During Lula's government, the Army invested R$ 1.27 billion in the purchase of anti-tank missiles and in the acquisition of armored tanks with amphibious capabilities and longer-range cannons, with the purpose of ensuring that "the land forces are prepared to face contemporary and future threats."

• European Union and Mercosur. The Brazilian government announced on Tuesday, March 24 that the agreement between Mercosur and the European Union will provisionally enter into force on May 1, 2026. When this takes place, the bilateral pact can be provisionally implemented between the European Union and the Mercosur countries that have already completed their internal approval processes, as is the case for Brazil. Argentina and Uruguay have also finalized this stage, while Paraguay should formalize the notification soon.

• Privileges. The Supreme Federal Court decided this week that employees of the judiciary and members of the Public Prosecutor's Office are entitled to receive additional compensations that do not exceed 70% of their salaries. The granting of this benefit has been associated with privileges that place judges, prosecutors, and public prosecutors in an excessively privileged pay category compared to other workers. The politicization of this debate is of particular interest to the far right, which this year is focusing its energies on undermining the Supreme Court, the main branch of government involved in holding accountable the coup plotters of January 8, 2023.

2026 Election Observatory

Right-wing withdrawal. Ratinho Junior withdrew this Monday, March 23 from the race for President of Brazil in the October elections. The current governor of the state of Paraná in southern Brazil preferred to run for re-election in his current position, as a candidate for the Social Democratic Party (PSD), ideologically linked to far-right Bolsonarism. With Ratinho Jr.'s withdrawal, Eduardo Leite, governor of Rio Grande do Sul, and Ronaldo Caiado, governor of Goiás, remain as alternative names to Flávio Bolsonaro in the conservative field.

Race for the Senate. According to behind-the-scenes information published by the press this week, Márcio França, the Minister of Micro and Small Enterprises, is expected to meet with President Lula and ask for his support to run for one of the two open seats for the Senate representing the state of São Paulo. If this were to happen, Lula would support two candidates from the same allied party, the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB). In addition to França, Simone Tebet, Lula's Minister of Planning, also intends to run for one of the seats.

News from ABO and social organizations and movements:

US Congress. The Washington Brazil Office organized an information session on Wednesday, March 25, in Washington, D.C. on democracy, the environment, and human rights in Brazil, in meetings with the staff of US Congressional representatives. The initiative consisted of bringing reliable information to US congresspeople and their staffs about the Brazilian presidential elections of October 2026 and the environmental and human rights agenda that are important issues discussed in public debates in Brazil this year. Learn more.

Slavery. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday, March 25 to recognize the transatlantic slave trade as "the most serious crime against humanity." The final vote had 123 member states in favor, 3 against and 52 abstentions, including Portugal. In the end, the remaining Portuguese-speaking countries registered favorable votes, with Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Mozambique co-sponsoring the text defended by Timor-Leste. “The declaration highlights the importance of addressing the historical injustices affecting Africans and people of African descent in a way that promotes justice, human rights, dignity, and reparation,” said Geledés – Instituto da Mulher Negra (Geledés – Institute of Black Women), in a statement.

Black Women. The “Black Women Shaping Afrofutures 2026” event brought together Black women from the Global South and the diaspora on March 11th and 12th for two days of impactful dialogue, collective imagination, and cultural expression at the Teachers College, Columbia University, in a parallel event to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70). The Forum focused on the political agendas of Black women, well-being, economic justice, reparations, and transnational solidarity.

Cerrado and Caatinga. During a public event in Brasília on World Water Day, researchers and organizations such as the Articulation in the Brazilian Semi-Arid Region and the National Campaign in Defense of the Cerrado denounced the degradation of the Cerrado as a systematic process that compromises its ecological functions. The conversion of native areas and the intensive use of the soil have affected springs and aquifers, reducing water availability. Considered the "heart of the waters" of Brazil, the biome already shows signs of depletion in strategic areas. In light of this, experts point to the need for structural measures, including conservation, deforestation control, and the empowerment of local communities.

Feature Article

What Does the Presence of Intersex people in the Inter-American System Reveal about the Americas?

By Caia Maria Coelho*

For the first time, a Brazilian intersex person, Caia Maria Coelho, co-director of Intersexo Brasil, spoke at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights during its sessions in Guatemala. To understand the relevance of this moment, this article proposes to outline the disputes surrounding harmful practices aimed at modifying intersex bodies, as well as the institutional limitations that still structure states' responses to these violations.

Irreversible surgical and hormonal interventions continue to be performed on intersex bodies without free and informed consent, with the aim of inscribing the sexed body within the gender binary. These practices, widely documented by researchers, activists, and international organizations, have been increasingly recognized as forms of the violation of fundamental rights, including the right to bodily integrity, autonomy, high levels of health, and dignity. In more forceful terms, these are practices analogous to torture. The West has labeled “female” genital mutilation in contexts that it has often classified, without much risk of contestation, as “primitive.” However, it remains unable to confront intersex genital mutilation, often legitimized as medical care. This asymmetry reveals the persistence of a rationality that projects violence onto the other, while naturalizing that are practiced by its own institutions, selectively mobilizing human rights.

