Tag: brazil

Brazil’s Dictator-Judge Removed from ‘Fake News’ Inquiry He Used to Persecute Conservatives

The head of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), Justice Edson Fachin, on Wednesday removed Justice Alexandre de Moraes from the widely controversial inquiry against “fake news” amid an ongoing crisis at the nation’s Supreme Court.

The decision strips Justice de Moraes from an inquiry he used over the past years to enact a fierce persecution and censorship campaign against Brazilian conservative voices — with former President Jair Bolsonaro being the most prominent target of de Moraes, the inquiry’s now-former rapporteur.

Over the past weeks the Brazilian top court has found itself amidst a “Civil War” between Justices de Moraes and André Mendonça that has plunged the judiciary and its members into an ongoing crisis.

The situation began in early September when Justice Mendonça unsealed a police report containing an analysis of alleged WhatsApp messages involving Justice de Moraes and Daniel Vorcaro, who is a Brazilian banker currently under police custody on corruption accusations stemming from the “Banco Master” financial fraud case involving the eponymous São Paulo-based bank. Justice Mendonça is one of the STF Justices overseeing the fraud case.

Days after the report was unsealed, Justice de Moraes accused fellow Justice Mendonça of having committed “abuse of authority” throughout his supervision of the Banco Master case.

Justice de Moraes formally requested before STF chief Justice Fachin that the inquiry against “fake news” was used to investigate the allegations he presented against Justice Mendonça. Fachin declined de Moraes’ request and instead directly forwarded the complaint against Mendonça to his desk.

On Wednesday, Fachin announced that de Moraes has been removed from the “fake news” inquiry but upheld all rulings and decisions made by de Moraes under its framework. Fachin also called upon an upcoming plenary session of the Brazilian Supreme Court to discuss the ongoing judiciary crisis.

The Brazilian state-owned news agency Agência Brasil recounted that the controversial inquiry was originally launched by the Brazilian Supreme Court in 2019 with the alleged goal of fighting what was described as the “dissemination of news that undermined the integrity and security” of the STF, its Justices, and relatives.

At the time, Justice de Moraes was appointed as the inquiry’s rapporteur by then-STF chief Justice José Antonio Dias Toffoli, a still-active member of the Brazilian top court who found himself at the center of an unrelated controversy earlier this month after he banned and rapidly unbanned the presidential campaign of outsider right-wing candidate Renan Santos.

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Brazil’s Lula da Silva Denies Knowing Woman Tied to Son’s Corruption Probe Despite Many Photos with Her

Socialist President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Thursday publicly denied knowing a businesswoman embroiled in his son’s ongoing corruption probes despite extensive photographic evidence suggesting otherwise.

Several of the candidates running against Lula in the October presidential election published old photos showing Lula alongside the businesswoman, debunking the president’s claims.

President Lula’s oldest son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva, is currently being targeted by three different probes on allegations of corruption and influence peddling at Brazilian federal government institutions, including Brazil’s National Social Security Institute (INSS). The younger Lula is commonly referred to by the nickname Lulinha (“Lil’ Lula”).

Some of the broader INSS corruption allegations against the president’s son involve businesswoman and lobbyist Roberta Luchsinger. An investigation conducted by Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) reportedly found chat messages in Luchsinger’s phone suggesting that she and Lulinha maintained a “permanent acting and coordinated action nucleus” to secure deals with public institutions.

Additionally, some of the messages obtained by the PF in the investigation reportedly state that Luchsinger told another Brazilian businessman that President Lula had “offered” her a government position. According to the alleged contents of the messages, she declined the offer to focus on her “partnership” with Lulinha. Per O Globo, some of the messages also suggest that Luchsinger received large sums of cash to cover flight ticket expenses for Lula’s son. Both Lulinha and Luchsinger have reportedly denied any wrongdoing.

According to CNN Brasil, the messages also suggest a link between Luchsinger and Marco Aurélio “Marcola” Santana Ribeiro, President Lula’s former chief of staff. Santana Ribeiro, who is also a target of the broader corruption probes, has been described as one of Lula’s closest advisers.

On Thursday, President Lula held an interview with TV Globo as part of the ongoing 2026 presidential campaign in which he is seeking reelection for a fourth term. Asked for comment on the allegations that he “offered” a government position to Luchsinger and asked if he ever met her in the Brazilian presidential palace, the incumbent president said that he “does not know” the businesswoman nor had he ever seen her in the past.

