Timeline Brazil
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Koreisha: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~sergiok/brnews.html#history
Biblioteca Nacional (in Portuguese): http://www.bn.br/
Brazil is slightly smaller than the continental United
States. It is
Latin America's largest country and the world's fifth-largest. It
covers more than 40% of South America, bordering every country on the
continent except Chile and Ecuador. Capital is Brasilia, and it has 26
states. Brazil is about 75% Roman Catholic.
(AP, 9/30/06)
Brazil has 27 states which
include a Federal District
(Brasilia); Acre
(Rio Branco); Alagoas (Maceio); Amapa (Macapa); Amazonas (Manaus);
Bahia (Salvador); Ceara (Fortaleza); Espiritu Santo (Vitoria); Goias
(Goiania); Maranhao (Sao Luis); Mato Grosso (Cuaiba); Mato Grosso do
Sul (Campo Grande); Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte); Para (Belem);
Paraiba (Joao Pessoa); Parana (Curitiba); Pernambuco (Recife); Piaui
(Teresina); Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro); Rio Grande do Norte
(Natal); Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre); Rondonia (Porto Velho);
Roraima (Boa Vista); Santa Catarina (Florianopolis); Sao Paulo (Sao
Paulo); Sergipe (Aracaju); Tocatins (Palmas).
206 indigenous societies, 330,00 Indians,
inhabited
Brazil. This included the Waiapi in the northeast; the Guaran-Kaiowa;
Araras;
Kaiapo (Kaapor); Korubo; Paracana; Potiguara, Tembe; Timbira; Xukuru.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.D1)(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B5)(SFC, 7/6/98,
p.A10)(WSJ,
8/20/99, p.A1)
110Mil BC In 2002 a pterosaur fossil
from this time was discovered in Brazil that indicated it skimmed over
water for food and had a huge bony crest on its head.
(SFC, 7/19/02, p.A5)
90Mil BC The Baurusuchus salgadoensis lived in an
area of southeastern Brazil known as the Bauru Basin, some 700
kilometers (450 miles) west of modern-day Rio de Janeiro. The
fossilized skeletons appear to be closely related to another ancient
crocodile species, the Pabwehshi pakistanesis discovered in Pakistan.
(AP, 6/9/05)
80Mil BC A land-bound reptile, described as a
possible link between prehistoric and modern-day crocodiles, roamed
arid and hot terrain that became Brazilian countryside about this time.
A fossil of Montealtosuchus arrudacamposi was found in 2004 and
displayed in 2008.
(AP, 1/31/08)
48000 BC Charcoal from camp fires in the Pedra Faruda
site of Piaui state were carbon dated in 1987 to about this time.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.A18)
13000 BC Human teeth and skull fragments from the
Pedra Faruda site of Piaui state were carbon dated to about this time.
Niede Guidon began excavations at the site in 1970.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, p.A18)
9500 BC A female skull, aged 20-25, from this about
this time was found near Belo Horizonte in c1995 and named Luzia. It
was found to have characteristics similar to people from the South
Pacific.
(SFC, 5/23/98, p.A13)
1000BC-1000AD A civilization in Amazonia, called
Patiti or Enin by archeologists, dug channels for an elaborate crop
irrigation system.
(SFEC, 12/6/98, p.T12)
1250-1400 In the Upper Xingu region of Brazil's Mato
Grosso state thousands of people occupied 19 settlements in 2 clusters
over this period according to archeological findings in 2003.
(Econ, 9/20/03, p.76)
1492 Research in 2003
indicated that the Kuikuro people in the Amazon basin had a "complex
and sophisticated" civilization with a population of many thousands
prior to this time.
(AP, 9/19/03)
1500 Jan 26, Spanish explorer
Vicente Yanez Pinzon reached the northeastern coast of Brazil during a
voyage under his command. Pinzon had commanded the Nina during
Christopher Columbus's first expedition to the New World.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1500 Mar 9, Pedro Cabral
(~1460-1520), Portuguese navigator, departed to India. He left Lisbon
with 13 ships headed for India and was blown off course.
(WUD, 1994 p.206)(SFC, 4/20/00,
p.A14)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/03128a.htm)
1500 Apr 22, Pedro Alvares Cabral
(c1460-c1526), Portuguese explorer, discovered Brazil and claimed it
for Portugal. He anchored for 10 days in a bay he called "Porto Seguro"
and continued on to India. [see Apr 23]
(WUD,1994, p.206)(AHD, p.185)(TL-MB, 1988, p.8)(HN,
4/22/98)(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A14)
1500 Apr 23, Pedro Cabal landed at
Terra da Vera Cruz and claimed Brazil for Portugal. The native
population was later estimated to have been from 1 to 11 million
people. [see Apr 22]
(AP, 4/23/98)(SFC, 7/6/98,
p.A10)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/03128a.htm)
1500 Capt. Vicente Yanez Pinzon,
master of the Nina in 1492, is credited with the discovery of Brazil.
He took an opossum back to Europe. It was the 1st marsupial Europeans
saw.
(SFC, 7/1/00, p.B5)
1500-1800 "Chapters of Brazil Colonial History" by
Joao Capistrano de Abreu (1853-1927) covered this period. It was first
published in 1907. The Oxford Library of Latin America published a new
edition in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1502 Jan 1, Portuguese navigator
Pedro Cabral and Amerigo Vespucci sailed the into the harbor of Rio de
Janeiro. Portuguese explorers sailed into Guanabra Bay and mistook it
for the mouth of a river which they named Rio de Janeiro.
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.129)(MC, 1/1/02)
1502 Portuguese traders took
peanuts from Brazil and Peru to Africa.
(SFEC, 1/10/99, Z1 p.8)
1540 Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish
conquistador, was appointed governor of the province of Rio de la
Plata. His advocacy of Indian rights caused him to be arrested and
banished to a Spanish outpost in North Africa.
(ON, 10/03, p.5)
1541 When Pizarro's half-brother
prepared to explore the lands east of Quito, Francisco de Orellana led
an advance expedition and wound up exploring the Amazon basin,
following the current to emerge at the mouth of the river in August
1542. From there, he returned to Spain (by way of Trinidad), full of
tales of riches and strange tribes led by women like the Amazons of
Greek mythology. Orellana died in a return expedition to the Amazon
River four years later.
(HNQ, 2/11/01)
1541 Cabeza de Vaca, a Spanish
conquistador, became the 1st European to see the Iguacu Falls. He named
the falls Saltos de Santa Maria but the Tupi-Guarani name persisted.
(SFEC, 10/8/00, p.17)
1542 Aug 24, In South America,
Gonzalo Pizarro returned to the mouth of the Amazon River after having
sailed the length of the great river as far as the Andes Mountains.
(HN, 8/24/98)
1543 Sugar cane was introduced to
Brazil about this time. Fermented sugar cane later became the base for
cachaca, a light rum that is the national spirit. Cachaca is used to
prepare the national drink, the caipirinha.
(Hem, 4/96, p.10)
1547 Hans Staden of Germany was
shipwrecked on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. He was later rescued and
in 1557 published an illustrated account of his adventures.
(Arch, 5/05, p.30)
1549 Sao Salvador, later Bahia in
Brazil, was founded by Thome de Souza, Portugal’s first governor of
Brazil. Portuguese conquerors founded Salvador.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.17)(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T8)
1550 African slaves were shipped
to Brazil to work sugar plantations.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R25)
1554 Sao Paulo was founded by the
Jesuits.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.3)
1556 Jun 16, Pedro Fernandes
Sardinha, The 1st bishop of Bahia, was shipwrecked between the
rivers São Francisco and Cururipu and murdered by the Indians.
The Caytes of the Brazilian coast ate the crews of every wrecked
Portuguese ship they found. They ate the first Bishop of Bahia, two
Canons, the Procurator of the Royal Portuguese Treasury, 2 pregnant
women and several children.
(WSJ,
7/8/96,p.A9)(www.newadvent.org/cathen/13466a.htm)
1560 The first blacks set foot in
Brazil.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A8)
1565 Mar 1, Spanish occupier
Estacio de Sá founded Rio de Janeiro. He destroyed the existing
French colony.
(TL-MB, 1988, p.21)(SC, 3/1/02)
1567 Jun 20, Jews were expelled
from Brazil by order of regent Don Henrique.
(MC, 6/20/02)
1570 The Convento de Penha was
built on a 164-meter cliff overlooking Vitoria in the state of Espiritu
Santo, Brazil.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.13)
1600-1700 Brazil’s Ouro Preto which means Black Gold
in Portuguese, was founded in the 17th century after huge gold deposits
were discovered under its steep hills.
(AP, 4/19/03)
1624 The Dutch conquered Salvador.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T8)
1627 Mar 3, Piet Heyn conquered 22
ships in Bay of Salvador, Brazil.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1636 Nov 17, Henrique Dias,
Brazilian general, won a decisive battle against the Dutch in Brazil.
(HN, 11/17/98)
1638 Jan 5, Petition in Recife,
Brazil, led to the closing of its two synagogues.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1641 Cristoval de Acuna, a Jesuit
missionary, first wrote about the Amazon River to the king of Spain.
(SFC, 12/16/00, p.A22)
1645 Apr 7, Michael Cardozo became
the 1st Jewish lawyer in Brazil.
(MC, 4/7/02)
1654 Apr 26, Jews were expelled
from Brazil.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1661 Aug 6, Holland sold Brazil to
Portugal for 8 million guilders.
(MC, 8/6/02)
1695 Nov 20, Zumbi dos Palmares,
Brazilian leader of a hundred-year-old rebel slave group, was killed in
an ambush. He was later honored by a National Day of Black
Consciousness.
(HN, 11/20/98)(SFC, 8/16/01, p.A8)
1696 In the late 1600s the Xukuru
Indians fought the Portuguese to a stand off in what was later referred
to as the "War of the Barbarians."
(WSJ, 8/20/99, p.A1)(http://tinyurl.com/bhqlp)
1711 Sep 22, French troops
occupied Rio de Janeiro.
(MC, 9/22/01)
1723 Sao Francisco church in
Salvador was completed with its walls lined with gold.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T8)
1727 Brazil planted its first
coffee.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1728 The first diamonds found in
Brazil reached Lisbon, Portugal. [see 1730]
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.13)
1730 Diamonds were discovered in
Brazil, which became the leading supplier until the 1866 discovery in
South Africa. [see 1728]
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
1746 Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier,
Tiradentes, Brazil’s Martyr of Independence, was born.
(www.v-brazil.com/culture/historic-characters/tiradentes.html)
1756 Feb 7, In Brazil the Indian
Chief Sepe Tiaraju was killed at the hands of Portuguese and Spanish
soldiers.
(AP, 2/7/06)
1763 The capital of Brazil was
changed from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro.
(USAT, OW, 4/22/96, p.3)(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T8)
1789 May 10, Joaquim Jose da Silva
Xavier, Tiradentes, rebel for Independence, was arrested. He was
betrayed by Joaquim Silverio dos Reis, a participant of the movement,
in exchange of waiving of his due taxes; Silverio’s name is carved in
Brazilian History as The Betrayer.
(SFC, 2/26/99,
p.E2)(www.v-brazil.com/culture/historic-characters/tiradentes.html)
1789 In Brazil poet and dentist
Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier helped launch the first Brazilian
rebellion against the country's Portuguese rulers.
(AP, 4/19/03)
1792 Apr 21, Jose da Silva Xavier,
Tiradentes, considered by many to be Brazil's George Washington, was
drawn and quartered by the Portuguese. He was hung in Rio de Janeiro.
His body was broken apieces. With his blood, a document was written
declaring his memory infamous. His head was exposed in Vila Rica.