The very naming of intersexuality in a clinical context contributes to this process, insofar as highly technical language is mobilized in interactions with patients and their families, shifting the issue from the political field to the privatized domain of medical knowledge. In this framework, intersexuality ceases to be recognized as a rights issue, and instead restricts opportunities for contestation and reinforces medical authority over intersex genital mutilation.

The consolidation of medical power over intersex bodies finds a significant milestone in CFM Resolution No. 1,664/2003, instituted after the Federal Council of Medicine itself acted to overturn a recommendation from the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Federal District and Territories that sought to establish some level of external control over these practices. The resolution, in effect for 23 years, was formulated without consulting intersex people and remains anchored in pathologizing language, classifying variations as "anomalies of sex differentiation."

This is a device that neutralizes accountability mechanisms and fills the normative gap left by the public authorities. By replacing a rights-oriented guideline with one that ensures medical authority over the sexed body, the CFM consolidated a self-regulatory regime that has historically legitimized intersex genital mutilation. Currently, the processing of a new draft resolution by the Council is concerning, as the Council is advancing on anti-gender policies, signaling the risk of a resurgence of these practices without, to date, any guarantee of effective participation by intersex people themselves in the decision-making processes.

In recent years, the recognition of intersex genital mutilation has intensified within the United Nations. The approval of an unprecedented UN Human Rights Council resolution on the protection of intersex people against violence and discrimination represents a significant milestone, explicitly affirming the need for States to prohibit non-consensual medical interventions and guarantee bodily autonomy. This institutional advancement is part of a broader process of increased visibility, which has included the holding of the first event specifically dedicated to intersex issues at the UN and the growing presence of the topic in spaces such as the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), where Intersexo Brasil was represented by co-director Vidda Guzzo. In a global context where intersex genital mutilation has been denounced in multilateral forums, the Inter-American human rights system, in particular, appears as a strategic space for political visibility in the face of the persistent administrative and legislative lack of protection for intersex people in Brazil. Despite some progress on gender and sexuality agendas, the Brazilian state still lacks normative frameworks that fully recognize and protect the rights of intersex people. The absence of adequate regulation, coupled with the persistence of pathologizing medical protocols, produces a scenario of extreme institutionalized vulnerability.

In the Americas, institutional responses to intersex demands are often marked by normative instability. In the Chilean case, after an initial guideline recommending the suspension of unnecessary interventions on intersex children, including prohibiting irreversible surgeries that could be postponed until consent was obtained, there was a setback that reintroduced pathologizing language and reopened space for non-consensual interventions.

Years later, new initiatives reaffirmed principles such as bodily autonomy and the prohibition of procedures motivated by social or aesthetic expectations, highlighting a still deeply contested field.

In Colombia, since the late 1990s, the Constitutional Court has affirmed that medical recommendations and parental consent are not sufficient to authorize irreversible interventions on intersex children, recognizing the principle of progressive capacity and the need to consider the consent of the person themselves. Over the years, it has also established criteria for qualifying and reiterating consent, recommended the involvement of interdisciplinary teams, and, in conflict situations, indicated postponing interventions until the person could decide. Even so, in the absence of more robust national guidelines, hospitals began to define their own protocols, often without supervision.

In Brazil, Federal Deputy Duda Salabert filed the Bill for the Statute of Intersex Persons, developed in dialogue with civil society organizations and experts from various fields. Other proposals have also been presented over the years, addressing issues such as the criminalization of intersexphobia, the prohibition of cosmetic surgery on intersex children, the training of health professionals, protection against violence, and civil registration. Despite the thematic diversity and relevance of these proposals, none of them have been effectively voted on, highlighting the political obstacles that hinder the intersex agenda in the country. This scenario of slowness is a sign of the closure of deliberative channels, showing that restrictions on rights compromise the participation of intersex people in democratic life.

In this context of vulnerability, activating the Inter-American system is indispensable. In the Brazilian case, the intersex presence in the IACHR was, initially, made possible through the work of Professor Paula Sandrine Machado, who, thirteen years ago, made a significant intervention by bringing to the Commission a critical analysis of the situation of intersex people in the Americas, articulating academic research and political commitment. The recent intervention of a Brazilian intersex person in this space therefore inaugurates the historical moment in which, for the first time, an intersex person from the region speaks before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Human rights demand the prohibition of intersex genital mutilation, the guarantee of bodily autonomy, and the development of public policies that respect diversity. They also demand that intersex people and their allies be heard, recognizing them as subjects of knowledge. The intersex presence in the Inter-American system marks the transition from invisibility to enunciation and reaffirms, clearly, that democracy is incompatible with intersex genital mutilation. 

*Caia Maria Coelho is the director of programs and advocacy at the Intersex Network Brazil, a technical-scientific advisor to the Brazilian Association of Trans-Homoculture (ABETH) and the Transfeminist Research Center.

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