Dilma Rousseff's impeachment was led by the white, wealthy men who now make up the Brazilian cabinet
Dilma Rousseff's impeachment was led by the white, wealthy men who now make up the Brazilian cabinet
Brazil is among the most diverse countries on earth. Not since the last dictatorship has a Brazilian government been so unrepresentative of its people
Manuel Barcia Paz |
2 hours ago
When Brazil re-elected President Dilma Rousseff in 2014, I challenged the idea – shared by the Economist magazine, among others – that had the elections been determined by GDP (that is, by economic wealth) and not by universal suffrage, Rousseff would have never been re-elected. What seemed like a harmless remark back in 2014 turned into a nightmarish reality, as the president was forced out of office earlier this week.
Let’s start calling things by their name: what’s happening in Brazil today is a coup d’etat. A coup sponsored by both internal and external forces; forces that have many times before done away with democratically elected governments in Latin America, to satisfy the needs of neoliberal capitalism. Just for a quick check, remember the coups orchestrated in Venezuela in 2002, Haiti in 2004, and Honduras in 2009, under the uninterested eyes of the international community.
What we are seeing now is an impeachment process that was well in the making from the moment the validity of one of the largest democratic elections in the history of the world was questioned.
White, privileged, wealthy, male Brazilians have led the impeachment charges; those same white, privileged, wealthy, male Brazilians that used to have suffrage all for themselves – before power was wrested from their often-bloody hands by former slaves, indigenous populations, women, and LGTB groups.
More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/dilma-rousseffs-impeachment-was-led-by-the-white-wealthy-men-who-now-make-up-the-brazilian-cabinet-a7030761.html
Good Reads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016156579
= new reply since forum marked as read
Someone at DU uncovered that fact a few years ago which surprised many of us.
Here's a quick Wikipedia look:
The Confederados (Portuguese pronunciation: [kõfedeˈɾadus]) are descended from some 20,000 Confederates who immigrated to Brazil, chiefly to the area of the city of São Paulo, from the Southern United States after the American Civil War. Although many eventually returned to the United States, some remained and descendants of Confederados can be found in many cities throughout Brazil.
Confederate immigrants Joseph
Whitaker and Isabel Norris
Confederados[edit]
In 1865 at the end of the American Civil War a substantial number of Southerners left the South; many moved to other parts of the United States, such as the American West, but a few left the country entirely. The most popular country of Southerners emigration was Brazil.[1]
Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil wanted to encourage the cultivation of cotton. After the American Civil War Dom Pedro offered the potential immigrants subsidies on transport to Brazil, cheap land, and tax breaks.[2] Former Confederate President Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee advised Southerners against emigration, but many ignored their advice and set out to establish a new life away from the destruction of war and Northern rule under Reconstruction.
Many Southerners who took the Emperor's offer had lost their land during the war, were unwilling to live under a conquering army, or simply did not expect an improvement in the South's economic position. In addition, Brazil still had slavery (and did not abolish it until 1888). Most of the immigrants were from the states of Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina.
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados
Photos taken of them at one of their celebrations, in which they all wear costumes designed to resemble the original clothes of the racist dirtbags from the US South:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1101&bih=526&q=Confederados+brasil&oq=Confederados+brasil&gs_l=img.3..0i24.633.5888.0.6169.10.5.1.4.4.0.132.493.0j4.4.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..1.9.525...0j0i5i30j0i30j0i8i30._eEs7Tt2xfY
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