“The only thing missing was for her to say that I offered her the Ministry of Defense; the idea that the navy and air force operating here are under her command is utter nonsense,” Lula prefaced.

“I don’t know this woman. I’ve never seen her in my life. I’ve never spoken to her. She’s never been anywhere near me,” he asserted.

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The Biden-Era C.B.P. Fabricated a Document Used to Imprison a Top-Level Brazilian Official. A U.S. Federal Judge Just Ordered Full Disclosure.

In a case with serious repercussions for U.S. national security and for Brazil, a Clinton-appointed U.S. federal judge concluded that an immigration record entered in the Customs and Border Protection system during the Biden administration was fraudulent. The fraudulent record reflected a non-existent entry into the U.S. by the national security advisor to former President Jair Bolsonaro. The fabricated entry was then somehow obtained and used by a controversial Brazilian Supreme Court judge to imprison that national security official.

Beyond concluding that the C.B.P. document was fake, the federal judge, Gregory A. Presnell of the Middle District of Florida, berated U.S. government lawyers for their refusal to produce all documents in the government’s possession concerning who was responsible for this fraudulent record and how it ended up being used in Brazil to imprison one of Bolsonaro’s closest advisors. I obtained a copy of the transcript from that U.S. judicial hearing and first reported the developments in Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil’s largest newspaper, on Friday.

The judge’s orders were issued as part of a lawsuit brought in U.S. federal court late last year by Filipe Martins, the top Bolsonaro advisor on international relations who was preventively imprisoned for six months in 2024 based on this false C.B.P. immigration entry. At the time, Martins was awaiting trial on charges that he had participated with Bolsonaro in plotting a coup after Lula’s narrow victory over Bolsonaro in the 2022 presidential election.

The judge overseeing the cases involving the alleged coup is Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has become a political lightning rod not just in his own country but also around the world. He has overseen a censorship scheme so severe that even The New York Times cited internet freedom experts calling it “a potentially dangerous, authoritarian expansion of power.” On other occasions, the Times — obviously hostile to Bolsonaro — raised serious questions about whether Moraes has become a grave threat to Brazilian democracy in the name of saving it.

This is the same judge who ordered both Rumble and Twitter be blocked across Brazil for refusing to comply with all of his censorship orders. When he was unable to collect a massive fine he had imposed on Twitter due to its lack of bank accounts in the country, he simply ordered the funds removed from Starlink’s accounts, a completely different Musk-linked company. Last year, the Trump administration imposed personal financial sanctions on Moraes, alleging that Moraes carried out tyrannical attacks on the free speech rights of U.S. companies and has corrupted Brazilian justice for nakedly partisan ends. The Trump administration appears poised to impose sanctions on him once again.

Moraes has repeatedly demonstrated a particular obsession with punishing Martins, who was appointed by Bolsonaro to be his national security advisor at the age of 31. Brazilian law is similar to American law when it comes to a defendant’s rights regarding pre-trial imprisonment: defendants are typically allowed to remain free prior to trial, absent very narrow circumstances (such as proof of witness tampering or a plan to flee the country). Moraes somehow obtained the false C.B.P. entry showing Martins left Brazil for the U.S. and never returned, and then used that false evidence to order his preemptive imprisonment before trial by claiming it proved Martins sought to flee justice. Moraes had Martins placed in a particularly harsh prison, clearly hoping to induce “confessions” that would implicate Bolsonaro and other political enemies of the judge.

One of the many questions that have never been answered — beyond the key question of who fabricated this document — is how this false C.B.P. entry fell into the hands of Brazilians attempting to imprison Martins. The first time this false C.B.P. record emerged publicly was when a Brazilian reporter known to be very close to Moraes, Guilherme Amado, published a news report full of falsehoods, clearly designed to implicate Martins, starting with the highly accusatory (and false) headline: “Under investigation, former Bolsonaro aide went to Orlando in 2022 and evaporated.”

Just two weeks later, the same reporter announced that Moraes himself had begun using this allegation, speaking off the record to various journalists and politicians to tell them that Martins had gone to the U.S. and “disappeared,” clearly laying the groundwork to order his arrest. Weeks later, Moraes did exactly that, issuing an order that relied upon a police report featuring the fraudulent C.B.P. record to claim that Martins had gone to the U.S. and never returned to Brazil (i.e., “evaporating”).