Pieces of his body were exposed in the cities between Vila Rica and
Rio, in an attempt to scare the people who had listened to the
independence ideas of Tiradentes.
(AP,
4/19/03)(www.v-brazil.com/culture/historic-characters/tiradentes.html)
1796-1799 Baroque sculptor Aleijadinho (Antonio
Francisco Lisboa), completed his greatest work: the sculptures of
Congonhas do Campo, 66 wooden images that include the 12 prophets.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.10)
1808 Napoleon chased Portugal’s
royal family to Brazil.
(Econ, 4/14/07, SR p.5)
1808-1821 Rio de Janeiro was made the capital of the
Portuguese empire.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.3)
1817 The multi-volume "Flora
Brasiliensis" was commissioned by Maximilian I of Austria. The
definitive volume on Brazilian botany was completed in 1906.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)
1819 Johann Baptist von Spix
discovered the Spix macaw of Brazil (Cyanopsitta spixii). The last wild
Spix macaw disappeared in 2000.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A15,18)(SFC, 12/27/00, p.C2)
1821 Anita Ribeiro (d.1849), later
wife of Italian revolutionary Garibaldi, was born in Laguna Brazil.
(ON, 10/06, p.5)
1822 Sep 7, Brazil declared its
independence from Portugal.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Brazil)(AP,
9/7/97)
1822-1831 Pedro I ruled Brazil.
(EWH, 4th ed., p.854)
1822-1889 The period of the Brazilian monarchy.
(Hem, 8/96, p.68)
1823 Homosexual acts were
decriminalized.
(SFC, 1/11/99, p.A10)
1825 Mar 25, The first Brazilian
Constitution was promulgated by Peter I and solemnly sworn in the
Cathedral of the Empire.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Brazil)
1826 Dom Pedro IV, emperor of
Brazil, attained the Portuguese throne.
(SSFC, 1/28/01, p.T1)
1828 May 18, The Battle of Las
Piedras, ended the conflict between Uruguay and Brazil.
(HN, 5/18/98)
1830-1897 Antonio Vicente Mendes Maciel, aka Antonio
Conselheiro, was born in Quixeramobim, Ceara. He founded the settlement
of Canudos in Bahia that was destroyed by government forces.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1831 Apr 7, Pedro I of Brazil
abdicated in favor of his 5-year-old son, Pedro de Alcantara, Pedro II.
(EWH, 4th ed., p.855)
1832 Apr 4, Charles Darwin aboard
HMS Beagle reached Rio de Janeiro.
(MC, 4/4/02)
1832 Apr 8, Charles Darwin began a
trip through Rio de Janeiro.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1839 Italian revolutionary
Garibaldi arrived in Brazil to aid the rebels.
(ON, 10/06, p.5)
1839-1908 Joaquin Maria Machado de Assis, mulatto
writer. His novels included "The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas,"
(1880) and "Dom Casmurro," (1899). The works were republished in 1998
by the Oxford Library of Latin America.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1853-1927 Joao Capistrano de Abreu, historian. He
later wrote "Chapters of Brazil Colonial History, 1500-1800," first
published in 1907. The Oxford Library of Latin America published a new
edition in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1864 Oct 7, The USS Wachusett
captured the CSS Florida in a naval engagement fought at the neutral
harbor of Bahia, Brazil. Many of the Confederate crew were ashore at
the time.
(AH, 10/04, p.15)
1865 After the American Civil War
some southerners moved to Brazil where slavery was still permitted.
(NH, 7/96, p.74,75)
1865-1870 South America’s War of the Triple Alliance
saw Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay aligned against Paraguay. The Triple
Alliance believed Paraguay was undermining the region’s political
stability. The war ended in crushing defeat of Paraguay.
(HNQ, 6/22/99)
1866 Mar 1, Paraguayan canoes sank
2 Brazilian ironclads on Rio Parana.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1866 Henry Wickham (1846-1928)
ventured from Britain to South America hoping to shoot exotic birds and
ship home feathers for lady’s hats. This venture failed as the birds
exploded from the rifle shots. He returned to the Amazon region and in
1876 gathered seeds of the Hevea brasiliensis tree, which produced
latex. Less than 4% of some 70,000 seeds germinated, but this was
enough to ship seedlings to Ceylon, India, Malaya and Singapore and
begin a global rubber plantation boom.
(WSJ, 2/27/08, p.D10)
1871 Mar 5, In Brazil Maria do
Carmo Jeronimo was born as a slave in the town of Carmo de Minas in
Minas Gerais state under the rule of Emperor Pedro II. Jeronimo died in
2000, but the lack of a birth certificate prevented her being
recognized as the world’s oldest woman.
(SFC, 6/16/00, p.A34)
1873 Alberto Santos-Dumont
(d.1932), aviation pioneer, was born.
(SSFC, 6/28/03, p.M1)
1873 Britain sent an agent, Henry
Wickham, to Brazil to get rubber seeds. The Seedlings were cultivated
in Kew Gardens and transplanted to Malaysia.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)
1876 Jun 25, Alexander Graham Bell
demonstrated his telephone at the Centennial Exposition in
Philadelphia. Brazil's Emperor Dom Pedro was among the witnesses.
(SFC, 2/3/97, p.D1)(ON, 1/03, p.5)
1880 Joaquin Maria Machado de
Assis (1839-1908), mulatto writer, wrote "The Posthumous Memoirs
of Bras Cubas." The Oxford Library of Latin America published a new
edition in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1883 Sep 21, The 1st direct
US-Brazil telegraph connection was made.
(MC, 9/21/01)
1885 May 18, Eurico Gaspar Dutra,
President of Brazil (1945-50), was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1887 Mar 5, Heitor Villa-Lobos,
composer, was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
(HN, 3/5/01)(MC, 3/5/02)
1888 May 13, Slavery was abolished
in Brazil. Some 4 million slaves had been imported, the most of any
nation in the western hemisphere.
(WSJ, 8/6/96, p.A1)(SS, Internet, 5/13/97)(HN,
5/13/98)
1889 Nov 15, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, Emperor Dom Pedro II was overthrown and military officers
established a republic.
(AP, 11/15/97)(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)
1889 Joaquin Maria Machado de
Assis (1839-1908), mulatto writer wrote " Dom Casmurro." The Oxford
Library of Latin America published a new edition in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1889-1937 Prof. John Wirth (d.2002) of Stanford
covered this period of Brazil in his book "Minas Gerais in the
Brazilian Federation."
(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A29)
1890 Feb 20, Giovanni Rossi left
Italy with a group of anarchists, from Genoa, headed
to Palmeiras, Paranà, in Brazil, where they established the
anarchist "Cecilia Colony". Its population, primarily male, had about
300 members. This experiment in anarchist communism and free love
lasted for about five years, running up against not only material
problems, but especially emotional and sexual difficulties. The colony
dissolved in 1894, but Rossi remained in Brazil, in Taquary, then Rio
dos Cedros, as director of an agricultural research station. He
published the book “Le Paranà au 20° siècle.”
(http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/RossiGiovanni.htm)
1891 Nov 23, Deodoroda Fonseca,
the 1st president of Brazil, was ousted by a navy revolt.
(AP, 11/23/02)
1893 Sep 6, Floriano Vieira
Peixoto, acting president of Brazil, faced a rebellion by officers of
his navy led by Admiral Custodio Jose de Mello.
(ON, 12/06, p.11)
1893 Oct, Floriano Vieira Peixoto,
acting president of Brazil, contacted his ambassador in Washington with
instructions to buy a fleet of warships for a new navy. Dr. Salvador de
Mendonca soon authorized Charles R. Flint, an American businessman, to
purchase ships and weapons for Brazil. Over the next 21 days Flint
spent $1.5 million acquiring ships and guns including the new Zalinski
dynamite gun.
(ON, 12/06, p.11)
1893 Antonio Vicente Mendes
Maciel, aka Antonio Conselheiro, founded the settlement of Canudos in
the "certao" region of Bahia, Brazil. He was a charismatic religious
leader and established an independent community of some 25,000. the
movement favored the deposed monarchy and was crushed by government
troops.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)(Econ, 1/10/04, p.74)
1894 Jan, US Rear Admiral Andrew
Benham led a fleet of US Navy ships into the harbor of Rio de Janeiro
escorting American merchants ships. The outgunned Brazilian rebel fleet
made no serious challenge.
(ON, 12/06, p.12)
1894 Feb 13, In Brazil peace talks
between Pres. Peixoto and navy rebels broke down completely when
Admiral Saldanha da Gama led a landing party that stormed a republican
fort at Nictheroy on the Guanabara Bay opposite from Rio de Janeiro.
The rebels were driven back.
(ON, 12/06, p.12)
1894 Mar 13, The Dynamite Squadron
of ships, purchased and outfitted in the US, steamed into the harbor of
Rio de Janeiro. Rebel sailors immediately surrendered in exchange for
safe passage to Argentina aboard Portuguese warships. The rebellion
ended a weeks later when the rebel flagship, Aquidbada, was captured
off Desterro by the American crew of the Nictheroy, the former Morgan
steamship El Cid.
(ON, 12/06, p.12)
1895 Feb 28, Guiomar Novaes,
pianist (Brazilian Order of Merit), was born in Brazil.
(MC, 2/28/02)
1896 Dec 31, The Teatro Amazonas
opened in Manaus. The theater was built by the rubber barons over 15
years with everything imported from Europe.
(SFEC, 7/16/00, p.T12)
c1896 Police were sent to Canudos,
Brazil, but were repelled by the settlement in what came to be call the
First Military Expedition to Canudos. The government feared a threat to
the national order and sent the Second Military Expedition of 550
soldiers, who were also repelled by the settlement. In the Third
Military Expedition 1,500 troops under Colonel Antonio Moreira Cesar,
aka The Ground Trembler" and "The Beheader," were defeated at Canudos
and the colonel was killed.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1897 Sep, Antonio Conselheiro, the
founding leader of Canudos, died of dysentery.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1897 Oct 5, In Brazil after 3
failed military campaigns Pres. Prudente de Morais sent 8,000 soldiers
with Krupp cannons, dynamite and machine guns in the Fourth Military
Expedition to overcome the settlement of Canudos led by Antonio
Conselheiro. After a 4-month battle government forces defeated the
settlement. In 1902 Euclides da Cunha wrote "Os Sertoes," (The Arid
Region), translated into English as "Rebellion in the Backlands."
In 1981 Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru wrote a fictional account of the
event in the epic work: "The War of the End of the World."
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1897 Belo Horizonte was founded in
the state of Minas Gerais as the first modern planned city of Brazil.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.9)
1900-1973 Maria Martins, Brazilian sculptor. She was
portrayed in a 1934 painting by Marcel Duchamp "Given: 1. The
Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas."
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.D1)
1902 Oct 31, Carlos Drummond de
Andrade, Brazilian poet, journalist and short story writer, was born.
(HN, 10/31/00)
1902 Euclides da Cunha wrote "Os
Sertoes," (The Arid Region), translated into English as "Rebellion in
the Backlands," on the 1893-1897 events at Canudos led by Antonio
Conselheiro.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1907 "Chapters of Brazil Colonial
History, 1500-1800" by Joao Capistrano de Abreu (1853-1927) was first
published. The Oxford Library of Latin America published a new edition
in 1998.
(WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)
1908 Jun, Japanese immigration to
Brazil began when 781 Japanese arrived on the ship Kasato Maru. Nearly
800 Japanese set sail on the "Kasato Maru" ship from Kobe in search of
better living conditions and arrived at Santos Port only to find a
grueling life working on farmland.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A8)(AFP, 4/24/08)
1908-1998 Silvio Caldas, one of the country’s
best-loved singers, sang in a deep, husky voice. He recorded over 500
records and his favorite was "Chao de Estrelas" by Orestes Barbosa.
