President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who personally experienced the challenges of drought in the northeastern hinterland, has before him the opportunity to correct a historical omission and transform the recovery of the Caatinga, a semi-arid biome in northeastern Brazil,” into a permanent commitment of the State. The enactment of Bill 1990/2024, approved by the Brazilian Congress, will institute the National Policy for the Recovery of Caatinga Vegetation, creating the first Brazilian legal framework specifically aimed at the recovery of a biome.

A delegation of party leaders from the government coalition is arriving in Washington to meet with members of the U,S. Congress, diplomats, international organizations, the Inter-American Human Rights System, journalists, academics, and local civil society organizations. In addition to informing and explaining the strengths of our democracy, the delegation will also deliver a clear message against any interference that may exist in the United States in relation to Brazil: there is no room for intrusions in the October election, whether rhetorical, economic, informational, or even military.

The coordinated offensive by the rural caucus in Brazil's National Congress this week perhaps represents one of the most significant institutional reconfigurations of Brazilian environmental policy since the Bolsonaro government. Under the guise of "modernization," "legal certainty," and "debureaucratization," a set of projects approved or accelerated by the Chamber of Deputies, the lower chamber of Congress, profoundly alters environmental oversight mechanisms, expands the political power of agribusiness over state regulatory structures, and reduces instruments for protecting strategic biomes.

In a few months, Brazil will hold what could prove to be one of its most consequential elections in recent history. Until last week, polls had consistently indicated a dead heat between sitting President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro, former President Jair Bolsonaro’s oldest son and the caretaker of the extreme-right’s positions in the country. Recent revelations indicate that Flávio has had an on-going close relations with now disgraced and recently arrested former celebrity-banker Daniel Vorcaro, the owner of Master Bank and main figure in what could prove to be one of Brazil’s biggest financial corruption scandals. This seems to have tilted the scale in favor of Lula, at least for now. But, as the turbulent winds now favoring the democratic forces currently in power in the country could eventually blow in the opposite direction, it is important to understand the elements of the structural polarization that has helped define politics in Brazil for much of the last decade.       

At the end of March at the 14th World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé, Cameroon, Brazil was the most forceful voice of resistance to the U.S. proposal to make permanent the moratorium on e-commerce, which had prohibited tariffs on streaming, software, and downloads since 1998. Lula maintained his position even under pressure, and the moratorium expired for the first time in 28 years. USTR Jamieson Greer, the main U.S. negotiator, warned at that time that there would be "natural consequences."

Amid the presidential race and in the wake of bitter defeats in his relationship with Congress, President Lula da Silva set aside a few days in his agenda as president and pre-candidate for re-election to meet with Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday, May 7th. Unlike the numerous international trips Lula has undertaken throughout his term, the meeting with Trump is less about international relations and more about the electoral landscape that has been unfolding in recent months.

The meeting between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and President Donald Trump is far more than a diplomatic gesture: it represents a revealing moment in how the international order is being reshaped under growing tension.

The 2026 presidential election will be the most polarized confrontation since redemocratization. The clash is a referendum, with no competitive third option on the horizon: on one side, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; on the other, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro.
 But the chess game is much more complex. The real scenario involves economics, geopolitics, a war of narratives, digital platforms, and a series of external variables that could reshape the board.

In Brazil, there is a recurring misconception that the 1988 Constitution created the rights of Indigenous peoples. This is not true. These rights were not born there; they already existed long before. The Constitution did not create these rights; it only recognized them.

Authoritarian leaders around the world have developed a sophisticated repertoire for interfering in the political and electoral processes of other countries in recent years. Everything indicates that this repertoire will be used in Brazil this year, and we need to understand how it works to prepare for what may come.

The weekly newsletter of the Brazil Office Alliance completes its 200th issue in the first week of April. We are very happy and proud to reach this milestone because it represents our commitment to maintaining a regular, reliable, democratic, accessible, free, and bilingual communication channel for almost 4 years, practically without interruption.

The United States has classified two Brazilian organized crime factions – the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho (CV) – as threats to regional security. Furthermore, the country is flirting with the possibility of classifying them as terrorist organizations, as it recently did with drug cartels in other countries in the region. This has reignited the debate about whether organized crime in Brazil could or should be classified as terrorist. Making this classification, however, would be a mistake for several technical, legal, and practical reasons. Below, we list some of them and present an alternative for more productive cooperation in combating organized crime.

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.

Under Jair Bolsonaro's leadership, the election will be a true referendum on the existential question that plagues all nations around the globe today. Should we maintain our democratic regime, however flawed it may be, or should we ignore those who care about it and open space for new power arrangements with an authoritarian bent?

Last week, the Association of Professors of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro organized a conference on the Praia Vermelha Campus with Minister Celso Amorim, the experienced diplomat and special advisor to the presidency of the republic. We begin this short article commenting on this conference less for its content than for the symbolic dimension it represents.

Just over 80 years ago, during the negotiations of the Charter of the United Nations in San Francisco (USA), a Brazilian woman – the only woman in our delegation – stood out in defending the inclusion of equality between men and women in the document that would become known as the "Constitution of the World".

The societies of two socioeconomic blocs, the European Union and Mercosur, are in the ratification phase of the world's largest agreement. The problem is that few people know that it is not just an agreement for the progressive reduction of taxes by up to 91%, as reported in the media. The Agreement is comprehensive, made up of three pillars: political dialogue, trade, and sustainable development.

The beginning of the year is a propitious time for planning. At the Observatory on International Labor and Social Rights (ODTI), it couldn't be any different. Always driven by the purpose of promoting knowledge and information exchange about the world of work, we decided to explore what is on the international agenda for 2026 to refine our monitoring of pressing issues and our advocacy efforts.

The American political system has shown strong signs of dysfunction in recent years. Once widely respected, majority elections have become a focus of dispute and distrust. The national legislature faces recurring decisional paralysis, often resulting in the paralysis of public services as well. The occupant of the executive branch, in turn, is increasingly accused of governing only for his captive electorate, and judicial decisions are increasingly seen as open expressions of particular political positions.

Latin America has suffered for decades from political oscillations that occasionally bring our continent into contact with dictatorships and oppressive governments. The LGBTQIA+ community, as part of a group of political minorities, is still one of the most persecuted. In this context, the United States of America maintains a strong influence in the region, and after the election of Donald Trump and the strengthening of his hate speech, the political persecution of our community has worsened.