Not only is it now indisputable that the document on which this story was based was fraudulent, as even the C.B.P. admits, but it was so obviously fraudulent from the start. Indeed, within two days of investigating the case back in 2024, I had obtained so much definitive proof that Martins had never left Brazil that not even my meticulous editors at Folha de S.Paulo attempted in any way to dilute the strong language of my reporting — published shortly after Moraes’ original order of imprisonment — stating that Martins had been imprisoned based on clear fraud.

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Brazil’s Rare Earths and the Coming Resource War

The West suddenly discovered that Brazil is sitting on one of the most strategic mineral reserves in the world. The Associated Press reports that Brazil has the second-largest known rare-earth reserves behind China, and foreign interests are now rushing into the country as governments desperately attempt to break China’s grip on the supply chain. More than 86% of Brazil’s rare-earth exploration applications were filed within the last three years, and over 40% have foreign financial backing. This is what happens when governments wake up decades too late to the importance of commodities.

China understood long ago that control of natural resources and their processing is a form of geopolitical power. The West abandoned mining and manufacturing, imposed endless environmental regulations, and outsourced production to Asia because politicians assumed globalization would last forever. China was happy to take the business. Today it controls roughly 90% of global rare-earth processing, and Beijing has already demonstrated that it is prepared to use that position when geopolitical tensions rise.

Rare earths are essential for electronics, automobiles, aerospace, robotics, energy technology, and modern weapons systems. Washington suddenly realizes that depending on China for materials necessary to manufacture military equipment is a national security problem. American and Australian interests are therefore pouring into Brazil, while Brazil’s only commercial rare-earth producer, Serra Verde, has been acquired by a U.S.-backed company. The West is now scrambling to recreate supply chains it voluntarily surrendered.

Brazil would be foolish not to recognize the tremendous leverage it now possesses. President Lula has made clear that he does not intend to allow foreigners simply to extract Brazil’s resources and take the valuable processing elsewhere. Brazil wants the refining, technology, and industrial development to remain inside the country. That is precisely what China did successfully. China did not become powerful simply because it possessed minerals. It built the processing capacity and then moved up the industrial chain until everyone else became dependent upon it.

This is where Brazil has an opportunity that commodity-producing nations have repeatedly squandered. Digging something out of the ground and exporting it creates revenue, but processing it and converting it into finished products creates industry. The British Empire understood that distinction. So did the United States during its rise as an industrial power. The countries that merely supplied raw materials remained dependent upon those that controlled manufacturing and finance.

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US Meddling In Brazilian Elections, Preparing For Possible Military Intervention

The United States is interfering in the Brazilian presidential elections, pressuring the Brazilian electorate into voting for right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of disgraced former president, Jair Bolsonaro. If that does not work and President Lula da Silva secures a fourth term in office, the groundwork is already being laid for a potential military intervention. From sanctions and economic warfare, to coaching influencers and journalists on how best to attack the left-wing government, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to overthrow Lula.

Meanwhile, the State Department’s recent decision to designate Brazilian gangs as “foreign terrorist organizations” just as it did with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, signals a willingness to intervene militarily.

Brazil is Trump’s next target, and builds upon recent U.S. and Israeli interference in May’s Colombian elections, where pro-Trump candidate Abelardo de la Espriella won a razor-thin victory.

MintPress examines the Trump administration’s attempts to undermine Brazilian democracy and install another Bolsonaro back into power.

A Thumb on The Scale

Brazil’s October elections are rapidly approaching, and while thirteen people are standing for president, two principal candidates have already emerged: current left-of-center president Lula da Silva, and far-right challenger, Flavio Bolsonaro. Flavio is the son of disgraced former president, Jair (sentenced to 27 years in prison for leading a January 6th-inspired coup attempt), and the brother of Eduardo (convicted in absentia for lobbying the United States to intervene in his father’s trial).

It is obvious which candidate Washington prefers. The Bolsonaro’s are politically, ideologically, and personally very close to the MAGA movement, and Flavio has already promised that, if elected, his country will become one of the U.S.’ closest allies.

Lula currently holds a double-digit lead on Bolsonaro (40% to 28%, with no other candidate holding more than 10% of the public’s voting intentions). But Brazilian politics can change very quickly; in 2018, Lula held a 20-point lead over Jair Bolsonaro when the Brazilian Supreme Court blocked him from running. He was imprisoned on bogus charges in a case orchestrated by the U.S. government, leaving the path clear for Bolsonaro’s victory.