(SFC, 2/5/98, p.A21)
1909 Carlos Chagas (1879-1934), a
Brazilian doctor, described how a fatal infection, that became known as
Chagas disease, was transmitted as a single cell parasite carried by
insects that typically bite their sleeping victims on the face. In 1921
Chagas won the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Chagas)(Econ,
4/11/09, p.36)
1910 In Brazil a 100-kg aquamarine
stone was found whose value in 1996 would exceed US$25 million.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.13)
1912 Algot Lange, the son of an
opera singer, authored “In the Amazon Jungle.” In 1910 he had gone on
an adventure in the upper Amazon between Brazil and Peru and only
survived with the aid of Mangeroma cannibals.
(WSJ, 4/28/07, p.P8)
1914 Feb, In Brazil a 22-man
party, that included former Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, started down the
Rio da Duvida (River of Doubt) in the Amazon Basin for a 2-month
adventure. In 2005 Candice Millard authored “The River of Doubt”
Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey.”
(SSFC, 10/23/05, p.M3)
1915 By this year Malay
plantations produced 107,860 tons of rubber compared with 37,200 tons
in Brazil.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)
1916 A Brazilian civil statute
formally enshrined the hierarchical and patriarchal view of family and
sexual relations.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A10)
1917 In Brazil Ernesto de Santos
Donga wrote the song "Pela telefone." It was considered to be the first
recorded samba.
(Wired, 2/98, p.128)
1918 Sep 25, Brazil declared war
on Austria.
(HN, 9/25/98)
1919 May 29, A solar eclipse
occurred that was photographed by two British expeditions, one in
Africa and the other in Sobral, Brazil. Arthur Eddington, British
astronomer, confirmed Einstein’s prediction of the deflection of light
from Principe, a Portuguese island off the Atlantic coast of Africa. In
1980 Harry Colling and Trevor Pinch published "The Golem," an account
of the expedition. The play “Rose Tattoo” by Tennessee (Thomas Lanier)
Williams was originally titled “The Eclipse of May 29, 1919.”
(SFC, 10/12/96,
p.E3)(www.bun.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~suchii/Edd.on1919.html)
1919 General Electric Corp.
entered the emerging market of Brazil.
(Econ, 11/14/09, SR p.9)
1921 Carlos Chagas (1879-1934), a
Brazilian doctor, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his 1909
discovery of how a single cell parasite carried by insects transmitted
a disease (Chagas disease) to sleeping victims.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Chagas)(Econ,
4/11/09, p.36)
1925 Mr. Roberto Marinho
(1904-2003) inherited the Rio newspaper O Globo 23 days after it was
founded by his father who suddenly died. He learned the business as a
reporter and editor and took over as editor in chief in 1931. The
operation later expanded to dominate the television market.
(WSJ, 12/4/95, p.A-9)(WSJ, 9/29/99, p.A1)(SFC,
8/9/03, p.A14)
1925 Percy Harrison Fawcett,
former British cricketer and soldier, vanished along with his son Jack
in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil. In 2009 David Grann authored “The
Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon.”
(WSJ, 2/27/09,
p.W6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_City_of_Z)
1926 Jun 12, Brazil quit the
League of Nations in protest over plans to admit Germany.
(HN, 6/12/98)
1927 Henry Ford obtained a
Connecticut-sized land in the Brazilian jungle and began creating his
Fordlandia factory town for the creation of a rubber plantation and
processing facility to supply his factories with tires and gaskets. A
strike in 1930 wrecked Fordlandia. It was rebuilt and struggled on for
a decade until succumbing to leaf blight and insects. In 2009 Greg
Grandin authored “Fordlandia: The rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s
Forgotten Jungle city.”
(SSFC, 7/5/09, p.F7)
1928 Carlos Moreira de Castro
(Carlos Cachaca, d.1999 at age 97) helped found the Mangueira samba
school.
(SFC, 8/17/99, p.C2)
1930 Nov 3, Getulio Vargas
(1883-1954) seized power in Brazil on the grounds of election fraud. He
soon put a moratorium on pension payments. From 1930-1934, he was
provisional president and dictator. From 1934-1937, he was
congressionally elected president. From 1937-1945, he was dictator with
the backing of the revolutionary coalition. From 1951 to 1954, he was
popularly elected president.
(WSJ, 9/9/99,
p.A1)(http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=428)
1930-1954 Prof. John Wirth (d.2002) of Stanford
covered this period of Brazil in his book "The Politics of Brazilian
Development 1930-1954." It won the Bolton Prize in 1971.
(SSFC, 6/30/02, p.A29)
1931 Jun 18, Fernando Henrique
Cardoso was born. He served 2 terms as president of Brazil (1994-2002)
(WP, 6/29/96, p.A20)
1931 Oct 12, The Rio de Janeiro
98-foot statue of Christ the Redeemer was unveiled atop Corcovado
Mountain as a belated monument to 100 years of independence from
Portugal (1822). It was designed by Brazilian artist Carlos Oswald and
French sculptor Paul Landowski.
(SSFC, 9/30/01, p.T2)(SFC, 10/14/03, p.D7)
1932 Jul 23, Alberto Santos-Dumont
(b.1873), aviation pioneer, hanged himself in Guaraja, Brazil after
hearing a bomber discharge its load on fellow countrymen. In 2003 Paul
Hoffman authored "Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the
Invention of Flight."
(SSFC, 6/28/03, p.M1)
1932 Brazilian women won the right
to vote.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A1)
1933 Oct 10, At Rio de Janeiro,
nations of the Western Hemisphere signed a non-aggression and
conciliation treaty.
(HN, 10/10/98)
1937 Mussolini helped inspire the
Estado Novo of Brazil’s Pres. Getulio Vargas. The system of labor and
industrial syndicates continued to influence labor relations to 2007.
(Econ, 4/14/07, SR p.5)
1938 The Cammargo Correa Group was
begun as a family business. It has since mushroomed into a construction
giant.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.5)
1939 Brazil established a 714-sq.
mile national park at the Iguacu Falls site on the Argentine border.
(SFEM, 10/8/00, p.15)
1940 Oct 23, Pele, legendary
Brazilian soccer player who scored 1,281 goals in 22 years, was born.
(HN, 10/23/98)
1940 Brazil’s penal code included
Clause VIII in Article 107, which said that a sex criminal’s punishment
may be cancelled if the victim subsequently weds.
(WSJ, 7/12/04, p.A1)
1940 The Brazilian Reinsurance
Institute, later called IRB, was founded by Pres. Getulio Vargas. The
self-regulating institution remained a state monopoly into 2006.
(Econ, 1/7/06, p.68)
1941 Jorge Amado (1912-2001),
Brazilian Communist novelist, was exiled to Argentina.
(SFC, 8/9/01, p.D2)
1941 The Brazilian government
founded the steelmaker CSN. It was privatized in the early 1990s.
(Econ, 11/14/09, SR p.10)
1942 Jan, Chile and Argentina were
the only two Latin American countries that did not comply at once with
the Rio de Janeiro Conference recommendation to those countries who had
not already done so to sever diplomatic and commercial relations with
the Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan. Chile eventually broke Axis
relations in January 1943 and Argentina complied in January 1944. The
conference of Western Hemisphere foreign ministers also called for
suppression of pro-Axis activity in the Americas, establishment of an
Inter-American defense board and economic cooperation within the
hemisphere.
(HNQ, 9/24/00)
1942 Feb 23, Stefan Zweig
(b.1881), Austrian Jewish writer (Die Welt von Gestern), committed
suicide with his wife in Brazil. Zweig's nostalgic but rather
impersonal memoirs of the "Golden Age of Security", The World of
Yesterday, was published posthumously in 1943. His last novel (The
Ecstasy of Transformation) was published posthumously in Germany in
1982. In 2008 it was translated into English as “The Post-Office Girl.”
(www.kirjasto.sci.fi/szweig.htm)(WSJ, 6/21/08,
p.W9)(Econ, 5/23/09, p.91)
1942 Aug 22, Brazil declared war
on the Axis powers. She was the only South American country to send
combat troops into Europe.
(HN, 8/22/98)
1942 Jorge Amado (d.2001 at 88)
authored his novel "The Violent Land." It focused on the bloody rivalry
of 2 powerful cocoa farmers in the Brazilian frontier.
(SFC, 8/9/01, p.D2)
1942 Companhia do Vale do Rio
Doce, a state mining concern, was founded. It was pivotal in developing
the Amazon Basin.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)
1946 Apr 22, Dectuplets were born
in Bacacay, Brazil, 8 males and 2 females.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1948 The Safra banking family
arrive in Brazil from Lebanon and proceeded to establish one of the
country's biggest banks.
(SFC, 12/4/99, p.A15)
1949 Hans Stern (1922-2007),
German-born jeweler, opened his first H. Stern boutique in Rio de
Janeiro. By 2007 the firm had some 160 boutiques around the world.
(WSJ, 11/3/07, p.A6)
1950 Jun 24, In Brazil the
Maracana stadium in Rio was officially inaugurated for the opening of
soccer’s World Cup, the first in 12 years due to WW II.
(www.soccerhall.org/history/WorldCup_1950.htm)
1950 Jul 16, Brazil, host for
soccer’s World Cup, lost the final game to Uruguay 2-1.
(Econ, 11/3/07,
p.43)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1950_FIFA_World_Cup)
1950 Darcy Ribeiro, anthropologist
(1923-1997), wrote "Kadiweu Religion and Mythology." He studied the
Kadiweu and Kaapor Indians of Brazil.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A20)
1951 Getulio Vargas, former
autocrat, was elected president of Brazil and ruled to 1954.
(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)(Econ, 4/15/06, p.39)
1951 Darcy Ribeiro, anthropologist
(1923-1997), wrote "Art of the Kadiweu Indians."
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A20)
1952 Brazil’s National Bank for
Economic and Social Development (BNDES) was founded to provide
long-term financing for endeavors that contribute to the country's
development.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BNDES)
1952 Margaret Mee (1909-1988),
botanical artist, left Britain for Brazil and for 3 decades documented
Amazonian rain forest plant life in large watercolors.
(WSJ, 1/26/99, p.A16)(http://tinyurl.com/yafb9m)
1953 Darcy Ribeiro, anthropologist
(1923-1997), founded the Museum of the Indian in Rio de Janeiro.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A20)
1953 Petrobras was founded as
Brazil produced 2,700 barrels of oil per day and consumed 137,000 per
day. In 2006 Brazil became independent from foreign oil.
(AP, 4/22/06)
1953 Volkswagen began
manufacturing cars in Brazil.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.6)
1954 Aug 24, In Brazil Pres.
Getulio Vargas killed himself in the midst of a scandal.
(WSJ, 4/6/06,
p.D8)(http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=428)
1954 Director Sam Fuller trekked
to the rainforest with a 16mm Bolex, 75 boxes of cigars and 2 cases of
vodka hoping to make a film. Producer Darryl Zanuck called it off. The
1995 documentary film "Tigrero" was made by Finnish filmmaker Mika
Kaurismaki. It covered the 1954 trek into the Brazilian rainforest by
Sam Fuller.
(SFC,12/5/97, p.C12)
1955 Pres. Juscelino Kubitschek
took office. He vowed to modernize the country and made economic growth
his main goal.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.Sp.Adv.)
1956 Apr 12, Henrique da
Rocha-Lima (b.1879), Brazilian scientist, died. Working in Germany, he
with Stanislaus von Prowazek (1875-1915) discovered Rickettsia
prowazekii, the pathogen of endemic typhus, which he named after the
German zoologist.
(www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/3185.html)
1956 African honeybees were
imported to Brazil by a scientist who let them escape. By 1990 they had
worked their way north to southern Texas and began to spread across the
southwest.
(WSJ, 8/16/06, p.A12)
1957 Darcy Ribeiro, anthropologist
(1923-1997), wrote "Indigenous Language and Cultures in Brazil."
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A20)
1957 Roberto Marinho, head of
Rio's O Globo newspaper, won his 1st television concession from Pres.
Juscelino Kubitschek.
(SFC, 8/9/03, p.A14)
1958 Jorge Amado (d.2001 at 88),
Brazilian writer, published his novel "Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon."
(SFC, 8/9/01,
p.D2)(www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9182926)
1958 Leonel Brizola (1922-2004)
was elected governor of Rio Grande do Sul, the youngest state governor
(36) in Brazilian history.
(SFC, 6/24/04, p.B6)
1959 Nov 17, Heitor Villa-Lobos
(b.1887), Brazilian composer, pianist and conductor, died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heitor_Villa-Lobos)
1959 The film "Black Orpheus" was
directed by Marcel Camus. It featured the music of Luis Floriano Bonfa
(d.2001 at 78).
(SFC, 1/13/01, p.A24)
1960 Apr 21, Brazil inaugurated
its new capital, Brasilia, transferring the seat of national government
from Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s National Bank for Economic and Social
Development (BNDES), founded in 1952, helped fund its development.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.3)(AP, 4/21/97)(HN,
4/21/98)(Econ, 4/18/09, p.81)
1960-1969 In the 1960s Darcy Ribeiro, anthropologist
(1922-1997), wrote his 6-volume work "Studies of the Anthropology
of Civilization."
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A20)
1960-1969 Carlos Marighella and Carlos Lamarca
founded revolutionary groups in Brazil during the 1960s and financed
their operations by robbing banks and kidnapped foreign ambassadors as
exchange for jailed colleagues.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A17)
1961 Jan, Janio Quadros took the
oath as president of Brazil.
(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)
1961 Aug 25, Brazilian
president Janio Quadros resigned. He was replaced by vice-president
Joao Goulart.
(chblue.com, 8/25/01)(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)
1962 Apr 16, Brazil nationalized
US businesses.
(MC, 4/16/02)
1962 Vinicius de Moraes, inspired
by the stroll of a young woman (18) headed for Copacabana, wrote a poem
that became known as “The Girl of Ipanema.” It was put to music by Jaoa
Gilberto and Stan Getz and sung by Gilberto’s wife, Astrud. The song
won a Grammy for Record of the Year in 1964. The young woman, Heloisa
Eneida Menezes Paes Pinto, never made a dime off the song but opened a
modeling agency and a clothing store near the site.
(SSFC, 9/30/07, p.G3)
1964 Mar 27, In a cable to the US
State Department Lincoln Gordon, US ambassador to Brazil, requested a
naval task force and deliveries of fuel and arms to the coup plotters
"to help avert a major disaster here." US documents declassified in
2004 showed the extent of American willingness to provide aid to
Brazil's generals during a coup that ushered in 21 years of often
bloody military rule.
(AP, 4/3/04)
1964 Mar 31, In Brazil a coup was
put in motion and was over by April 4, when Pres. Goulart fled to exile
in Uruguay. The entire episode was bloodless.
(AP, 4/3/04)
1964 Apr 2, A military coup in
Brazil by Gen. Humberto Castello Branco ousted Pres. Joao Goulart and
altered the traditional power structure. Gen'l. Golbery do Couto e
Silva was a leader in the coup. Business interests led by Jorge Oscar
de Mello Flores (d.2000 at 88) supported the military coup.
(WSJ, 12/4/95, p.A-9)(WSJ, 7/7/99, p.A17)(SFC,
8/3/00, p.D2)(MC, 4/2/02)
1964 Dec 2, Brazil sent Juan Peron
back to Spain, foiling his efforts to return to his native land.
(HN, 12/2/98)
1964 The Brazilian film "Black
God, White Devil" was directed by Glauber Rocha.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.44)
1964-1985 A military dictatorship ruled over Brazil.
As many as 353 people died while under custody. The dead of the leftist
opposition were either "disappeared" or registered as suicides or
fatalities from accidents or shootouts.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A17)
1965 Roberto Marinho broke into
Brazil’s television industry. By 1995 Rede Globo became the world's
fourth largest TV network.
(WSJ, 12/4/95, p.A-9)
1965 Peru cut a trail through the
jungle to Inapari, its border town across from Assis, Brazil.
(Econ, 3/26/05, p.40)
1966 Jan 11, In Brazil 550 died in
landslides in mountains behind Rio de Janeiro after rain.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1966 The Copan building in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, designed Oscar Niemeyer (b.1907), was completed. Begun
in 1953 the massive residential structure shaped like a wave became a
South American landmark.
(AP,
12/12/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Niemeyer)
1967 Fernando Henrique Cardoso
(b.1931) authored “Dependency and Development in Latin America.”
Cardoso later served as president of Brazil.
(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)
1967 Singer-songwriter Caetano
Veloso and Gilberto Gil founded the tropicalista (tropicalismo)
movement. It was a group of singers, artists and radicals that turned
Brazilian culture inside out. They began experimenting with electric
instruments and the rhythms of rock, but in 1970 the military regime
sent them into exile in Europe. In 1997 Caetano Veloso authored
"Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil." An English
translation was made in 2002.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, DB p.58)(Wired, 2/98, p.129)(SSFC,
11/3/02, p.M3)
1967 Brazil passed legislation
stipulating that journalists must obtain a diploma and register with
the labor ministry, in order to prevent troublemakers from voicing
their opinions. In the name of national security, legislation censored
news media, composers, playwrights and writers and allowed for the
seizure of publications. In 2009 Brazil’s Supreme Court struck down the
press censorship legislation.
(Econ, 10/25/08, p.48)(AP, 5/1/09)
1967 Brazil, in an attempt to
foment progress (and diminish regional inequalities), created a tax
free zone was created called Zona Franca de Manaus. Manaus is the only
city in Amazonas where an industrial park has been developed.
(www.v-brazil.com/information/geography/amazonas/economy.html)
1967 Dr. Philip D. Marsden began
fieldwork in Brazil and was named a professor of tropical medicine at
the Univ. of Brasilia, where he became a leading authority on
Leishmaniasis, an often fatal disease borne by sand flies.
(SFC,10/27/97, p.C2)
1969 Sep 4, In Brazil Fernando
Gabeira helped kidnap the US ambassador in Rio, Charles Elbrick
(d.1983), to protest the military dictatorship. Elbrick was released
unhurt four days later, but Gabeira was banned from entering the US.
(AP,
10/27/08)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Burke_Elbrick)
1969 The Brazilian film "Antonio
da Mortes" was directed by Glauber Rocha.
(SFEC, 4/13/97, DB p.44)
1969 Embraer SA, an aircraft
maker, was founded by Brazil’s military dictatorship in an effort to
develop an aviation industry.
(WSJ, 9/13/04, p.A8)
1970-1998 Brazilian Gold miners worked in the
Yanomani reservation near Venezuela beginning in the 1970s and during
this period introduced diseases that cut the Indian population by more
than half.
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.A1)
1971 Mar 19, At least 160 people
perished in landslides north of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1971 Brazil’s army discovered
rebel bases in Araguaia, a remote region in the northern jungle state
of Para. They sent more than 10,000 troops to crush the uprising in the
proceeding years. Some 60 rebels were killed, as well as local
civilians, and others were jailed or disappeared.
(AP, 6/19/09)
1972 Singer-songwriter Caetano
Veloso and Gilberto Gil returned to Brazil. Gil then served as minister
of culture in his home city of Salvador.
(SFEC, 6/22/97, DB p.58)
1972 Brazil’s rubber-bearing
Madeira-Mamore railway ceased running.
(Econ, 6/3/06, p.34)
1972 The hospital ship S.S. Hope
sailed to Brazil to train doctors and nurses for a year under Project
Hope.
(SFC, 9/28/02, p.A17)
1972-1974 A group of rebels formed in the state of
Para, the only rural armed movement against the dictatorship.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A14)
1973 Paraguay’s Pres. Stroessner
led a $20 billion joint venture with Brazil to build Itaipu, at this
time the world’s largest hydroelectric dam.
(SFC, 8/17/06, p.A10)
1973 The Arab oil embargo doubled
Brazil’s import bill with a year.
(Econ, 11/14/09, SR p.5)
1973-1996 The Pastoral Land Commission, a Catholic
supported human rights group, said that there have been 575 murders of
rural workers over this time in the Para state and only three trials.
One defendant received a suspended sentence and the other 2 escaped
from jail.
(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A8)
1974 Mar 15, In Brazil General
Ernesto Geisel (1907-1996) became president and ruled for 5 years. He
gradually ended political repression, lifted press censorship and
allowed political exiles to return. Under his rule the foreign debt
doubled to $43 billion.
(SFC, 9/13/96,
p.E2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_Geisel)
1974 Oct 2, Pele (b.1940),
Brazilian soccer player born as Edson Arantes do Nascimento, came out
of retirement to join the NY Cosmos of the North American Soccer
League. Steve Ross (1927-1992), chairman of Warner Brothers and founder
of the Cosmos, offered him a reported $7 million for a 3-year contract.
In 2006 Gavin Newsham authored “Once in a Lifetime: The Incredible
Story of the New York Cosmos.”
(SFC, 6/26/06,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pel%C3%A9)
1974 Antonio Henrique Amaral of
Brazil painted his "Battlefield," a phalanx of menacing forks with
shreds of banana.
(WSJ, 3/17/00, p.W12)
1974 Brazil opened BR-163, a
1,097-mile unpaved road from Santarem to Cuiaba. Paving of the road was
expected to be completed by 2008.
(Econ, 7/24/04, p.33)
1974 Brazil introduced the 1st Bus
Rapid Transit (BRT) in Curitiba.
(SSFC, 8/7/05, p.A11)
1974 In Brazil Rev. Frederick
Birten Morris of the United Methodist Church was arrested. During 16
days in captivity in an army barracks he was beaten and tortured with
electric shocks several times before being released and deported. In
2008 Brazil’s Justice Ministry's Amnesty Commission decided to
compensate him 285,000 reals (US$154,000) plus a monthly pension of
2,000 reals (US$1,080).
(AP, 9/27/08)
1974 A meningitis outbreak killed
4,000 people in a few weeks. 90 million people were soon inoculated by
a new vaccine created by the French Merieux laboratory.
(SFC, 1/27/01, p.A24)
1975 Oct 25, Vladimir Herzog
(b.1937), Croatia-born Jewish journalist, was murdered by Brazil’s
military regime.
(Econ, 11/27/04,
p.37)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Herzog)
1975 In Brazil the military
government launched a "pro-alcohol" program as a source of fuel in
response to the first oil crisis which hit in 1973. The country at the
time was importing 80% of its fuel and suffered in its balance of
payments.
(WSJ, 6/27/97, p.A9A)
1975 The “Black Frost” harmed half
of Brazil’s coffee trees. In response to the frost groves were moved
north from Parana state.
(WSJ, 5/26/06, p.C5)
1975 An oil tanker from Iraq
dumped nearly 8 million gallons of crude oil into Guanabara Bay and
washed onto Rio’s beaches, which closed for 3 weeks.