Lula has sounded the alarm that Brazilian democracy is once again under threat from Washington. “As far as I’m concerned, [Trump] can continue liking Bolsonaro, the father, the son, the grandson… There is no problem with that. It’s his problem. There’s no accounting for taste,” he said. “Now, don’t meddle in the Brazilian elections, because the Brazilian elections are a Brazilian problem, just as American elections are their business, not mine,” he added: “All I want is the same respect for Brazil that I have for the United States. That’s it.”

Washington, however, has other ideas. On May 26, Flavio Bolsonaro traveled to Washington to meet with Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to sell them on the concept of military intervention in Brazil. Two days later, the U.S. State Department designated two Brazilian gangs, Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital, as “Specially Designated Global Terrorists” and “Foreign Terrorist Organizations, a decision that Brian Mier, an American journalist who moved to Brazil in 1991 and is now Brazil correspondent for TeleSur English, described as “a preemptive move to possibly invade if Lula wins reelection.”

In 2025, the State Department did the same with Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. Just months later, the U.S. carried out an operation to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro, decapitating the Venezuelan government.

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Brazil’s Dictator-Judge Orders Raid on Jair Bolsonaro’s House, Finds Nothing

Officials from Brazil’s Federal Police (PF) searched the residence of conservative former President Jair Bolsonaro for weapons and ammunition on Wednesday — and found nothing.

The search was carried out on the order of Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who demanded a wide search of all firearms registered under Jair Bolsonaro’s name this week even though all of the firearms have been accounted for by Bolsonaro’s legal team.

De Moraes reportedly justified the search on the grounds that there was an alleged “discrepancy” between the number of firearms registered under Bolsonaro’s name and the number relinquished by the former president during the legal proceedings against him. The STF justice is widely known for being at the forefront of a persecution campaign against Bolsonaro and for executing a litany of judicial actions against the conservative former president and his family,

Bolsonaro is presently serving a 27-year prison sentence for “crimes against democracy” under a strict house arrest at his home in Brasília. The former president, who suffers from multiple health conditions, was granted temporary humanitarian house arrest provisions this year after a severe case of bacterial pneumonia sent him to an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Despite the justice’s assertions, Brazilian lawyer João Henrique Nascimento de Freitas, who is part of Bolsonaro’s legal team, announced on social media that no firearms were found by the police during the search at the residence.

“I have just left President Jair Bolsonaro’s residence after accompanying yet another Federal Police search-and-seizure operation ordered by Justice Alexandre de Moraes,” the Portuguese-language message read. “The warrant sought weapons, ammunition, accessories, and registration documents. The defense had already previously disclosed the whereabouts of all the weapons.

“Result: nothing was found. It is regrettable that a former President of the Republic is still subjected to this type of action,” he concluded.

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Tearful Psychic Predicts ‘UFO Mothership’ Will Abduct Hundreds During Scotland-Brazil World Cup Game

There are always some wild predictions when it comes to the World Cup, but this one is literally out of this world.

A Brazilian psychic called Vo Bahiana, whose real name is Elisângela de Souza, shared a video with her 23 million followers earlier this month, in which she issued a prophetic warning for those planning to attend the Brazil vs. Scotland match at 6 P.M EST on June 24.

What does she warn of?

Bahiana claims that, in a dream, she foresaw a massive spacecraft carrying more than 100 alien beings, and that this invading force would descend onto the pitch in Miami. But that’s not all, she goes on to claim that over 700 people, including players and match officials, could be abducted.

“I have to tell you that I dreamed again about aliens invading the soccer field in Miami. And I clearly saw the players being carried off by the first ship that arrived,” Bahiana claimed.

“I was inside that ship. When the ship rose, the mothership arrived, a much larger ship, and took in thousands of people from the soccer field. I saw so much screaming, so much crying, so many tears, suffering.”

She added, “I am very terrified because it is the second time I am dreaming about this. They are saying that on the 24th, something very bad is about to happen at this game, at this soccer field in Miami.”

If it turns out the aliens have indeed chosen the Brazil-Scotland matchup for their invasion, they clearly haven’t done their homework. The Scots have engaged in a pattern of heavy drinking since arriving in America, draining Boston’s bars dry. Meanwhile, an alarmingly high percentage of Brazilians maintain martial arts proficiency.

So, good luck with that, E.T.