(SFC, 7/19/00, p.A12)
1975 French retailer Carrefour
began operating in Brazil.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.68)
1976 Gen’l. Juan Jose Torres,
ousted as president of Bolivia in 1971, was kidnapped by a death squad
in Argentina and killed. He was a victim of the Condor Plan, a South
American military pact between Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and
Paraguay to exchange intelligence information and help each other hunt
down suspected leftists.
(SFC, 11/23/99, p.A16)
1976 Italian carmaker Fiat began
manufacturing cars in Brazil.
(Econ, 11/15/08, SR p.6)
1977 Jun 23, The Brazil congress
legalized divorce with a constitutional amendment, despite opposition
from Roman Catholic Church. The amendment would be signed into law by
President Ernesto Geisel.
(www.wiwomensnetwork.org/chrontwo1.html)
1977 Dec 9, Clarice Lispector
(b.1920), Ukraine-born Brazilian-Jewish writer, died in Brazil. From
1952-1959 she lived in the US. Her books included “The Passion
According to G.H” (1964). In 2009 Benjamin Moser authored “Why This
World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarice_Lispector)
1977 Dec 26, In Brazil law #6,515
established the Divorce Act.
(www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Brazil.htm)
1977 The Brazilian film "Dona Flor
and Her Two Husbands" starred Sonia Braga. It was based on a novel by
Jorge Amado.
(SFEC, 8/8/99, p.T8)
1977 In Brazil Edir Macedo
(b.1945) founded The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. In 1990 he
bought Rede Record for $45 million. In 2004 Rede Record broadcast
network began expanding into the TV market taking on the dominant TV
Globo. In 2005 the church founded the PRB political party. By 2007 the
Pentecostal congregation had 2 million members and had expanded to over
100 countries.
(SFEC, 9/6/98, p.A19)(Econ, 12/23/06, p.50)(WSJ,
1/5/07, p.A1)(Econ, 1/5/08, p.31)
1978 Jul 3, The Amazon Pact was
established. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru,
Suriname, and Venezuela signed the Amazon Pact, a Brazilian initiative
designed to coordinate the joint development of the Amazon Basin.
(http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Amazon+Pact)
1978-1996 Over 200,000 sq. miles, 12.5%, of the
Amazon rain forest was destroyed.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A10)
1979 Feb 7, Josef Mengele
(b.1911), Nazi concentration camp doctor and medical experimenter,
accidentally drowned in Bertioga, Brazil. He was secretly buried in
another man's grave in Brazil. [See Jun 6, 1985] In 1985 his identity
was confirmed by DNA. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele)
1979 Mar 15, In Brazil Gen. Joao
Baptista Figueiredo (d.1999 at 81) began serving as president and
continued to 1985. Aureliano Chaves (d.2003 at 74) served as VP.
Figueiredo was the last of 5 generals to rule during the 1964-1985
dictatorship. He oversaw the transition to democracy begun by his
predecessor Ernesto Geisel. Inflation during his rule rose from 43% a
year to 230% a year when he left office.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_Baptista_de_Oliveira_Figueiredo)(SFC,
12/25/99, p.B4)(SFC, 5/2/03, p.A26)
1979 Aug 28, Brazil’s presiding
General Joao Figueiredo declared a reciprocal amnesty law that
prevented the prosecution of soldiers and military agents for acts of
violence during the dictatorship.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A17)(Econ, 11/27/04,
p.37)(http://tinyurl.com/37ryof)
1979 The Minimum Critical Size of
Ecosystems Project was established as a collaborative research project
between the Smithsonian Institution and the Brazilian Institute for
Research in the Amazon. It was later renamed the Biological Dynamics of
Forest Fragments project.
(NH, 7/98, p.35)(http://pdbff.inpa.gov.br/iquem.html)
1980 Jul 9, In Brazil at least 3
and as many as 7 died in a stampede to see the Pope at a stadium in
Fortaleza.
(http://tinyurl.com/36kdnt)
1980 The film "Bye Bye Brazil" was
directed by Carlos Diegues. It brought international recognition to
Brazilian cinema.
(WSJ, 11/17/98, p.21)
1980 In Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva founded the Worker’s Party (PT).
(Econ, 8/29/09, p.32)
1980 Inflation in Brazil reached
110%. The rising cost of imported oil, dating back to 1973, increased
short term foreign debt and heralded a decade and a half of instability.
(Econ, 11/14/09, SR p.5)
1980 In Brazil the TAMAR project
to protect sea turtles was begun by Maria and Guy Marcovaldi.
(SFC, 11/2/98,
p.A12)(www.beach-pousada-brazil.com/tamar.htm)
1981 Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru
wrote a fictional account of the 1893-1897 events at Canudos, Brazil,
in the epic work: "The War of the End of the World."
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1981 Silvio Santos, born as Senor
Abravanel, founded Sistema Brasileiro de Televisao and built it into a
large network.
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.A5)
1982 Jun 8, In Brazil a Vasp 747
crashed in the northeastern city of Fortaleza, killing 137 people.
(AP, 9/30/06)(www.airdisaster.com/photos/1980.shtml)
1982 Leonel Brizola (1922-2004),
former governor of Rio Grande do Sul (1959-1962), was elected governor
of Rio de Janeiro state. He was elected governor again in 1990.
(SFC, 6/24/04,
p.B6)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonel_Brizola)
1983 A severe drought plagued
northeast Brazil.
(SFC, 5/18/98, p.A10)
1984 Feb 25, In Cubatao, Sao
Paulo, Brazil, an explosion from a gasoline leak in a pipeline burned a
nearby shantytown with than 500 deaths.
(HSAB, 1994, p.46)
1984 Benedita da Silva was elected
to the lower house and became the first black woman in the Brazilian
Congress. She later was elected as a senator.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.D2)
1984 In Brazil the Landless Rural
Worker’s Movement (MST) was founded and began winning land by illegally
occupying unused areas. 3% of the nation’s 167 million people owned 66%
of the arable land.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A10)(SFC, 7/6/00, p.A12)(Econ,
4/28/07, p.41)
1985 Jan 15, Tancredo Neves
(1910-1985) became the 1st elected president of Brazil in 21 years.
Just one day before he was scheduled to take the oath of office (March
15, 1985), Neves became severely ill. He suffered from abdominal
complications and developed generalized infections. After seven
operations, Tancredo Neves died on April 21, 1985. He was succeeded by
José Sarney, who served to 1990.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tancredo_Neves)
1985 Apr 21, Tancredo Neves,
elected president of Brazil on Jan 15, died. José Sarney became
president.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Brazil_%281985-present%29)
1985 Jun 6, Authorities in Brazil
exhumed a body later identified as the remains of Dr. Josef Mengele,
the notorious "Angel of Death" of the Nazi Holocaust near Sao Paolo,
Brazil.
(AP, 6/6/97)(HN, 6/6/98)
1985 Jun 21, American, Brazilian
and West German scientists announced that skeletal remains exhumed in
Brazil were those of Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele.
(AP, 6/21/97)(www.paperlessarchives.com/mengele.html)
1985 In Brazil those who could not
read and write were not allowed to vote until this year.
(Econ, 4/14/07, SR p.14)
1985 In Brazil the 535 mile
Carajas train was inaugurated as part of a massive federal development
program.
(WSJ, 4/29/99, p.A1)
1985 Marcelo Carvalho de Andrade
(26) of Brazil, mountain climber, former model and surgeon, came up
with a plan to help protect the rain forest while waiting out a storm
on the north face of Argentina’s Aconcagua mountain, the highest peak
in South America.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A8)(http://tinyurl.com/22ekjj)
1985 In Brazil Joao Canuto de
Oliveira, trade union leader, was shot to death. In 2003 Brazil
convicted ranchers Adilson Laranjeiras and Vantuir Goncalves de Paula
in the shooting.
(AP, 5/24/03)
1986 The film "The Mission" was
directed by Roland Joffe. It was about Indian and Jesuit relations in
colonial Brazil.
(SFEM, 10/8/00, p.17)
1986 In Brazil Marcelo Carvalho de
Andrade formed Pro-Natura, non-governmental organization dedicated to
saving the rain forests through sustainable development. The first
program was set up in Desengano State Park to prevent clandestine
logging.
(SFC, 7/7/99, p.A8)
1986 Hernandes Filho, a former
Xerox marketing executive, and his wife, Sonia Haddad Moraes Hernandes,
founded the Reborn in Christ Church and rode the wave of popularity of
evangelical churches in Brazil, the world's largest Roman Catholic
country. The couple were arrested in 2007 for taking a large amount of
undeclared cash into the US. Both pleaded guilty to evading US currency
requirements and conspiracy.
(AP, 1/23/07)(SFC, 6/9/07, p.A5)
1986 Brazil chopped 3 zeroes off
its currency in the Cruzado Plan as part of an attempt to reduce
inflation. The official name was the Economic Stabilization Plan but it
was popularly known as the Cruzado Plan because it involved a change in
the name of the currency from Cruciero to the Cruzado, with 1000
crucieros being equal to one cruzado. Its main measures were a
general price freeze, a wage readjustment and freeze, readjustment and
freeze on rents and mortgage payments, a ban on indexation, and a
freeze on the exchange rate.
(Econ, 11/14/09, SR
p.5)(www.applet-magic.com/cruzado.htm)y
1986 In Brazil a financial scandal
led the Bolsa de Valores do Rio de Janeiro (BVRJ) to bankruptcy.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.Spe.Adv.)
1986 The Commodities & Futures
Exchange (BM&F) of Brazil began trading.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.Spe.Adv.)
1986 Brazil began construction of
a rocket base at Alcantara, forcing some 300 local families to resettle
elsewhere.
(WSJ, 10/9/08, p.A13)
1988 Feb 24, A week of tropical
rainstorms left at least 275 people dead in Rio de Janeiro state,
Brazil.
(http://tinyurl.com/r629d)
1988 Oct 5, Brazil accepted a
constitution that obliged the government to make transfers to the 26
states and protect the jobs of public workers. This created a difficult
environment for the control of spending. The new constitution also
annulled the right of husbands to prohibit their wives from accepting
employment. The new constitution also recognized Indian rights to
reclaim their original lands and to preserve their way of life. Almost
600 reserves were established, encompassing 12.5% of Brazil’s
territory, but many only existed on paper.
(SFC, 9/25/96, p.A1)(Econ, 9/4/04, p.37)(Econ,
2/4/06, p.36)(SSFC, 6/10/07, p.A15)
1988 Dec 22, Chico Mendes, a
rubber tapper and political and environmental activist, was murdered in
Acre state by a death squad allegedly directed by Hildebrando Pascoal.
(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A1)(SFC, 12/22/08, p.A17)
1988 Brazil granted Indians some
territory and pledged to demarcate the land within five years. Hitherto
Indians were considered wards of the state and denied full rights for
centuries.
(AP, 2/8/06)
1989 May 30, Landless
farmer-workers stormed a farm in the state of Espirito Santo to
pressure for agrarian reform. Jose Machado, the owner, opened fire with
hired guns. Machado and a hired off-duty policeman were killed and four
squatters were injured. In 1997 Jose Rainha, a land reform advocate,
was sentenced to 26.5 years in prison for the killing. Rainha argued
that he was in another state with witnesses and that the squatters
acted in self defense but was still convicted in a 4-3 vote.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)
1989 Sep 3, In Brazil a Varig
737-300 plane crashed in the Amazon jungle with 52 people aboard. 14
died and 34 were injured.
(http://dnausers.d-n-a.net/dnetGOjg/030989.txt)
1990 Mar 16, Brazil announced the
Collor Plan. It was a collection of economic reforms and
inflation-stabilization plans carried out during the presidency of
Fernando Collor de Mello, between 1990 and 1992. The plan was
officially called New Brazil Plan. It combined fiscal and trade
liberalization with radical inflation stabilization measures.
(Econ, 11/14/09, SR
p.5)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plano_Collor)
1990 Aug, Jose Luiz Santana, the
former president of Brazil's nuclear energy commission, known by its
Portuguese acronym CNEN, said in 2005 that the military was preparing a
test explosion when the program was ultimately dismantled in August
1990.
(AP, 8/30/05)
1990 Dec 3, President Bush began a
five-nation South American tour as he arrived in Brazil.
(AP, 12/3/00)
1990 Maria das Gracas Marcal, a
2nd generation scavenger, helped found the Street Scavengers
Association. It grew to become a model organization of uniformed
scavengers that collected 15% of the total waste of downtown Belo
Horizonte.
(SFC,11/17/97, p.A14)
1990 Wagner Conhedo, a trucking
operator, obtained a $7 mil loan from Paulo Cesar Farias, campaign
finance chief of then Pres. Collor, to purchase the Vasp SA airline.
Orestes Quercia, governor of the state that privatized Vasp, made
agreement with Conhedo to ease a towering debt burden that later cost
the state millions of dollars when Conhedo fell behind in payments.
(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A6)
1990 Chico Mendes, environmental
activist and a leader of Amazon rubber tappers in the state of Acre,
was murdered. Darli Alves da Silva and his son, Darci, were convicted
in the murder case.
(SFC, 7/2/96, p.A12)
1990-1993 Witch’s Broom disease, a cocoa destroying
fungus, arrived in Brazil in the early 1990s.
(SFC, 9/4/00, p.B10)
1991 Feb 2, Expedito Ribeiro de
Souza, an environmental activist and head of the Farmworkers Union, was
killed. Jose Serafim Sales was convicted for the shooting in 1995 and
was sentenced to 24 years in prison. He later escaped. In 2000 rancher
Jeronimo Alves Amorim was convicted for ordering the killing and was
sentenced to 19 ½ years in prison.
(SFC, 6/8/00, p.A16)
1991 Mar 26, The Treaty of
Asuncion established the southern common market: (Mercado Comun del
Sur) Mercosur, between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
They were later joined by associate members Chile (1996), Bolivia
(1997), Peru (2001) and Venezuela (2004). Mexico was granted observer
status in 2004.
(www.itcilo.it/english/actrav/telearn/global/ilo/blokit/mercoa.htm)
1991 Radio La Colifata (Loony
Radio) began broadcasting in Buenos Aires. The weekly radio show was
broadcast from inside a psychiatric hospital.
(SFC, 3/1/01, p.A8)
1991 In Brazil Karen Worcman (29)
helped found the Museum of the Person. By 2009 it was Latin America’s
largest oral history center.
(www.archimuse.com/mw99/bios/au_3204.html)(www.museudapessoa.net)(WSJ,
3/16/09, p.A1)(www.museudapessoa.net)
1991 Arminio Fraga joined Brazil’s
central bank as head of int’l. affairs.
(WSJ, 6/2/00, p.A1)
1991 The Amazon forest lost was 3
million acres this year.
(NH, 7/98, p.35)
1992 Jun 12, President Bush,
addressing the Earth Summit in Brazil, declared America's environmental
record "second to none." In a letter to U.S. senators, Russian
President Boris N. Yeltsin said the Soviet Union had shot down nine
U.S. planes in the early 1950's and held 12 American survivors.
(AP, 6/12/97)
1992 Jun 14, The Earth Summit
concluded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The world’s industrial nations
reached an agreement to reduce CO2 emissions, the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By 1996 it was clear that the
goals were not being met.
(TMC, 1994, p.1992)(SFC, 7/11/96, p.A10)(AP,
6/14/97)(Econ, 12/5/09, SR p.3)
1992 Sep 29, Lawmakers in Brazil
voted overwhelmingly to impeach President Fernando Collor de Mello. He
was impeached following allegations of corruption in a kickbacks
scandal. The proceedings were largely ignored by the Rede Globo TV
network.
(WSJ, 12/4/95, p.A-9)(AP, 9/29/97)(SFC, 8/31/00,
p.A10)
1992 Oct 2, In Brazil Col.
Ubiratan Guimaraes led the "Carandiru massacre," where 111 inmates
where killed during a raid to quell a prison riot. At the Carandiru
prison in Sao Paulo 102 prisoners were killed by troops under Col.
Ubiratan Guimaraes. Guimaraes was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to
632 years in prison, but awaited a 2nd trial. In 2006 Guimaraes
(63) was murdered at his apartment in Sao Paulo.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A14)(SSFC, 7/1/01, p.A18)(AP,
9/11/06)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.48)
1992 Dec 29, Brazilian President
Fernando Collor de Mello resigned.
(AP, 12/29/97)
1992 Paulo Cesar Farias symbolized
the corruption that led to the downfall of the Mello government. He was
treasurer of Mello’s presidential campaign and allegedly took suitcases
of cash out of the country on jets that belonged to his air taxi
company.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A8)
1992 Brazil signed the American
convention on Human Rights.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A17)
1992 Guilherme de Padua, TV soap
actor, was charged with the stabbing death of his co-star Daniela
Perez. She was stabbed 18 times with scissors. He originally confessed
but later claimed that his wife, Paula de Alameida Thomaz, carried out
the stabbing in a fit of jealousy. The case finally came to trial in
1997. He was found guilty and sentenced to 19 years.
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.C1)(SFEC, 1/26/97, p.A15)
1992 Brazil’s steel industry was
privatized.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.5)
1992 In Brazil Radio La Colifata,
roughly translated as “crazy one,” began operating in Buenos Aires to
help mentally ill patients communicate with their peers. Initially
taped segments were broadcast, but by 2007 live programming reached
over 30 stations in Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America.
(SFC, 1/9/07, p.D3)
1993 Apr 21, Brazil voted against
a monarchy.
(http://countrystudies.us/brazil/84.htm)
1993 July 23, A handful of men
shot and killed 6 children and teenagers at the Candelaria Cathedral
and 2 more at the Museum of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In
1996 one of the four men accused, former police officer Nelson dos
Santos Cunha, confessed to having taken part. About 2,000 children roam
Rio’s streets and in 1994, 936 youths under 18 were murdered. In 1996 a
court cleared 2 policemen and another man in killings. Two other
policemen were convicted earlier. In 1997 a court reduced the sentence
of Cunha from 261 years to 18 years. In 1998 Marcos Aurelio Alcantara
(30) was convicted and sentenced to 204 years in jail.
(SFC, 4/28/96, A-14)(SFC, 11/28/96, p.B6)(WSJ,
12/11/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 6/20/97, p.A1)(SFC, 8/27/98, p.A14)
1993 In a Rio slum 21 residents
were massacred by police to avenge the killing of 4 colleagues. 52
policemen were accused in the massacre and in 1997 Paulo Roberto
Alvarenga was the first to be tried. He was sentenced to 450 years in
prison but the law limited him to serve no more than 30 years.
(SFC, 4/28/97, p.A12)(Econ, 4/9/05, p.31)
1993 Pres. Itamar Franco named
Fernando Henrique Cardoso as Finance Minister, the 4th in 18 months.
Cardoso enacted the Plano Real economic program and slashed inflation
from 2,700% to 2% in 1998. This success enabled Cardoso to win
elections for president in 1994.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-13)(SFC, 2/26/99, p.E2)
1993 Castor de Andrade (d.1997 at
71), a Rio "godfather," was arrested with 13 other suspected gaming
bosses and convicted of criminal association and forming armed gangs.
Police evidence revealed multi-million payoffs to congressmen, police
chiefs, judges, businessmen, police officers and the former president
Fernando Collor de Mello.
(SFC, 4/14/97, p.A19)
1993 In Joao Pessoa, capital of
Paraiba state, Sen Ronaldo Cunha Lima fired 2 shots at a political
rival in a restaurant.
(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A1)
1993 At Carandiru Prison riot
troopers killed 111 inmates in their efforts to quell a rebellion.
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A14)
1994 Jul 1, Brazil under finance
minister Henrique Cardoso adopted the Real Plan, named for a new
currency fixed to the US dollar with a "crawling peg." Inflation had
hit 7,000% as Cardoso launched the new currency.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-1,13)(WSJ, 4/26/96, p.A-15)(WSJ,
6/12/97, p.A19)
1994 Jul 17, Brazil defeated Italy
to win its fourth World Cup title.
(AP, 7/17/99)
1994 Oct, Fernando Henrique
Cardoso was elected president.
(USAT, OW, 4/22/96, p.1)
1994 Dec 8, Antonio Carlos Jobim
(67), Brazil composer (Girl From Ipanema), died.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1994 Dec 12, The Brazilian Supreme
Court acquitted former President Fernando Collor de Mello of the
corruption charges that had forced him to resign in 1992.
(AP, 12/12/99)
1994 Brazil’s central bank
increased interest rates to nearly 50% in response to the Mexican debt
crises and devaluation.
(Econ, 11/14/09, SR p.5)
1994 Rev. Edward Dougherty, a
priest from New Orleans, became Brazil’s first Catholic television
preacher.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B14)
1994 In Brazil Marino Silva was
the first rubber-tapper to be elected to the federal senate. She was
elected on a platform opposing deforestation.
(USAT, 4/22/96, p.4-D)
1994 An investor group led by
Banco Bozano, Simonsen SA, bought the loss-ridden aircraft maker
Embraer SA from the Brazilian government.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A17)(WSJ, 9/13/04, p.A8)
1994 In Brazil some 5,800 square
miles were cleared by fire for agriculture and ranching in this year.
(SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T5)
1995 Jan 1, Fernando Henrique
Cardoso took office as Brazil's 37th president. He pushed up interest
rates to 25% and stabilized the economy.
(WSJ, 12/15/95, p.A-13)(AP, 1/1/00)
1995 Aug, Pres. Cardoso introduced
Law 9140, which acknowledged military responsibility for 136 deaths
under previous governments.
(SFC, 6/14/96, p. A17)
1995 Sao Paulo Gov. Mario Covas
(d.2001 at 70) dismissed nearly 200,000 civil servants to pull the
state out of near-bankruptcy.
(SFC, 3/8/01, p.C4)
1995 Gen’l. Nilton Cerqueira and
Helio Luz took command of the uniformed police and plainclothes
detectives in Rio de Janeiro where crime was out of control. They
instigated bonuses for bravery under fire.
(WSJ, 9/23/96, p.A1)
1995 Ricardo Correa moved his shoe
operations from Brazil to China. A reduction in trade barriers in the
early 1990s along with an appreciating currency and pressure from cheap
Chinese labor had combined to stagnate Brazil’s shoe exports. By
2008 some 3,000 Brazilians worked in China’s footwear industry.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.75)
1995 The Marinhos family dominated
television in Brazil.
(WSJ, 12/1/95, p.A-10)
1995 Amazon forest lost was 7
million acres this year.
(NH, 7/98, p.35)
1995 Jorge Luiz Fernandez, aka
George the Smotherer, killed two innocent people while trying to
eliminate a witness to a previous murder.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A12)
1995 Ten squatters and 2 policemen
were killed when some 300 police stormed a squatter camp near
Corumbiarra. In 2000 2 police officers were convicted of murder and
sentenced to 18 and 16 years in prison.
(SFC, 8/19/00, p.A10)
1995-1996 Fiat SpA of Italy invested $1 bil over this
period for new engines, updated models, and new projects in Brazil
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.A11)
1995-1997 In Brazil Rodrigo Baggio organized
efforts to provide computer education to the children of Rio’s slums.