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‘Grotesque abuse’: Judge orders homeschooling parents to JAIL for failing to teach daughters government ‘gender’ lessons

In a stunning illustration of what happens when politically correct and biased judges, driven by leftist social agendas, are put behind the bench, one jurist has ordered two homeschooling parents to jail for 50 days for failing to teach their daughters the judge’s version of “gender” education.

The parents now have convictions for “intellectual neglect,” issued by the unidentified Brazilian judge, according to a report from ADF International.

The legal team reported the judge issued his wild opinion that was opposite of even recommendations from prosecutors, who listened to witnesses and results of the social and academic development of the girls, both accomplished pianists who speak multiple languages, and then said the parents should be acquitted.

The judge was accepting no evidence, however, and said the parents were “using their daughters as pawns in an ideological struggle, subjecting them to a form of unregulated education, the effectiveness and quality of which lack adequate metrics within the Brazilian legal system, while completely excluding the State’s involvement.”

The report identified the parents as Audato and Ieda Denardi, and their sentences are suspended while they appeal to a higher court.

The judge also ranted against the parents because he thought the girls, ages 11 and 15, didn’t like Brazilian folk music, leading him to assume that they weren’t educated properly in “diversity.”

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Brazil Quietly Shifts Away from the Dollar to Gold

The Banco Central do Brasil has raised gold’s share of reserves from 3.55% to 7.19% in just one year, effectively doubling its exposure and making gold the second-largest reserve asset after the US dollar, while total reserves stand at approximately $358.23 billion and the dollar’s share has declined to about 72%, marking a record low. This is not a marginal adjustment or routine diversification, it is a structural repositioning that reflects a growing unease with sovereign debt markets.

When a central bank reduces dollar exposure while increasing gold holdings, it is not acting randomly but responding to a shift in confidence, and this aligns directly with the broader trend we are witnessing globally as central banks collectively purchased roughly 863 tonnes of gold in 2025 and are expected to remain strong buyers into 2026. The driving forces behind this are not inflation in the traditional sense, but geopolitical fragmentation, the weaponization of reserves, and the realization that sovereign debt levels are no longer sustainable without continued central bank intervention.

Brazil’s move mirrors what we have been warning about for years, which is that capital flows, not trade balances, dictate the strength of currencies, and once confidence begins to erode in government debt, that capital begins to migrate into assets that are not someone else’s liability. Gold fulfills that role because it cannot be printed, defaulted on, or frozen by a foreign government, and this becomes critical in a world where sanctions and financial restrictions are increasingly used as political tools.

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USA Rare Earth to Acquire Brazil’s Serra Verde in $2.8 Billion Deal

USA Rare Earth said on April 20 that it has agreed to acquire Brazil-based Serra Verde Group in a deal valued at approximately $2.8 billion, a significant move to expand production of rare-earth elements outside Asia.

The company said it will purchase 100 percent of Serra Verde through a combination of $300 million in cash and 126.849 million shares of newly issued stock.

Based on USA Rare Earth’s closing share price of $19.95 on April 17, the transaction implies an equity value of about $2.8 billion for Serra Verde.

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.

Barbara Humpton, CEO of USA Rare Earth, which is based in Stillwater, Oklahoma, described the acquisition as a step toward a global rare earth platform.

She said that Serra Verde’s Pela Ema mine is “a one-of-a-kind asset and the only producer outside Asia capable of supplying all four magnetic rare earths at scale.”

Humpton also pointed to Serra Verde’s existing agreements, noting that its importance is underscored by a 15-year offtake agreement backed by U.S. government-linked financing and private capital, covering all of its Phase 1 production of key materials such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium.

Rare earths are minerals critical for modern technologies, including electric vehicles, wind turbines, semiconductors, and defense systems. In particular, so-called heavy rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium are essential for producing high-performance magnets used in advanced equipment.

Currently, much of the world’s supply and processing capacity is in China, according to the International Energy Agency.

“Rare earths represent a strategic nexus where national and energy security, and technological supremacy, converge,” Serra Verde CEO Thras Moraitis said in the April 20 statement. “The Western rare earth sector stands at a critical inflection point, as governments and strategic industries urgently seek reliable sources of critical rare earths—particularly scarce heavy rare earths.”

By combining Serra Verde’s mining operations with USA Rare Earth’s processing and magnet-making capabilities, Humpton said, the company aims to create “a fully integrated platform” to support global supply security.

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