He formed the Committee for Computer Science Democratization, which had
opened schools in 32 Rio slums over the last 2 years.
(SFC, 7/7/97, p.A8)
1996 Jan, In Varginha a trio of
women claimed to have seen an alien being with oily, brown skin and
rubbery limbs. It also had 3 rounded protrusions from an oversized head
and was said to smell very bad.
(WSJ, 6/28/96, p.A1)
1996 Apr 12, Pres. Fernando
Henrique Cardoso signed a decree allowing up to 18,000 inmates of
Brazil’s prisons to go free.
(SFC, 4/13/96, p.A-9)
1996 Apr 17, Brazilian police
killed 23 (19) workers who demanded land and injured 50 during a
protest that blocked an Amazon highway in Eldorado dos Carajas. The
governor of the Para state blamed Colonel Mario Pantoja and suspended
him pending an inquiry. Local landowners reportedly paid Col. Pantoja
$85,000 to eliminate 10 leaders of the Landless Rural Worker's
Movement. Over 150 policemen were charged with murder. Trials of the
policemen began in 1999. 2 officers were convicted of murder. 124
police officers were acquitted in 2002.
(WSJ, 4/19/96, p.A-1)(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A8)(SFC,
7/31/97, p.A10)(SFC, 8/17/99, p.A8)(SFC, 8/20/99, p.D2)(AP, 6/13/02)
1996 Apr 22, Marina Silva was a
Goldman Award winner for her work against deforestation.
(USAT, 4/22/96, p.4-D)
1996 May 22, A consortium led by
Houston Industries, AES Corp., and Electricite de France purchased
control of the state owned electrical utility Light Servicos de
Eletricidade SA for 1.7 bil. Light served 3 million customers in and
around Rio and was snapped up for $2.2 billion. Service following the
divestment was dismal.
(WSJ, 5/22/96, p.A-16)(WSJ, 4/27/98, p.A1)
1996 Jun 3, Korean Samsung Display
Devices will build a plant in Manaus to produce 4 million picture tubes
a year beginning in Jan 1998.
(WSJ, 8/8/95, p. B6C)
1996 Jun, Rudiger Dornbusch, MIT
economist, said that Brazil’s real is 30-40% overvalued. He foresees a
possible collapse in 1-2 years.
1996 Jun 11, An explosion ripped
through a mall in Sao Paulo and killed 44 people, more than 100 were
injured. A gas leak was thought to be the cause.
(SFC, 6/12/96, p.A8)
1996 Jun 23, Paulo Cesar Farias
was found shot through the heart. The body of his girlfriend was found
nearby at his beach house. TV Globo reported that she shot him and
killed herself.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A8)
1996 Jun 30, In Acre Itamar
Pascoal was shot to death by Jose Hugo Alves, who fled the scene with
Agilson Santos. A few days later Santos' body turned up in front of TV
Gazeta. His limbs were cut off with a chain saw and his eyes were
carved out. His son (15) was later found burned and disfigured.
(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A10)
1996 Jul 6, It was reported that a
Brazilian fisherman, Nathon do Nascimento, choked to death when a
6-inch fish jumped out of the water and into his throat during a long
yawn.
(SFC, 7/6/96, p.A17)
1996 Aug 12, The government gave
priority status to 42 of 1,500 projects of major public works in a
4-year plan that will exceed 74 billion reals and create 1.5 million
jobs.
(WSJ, 8/12/96, p.A8)
1996 Aug, Yvonne de Mello received
the Int’l. Citizenship Award for her work with abandoned and runaway
kids in Rio de Janeiro.
(Hem., 12/96, p.21)
1996 Sep 21, In Brazil the first
magazine dedicated to blacks, Raca Brasil, sold out 200,000 copies in 5
days.
(SFC, 9/21/96, p.A8)
1996 Sep, The world premiere of
George Coates multimedia work "20/20 Blake" was held at the Sao
Paulo Int’l. Theater Festival.
(SFC, 1/21/96, p.B1)
1996 Sep, The EMB-145, a 50-seat
twin-engine jet, was brought out about this time by Brazil’s Embraer SA.
(WSJ, 3/21/97, p.A16)
1996 Argentina, Brazil and the US
acted to forestall a coup in Paraguay.
(Econ, 6/12/04, p.35)
1996 Brazil introduced electronic
voting. The 2000 national elections became fully automated nationwide.
(WSJ, 11/13/00, p.A27)
1996 A liberal youth law was
enacted that shielded children under 18 from prosecution for virtually
any crime, including murder.
(SFC, 12/30/99, p.A18)
1996 A moratorium on new
concessions for logging mahogany and virola wood was enacted.
(SFC, 1/27/98, p.A10)
1996 Official figures showed that
40% of all Brazilian married women of reproductive age were sterilized.
(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.A1)
1996-2000 Deforestation of the Amazon region reached
5 million acres per year.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A10)
1997 Jan 4, Some 54 people were
killed during 4 days of torrential rain in the southeastern state of
Minas Gerais.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.A13)
1997 Jan 7, It was announced that
the government’s plan to privatize its 51% of Companhia Vale do Rio
Doce (CVRD) was opposed by former Presidents Jose Sarney and Itamar
Franco, as well as Workers Party leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, all
candidates in the 1998 elections. Vale’s Carajas mine in Para produced
25% of the world’s iron ore and held reserves for some 400 years.
(SFC, 1/7/97, p.A10)
1997 Jan 8, Jose Hugo Alves was
kidnapped near Parnagua, Piaui, following an intensive search by
Hildebrando Pascoal. His body was later found mutilated and dipped in
acid.
(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A10)
1997 Feb 17, Darcy Ribeiro, writer
and anthropologist (74), died.
(SFC, 2/20/96, p.A20)
1997 Mar 3, A hidden camera
revealed severe police brutality over three nights at the intersection
of Naval and Jose Francisco Braz streets in Sao Paulo. The videotape
showed 15 people abused by the police and one man shot dead in a car as
it pulled away by officer Octavio Lorenco Gambra, aka Rambo.
(SFC, 4/29/97, p.A10)
1997 Mar 4, Brazil Senate allowed
women to wear slacks.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1997 Mar, Pres. Cardoso announced
a $150 million credit line from the World Bank for infrastructure and
the purchase of land for settlements in northeastern Brazil.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A12)
1997 Apr 17, In Brazil some 1500
peasants marched 750 miles to Brasilia for land reform and were joined
by some 25,000 trade-union members.
(SFC, 4/18/97, p.A14)
1997 Apr 29, A court injunction
stopped the privatization of the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the huge
state-owned mining company. Some 1,000 demonstrators protested the
attempted privatization in downtown Rio de Janeiro.
(SFC, 4/30/97, p.A11)
1997 Apr, In Brazil 2 MST farmers
(Landless Rural Worker’s Movement) were killed while tending fields on
the property of the 442,000 acre Giacometti lumber company. The next
day the government announced that the lumber company would turn over
38,000 acres to 6,000 families. The richest 20% of the people own 88%
of the land. The poorest 40% hold only 1% of the land.
(SFC, 6/28/97, p.A12)
1997 May 7, Brazil’s state mining
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), incorporated in 1942, was
privatized. In 2006 it acquired Inco, a Canadian nickel producer, and
became the world’s 2nd largest mining company.
(Econ, 4/14/07, SR p.9)(http://tinyurl.com/2ay9h5)
1997 Jun 4, Brazil’s Senate
approved a constitutional revision to allow office-holders to run for
re-election. This allowed Pres. Cardoso to seek a 2nd term.
(WSJ, 6/5/97, p.A1)
1997 Jun, Police strikes began in
the southeastern state of Minas Gerais over low pay. Though the strikes
were illegal they spread by July to 15 of Brazil’s 27 states.
(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A10)
1997 Jul 16, In Recife the 18,000
man police force went on strike. The crime and murder rate immediately
surged and some 3,000 soldiers were called to try to maintain order.
(SFC, 7/23/97, p.A10)
1997 Aug 9, In Brazil Herbert Jose
de Souza, sociologist, died at age 60 of AIDS that he acquired as a
hemophiliac from contaminated blood. He spent his life fighting
inequality, hunger and police brutality.
(SFC, 8/11/97, p.A15)
1997 Sep 25, It was reported that
local transsexuals could get a free sex-change operation under new
rules that classified the surgery as experimental.
(SFC, 9/25/97, p.A14)
1997 Sep 27, A $350,000
Conselheiro memorial was inaugurated in Quixeramobim in honor of the
founder of the 1893 settlement at Canudos, that was destroyed by
government forces in 1897. It included a garden with 20 sculptures of
Conselheiro and a 5-ton stone- a reminder of the stones he asked his
followers to carry on their heads as an act of penitence.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1997 Oct 2, In Brazil thousands
turned out to greet Pope John Paul II for the start of his 4-day visit.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B2)
1997 Oct 3, It was reported that
tuberculosis has killed at least 27 members of the Guarani-Kaiowa tribe
in the past 15 months.
(SFC, 10/3/97, p.B5)
1997 Oct 4, It was reported that
fires in the Amazon had increased 28% over the past year and that
clouds of smoke were thicker and covered more area than those due to
the burning forests of Indonesia.
(SFC, 10/4/97, p.A17)
1997 Oct, The film "The War of
Canudos" was about the 1893-1897 Canudos settlement founded by Antonio
Conselheiro.
(SFC, 10/7/97, p.A14)
1997 Oct 14, Pres. Clinton met
with Brazil’s Pres. Cardoso. They signed an agreement for a partnership
to improve education cooperation and a $10 million US contribution to
improve conservation in the Amazon.
(SFC,10/15/97, p.C4)
1997 Oct 15, In Brazil Pres.
Clinton spoke on free trade at the Mangueira school, a multi-use
training facility for some 2,000 children sponsored by Xerox Corp.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A13)
1997 Oct 29, It was reported that
at least 10% of the 2 million square-mile Amazon basin was destroyed by
fire.
(SFC,10/29/97, p.A10)
1997 Nov 7, It was reported that
there are 12 blacks among the 594 federal lawmakers of Brazil. The
country is 44% black by government count, and 70% black by a UNESCO
count.
(SFC,11/6/97, p.D2)
1997 Nov 12, It was reported that
the government has launched an austerity package that will raise prices
and taxes and lead to the dismissal of some 33,000 government workers.
(WSJ, 11/12/97, p.A1)
1997 Nov 13, A judge ordered 153
police officers and 9 senior officials to stand trial for the killing
of 19 landless peasants in 1966.
(SFC,11/14/97, p.D3)
1997 Nov 21, It was reported that
new legislation would limit public employees to a total compensation of
$12,000 per month. Also proposed was the elimination of job protection
that could cost 280,000 civil servants their jobs.
(SFC,11/21/97, p.A16)
1997 Nov, A new sports magazine,
Lance, began publishing. The $43 million project was founded by 2
leading investment banks, Bozano Simonsen and Icatu, and Globo,
Brazil’s largest media organization. Stakes were also held by
millionaire Andre Lara Resende, former banker and economic advisor to
Pres. Cardoso, and Mr. de Mattos, a professional manager.
(FT, 3/4/98, p.17)
1997 Nov, The government began to
force gold miners to leave the Yanomani Indian reservation where the
population was much reduced by disease.
(WSJ, 1/15/98, p.A1)
1997 Dec 8, The Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights reported that deaths in Rio, attributed to
police links with the military, averaged 20 a month last year.
(SFC,12/9/97, p.A9)
1997 Dec 28, Inmates of the
prison in Sorocaba took over and held over 600 hostages. They later
dropped escape demands and agreed to be transported to less crowded
prisons.
(SFC,12/31/97, p.A8)
1997 Dec 31, Security forces ended
the 3 day prison rebellion at Sorocaba Prison.
(SFC, 1/1/98, p.A14)
1997 The state of Amazonas formed
the Amazona Filarmonica with a core of musicians from the former Soviet
Union.
(WSJ, 11/23/98, p.A1)
1997 In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
Lourenco "Rambo" Gambra, a policeman, was filmed by an amateur
cameraman stopping cars and extorting money and killing a passenger in
the Naval slum.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A14)
1997 Brazil’s government
eliminated export taxes on commodities. Costs fell 10-20% creating a
huge stimulus for agriculture. The Asian crises had reduced commodity
demand and the central bank fought to defend the real, increasing
overnight interest rates to an annual 40% and killing growth.
(Econ, 11/5/05, p.74)(Econ, 11/14/09, SR p.5)
1997 Jose Rainha, a land reform
advocate in the Landless Workers Movement (MST), was sentenced to 26.5
years in prison for the 1989 killing of Jose Machado Neto. Rainha
argued that he was in another state with witnesses and that the
squatters acted in self defense, but was still convicted in a 4-3 vote.
A retrial was scheduled in 2000.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)(SFC, 4/4/00, p.A10)
1997 Honda Motors planned to start
producing cars in Brazil by this time.
(WSJ, 11/17/95, p.A-11)
1997-1998 Fiat SpA of Italy said it would invest $1
bil over this period in Brazil for new engines, updated models, and new
projects.
(WSJ, 5/30/96, p.A11)
1997-1998 In Brazil some 39,000 square km. of
Amazonian forest were burned by wildfires.
(Econ, 8/8/09, p.70)
1998 Jan 1, In Brazil the new law
making all Brazilian adults potential organ donors went into effect.
New traffic laws also went into effect. It was reported that 50,000
people die annually from car accidents because drivers routinely ignore
traffic laws.
(SFC, 1/7/98, p.A8) (SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T12)
1998 Feb 22, The film “Central
Station” by Walter Salles won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
(SFC, 2/23/98, p.E5)
1998 Feb 22, In Rio de Janeiro the
Palace II, built by Sergio Naya, collapsed during Carnival and 8 people
were crushed. The building was built by a construction company owned by
federal deputy Sergio Naya of the Brazilian Progress Party.
Faulty construction was uncovered.
(FT, 3/4/98, p.6)(SFC, 7/8/99,
p.A17)(www.novomilenio.inf.br/humor/0105f002.htm)
1998 Mar 17, It was reported that
a 3-month-old fire was raging out of control in the state of Roraima,
home of the Yanomani Indians.
(SFC, 3/17/98, p.B2)
1998 Mar 20, At least 400
firefighters were sent to fight the fires in the northern Amazon.
Firefighters from Argentina and Venezuela were also brought in. A UN
offer of assistance was accepted to combat thousands of fires raging
out of control.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A10)(WSJ, 3/23/98, p.A1)(SFC,
3/25/98, p.C14)
1998 Mar 27, Argentina, Brazil and
Paraguay signed a pact to heighten security on their triple frontier.
(SFC, 3/28/98, p.A9)
1998 Apr 1, Rains extinguished
more than 95% of the extensive fires in the northern Amazon.
(WSJ, 4/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Apr 15, The prime rate was
lowered from 28% to 23.3%.
(WSJ, 4/17/98, p.A10)
1998 May 8, "Operation Drought"
was launched to airlift food to the drought stricken northeast where 10
million people were threatened with hunger.
(SFC, 5/9/98, p.A12)
1998 May 17, It was reported that
the worst drought since one in 1983 plagued northeast Brazil.
(SFC, 5/18/98, p.A10)
1998 May, Jorge Luiz Fernandez,
aka George the Smotherer, was sentenced to 47 years in prison for 2
murders in 1995. He headed a hit squad of off-duty policemen known as
the "Golden Boys," who singled out criminal suspects and killed at
least 30 people.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A12)
1998 May, Chief Xicao Xukuru
(b.1950), top advocate for the Xukuru Indians, was shot dead in
Pesqueira.
(WSJ, 8/20/99, p.A1,9)
1998 Jun 23, Luiz Jose Costa, half
of the popular country duo Leandro and Leonardo, died of ling cancer at
36. The duo sold 20 million albums since 1991.
(SFC, 6/26/98, p.D4)
1998 Jul 6, The native population
was estimated to be about 300,000 people in some 200 tribes.
(SFC, 7/6/98, p.A10)
1998 Jul 25, It was reported that
5-7% of the drugs in Brazil were faked medicines mostly from India,
China and Pakistan.
(SFEC, 7/26/98, p.A20)
1998 Jul 29, Brazil sold its
Telebras telephone system to int’l. bidders for $19 billion. The 12
subsidiaries were sold one by one while demonstrators protested saying
that Telebras was the property of the Brazilian people.
(SFC, 7/30/98, p.D2)
1998 Sep 3, Moody’s downgraded
Brazil’s foreign-currency bonds to single B-2. This led to an 8.6% drop
in Brazil’s stock market.
(WSJ, 9/4/98, p.A9)
1998 Sep 4, The Central Bank
raised interest rates from 20 to 30%. The final rate for consumers
reached 150-250% a year.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.D2)(WSJ, 1/6/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 4, In Osasco near Sao
Paulo a Universal Church roof collapsed and killed at least 23 people
and injured 500.
(SFEC, 9/6/98, p.A19)
1998 Sep 8, In Brazil 110 miles
northwest of Sao Paulo at least 53 people were killed when a truck
carrying flammable liquid exploded on a highway and engulfed 2
chartered buses. 38 people were hospitalized.
(WSJ, 9/9/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 10, The Sao Paulo stock
exchange fell 15.8% in the afternoon. Earlier in the week the
government announced spending cuts and a plan to halve the budget
deficit, which stood at 7% of GDP.
(SFC, 9/11/98, p.D2)
1998 Sep 11, The Bovespa index
fell to an intraday low of 4575. By Nov 6 it moved back up to 8214.
(WSJ, 11/9/98, p.C1)
1998 Sep, Federal agents in
Alagoas state arrested police Lt. Colonel Manoel Cavalcante for heading
a 50-man police squad known as the "Uniformed Gang." They were charged
with political assassinations, bank robberies, car theft and arms
trafficking. They charged $440 to kill a rural union leader and $44,000
to kill a prominent politician.
(SFC, 9/21/98, p.A12)
1998 Oct 1, The IMF and the World
Bank were negotiating an emergency loan package for Brazil of some $30
billion. Since the collapse of the ruble, edgy investors have taken $30
billion out of Brazil. The government in the mean time pushed up the
interest rate to 40%.
(SFC, 10/2/98, p.A16)(WSJ, 10/2/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 4, In national elections
Fernando Henrique Cardoso won a 2nd term with 50.3% of the vote in
early returns vs. 35.6% for Luiz Inacio da Silva of the Workers Party.
(SFEC, 9/20/98, p.A21)(SFC, 10/5/98, p.A8)
1998 Oct 16, Imports exceeded
exports by over 4% of the economy and the inflation rate exceeded that
of the US. This indicated that the real was overpriced and that
devaluation was needed.
(WSJ, 10/16/98, p.A1)
1998 Oct 22, At Cape Canaveral
Orbital Sciences launched a Brazilian satellite from a Pegasus rocket
aboard a modified jumbo jet. The satellite will monitor environmental
devices throughout Brazil.
(SFC, 10/23/98, p.A10)
1998 Oct 28, Brazil unveiled an
$84 million austerity package that included a tax on government
pensions.
(SFC, 10/29/98, p.A14)
1998 Nov 4, Brazil set a minimum
retirement age of 53 for men and 48 for women.
(SFC, 11/5/98, p.C5)
1998 Nov 13, Pres. Clinton and the
IMF announced a $41.5 billion loan package for Brazil.
(SFC, 11/14/98, p.A10)
1998 Nov 27, Brazilian police
reported that a small cult of the United Pentecostal Church in Acre
state had killed 6 people over the last 2 weeks, including 3 children,
to "wipe out the enemies of God." Pastor Francisco Bezerra de Moraes
was one of 6 people arrested for the killings.
(SFC, 11/28/98, p.A15)
1998 Dec 14, Legislators proposed
to give themselves a 59% pay raise as the economy slipped into
recession.
(WSJ, 12/16/98, p.A19)
1998 Dec 17, In Alagoas state
congresswoman Ceci Cunha was killed with her husband and 2 in-laws in
an apparent political assassination. Talvane Albuquerque, who lost
re-election in October, assumed her seat in the Chamber of Deputies. He
was charged with ordering the murder of Cunha, but was immune from
criminal prosecution while in office.
(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D2)(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A1)
1998 Anthony Garotinho (38), a
football player turned tele-evangelist, was elected Rio de Janeiro
state governor. He quit in 2003 to run for president and Rosinha
Matheus, his wife, was elected governor. After he lost his wife chose
him as Secretary of Public Security. From 199-2006 they governed the
state with startling incompetence.
(AP, 5/23/03)(Econ, 7/19/08, p.46)
1998 Eloi Bras Sessim, mayor of
Cidreira in Rio Grande do Sul state, received an 8-year sentence for
bribery and disappeared.
(SFC, 8/31/00, p.A10)
1998 Eloan Pinheiro, director of
the state-owned Far-Manguinos drug factory, was given the mandate to
analyze brand name AIDS drugs and develop generic forms.
(WSJ, 4/27/01, p.A17)
1998 Brazil had 41,000 homicides
this year.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.A21)
1999 Jan 1, Fernando Henrique
Cardoso (67) became Brazil's first re-elected president as he was sworn
in for a 2nd 4-year term.
(SFC, 1/2/99, p.A9)
1999 Jan 7, Minas Gerais state
declared a 90-day moratorium on debt owed to the central government.
Former Pres. Itamar Franco, the new governor of Minas Gerais, had vowed
to stop payment on over $15 billion to force a renegotiation of payment
terms. 24 of 27 states had fixed debt agreements with the federal
government.
(WSJ, 1/6/99, p.A17)(WSJ, 1/7/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 13, Brazil was forced to
allow its currency to slide and global markets fell in response.
Gustavo Franco, head of the central bank, quit and was replaced by
Francisco Lopes ('Chico'). Lopes announced a new trading range for the
real between 1.2 and 1.32 to the dollar.
(SFC, 1/14/99, p.A10)(WSJ, 1/14/99, p.A1)
1999 Jan 14, In Brazil the markets
slumped for a 2nd day and closed down 10%.
(SFC, 1/15/99, p.A12)
1999 Jan 15, In Brazil the real
was allowed to float and the Bovespa index moved up 33%. The real
closed at 1.43 to the dollar.
(SFC, 1/16/99, p.A10)
1999 Jan 18, In Brazil the real
was allowed to float and interest rates were raised from 29 to 41%.
(SFC, 1/19/99, p.A6)
1999 Jan, In Rio De Janeiro a
pillar supporting a sewage pipe collapsed led to major repairs that
forced the city to dump tons of raw sewage into the ocean along its
beaches. Repairs were not completed until May.
(SFC, 5/3/99, p.B10)
1999 Feb 2, In Brazil Pres.
Cardoso fired Central Bank chief Francisco Lopes. He appointed Arminio
Fraga (42), an investment strategist and former associate of George
Soros, to the post.
(SFC, 2/3/99, p.A9)
1999 Feb 23, The $5 billion Sergio
Motta Dam on the Parana River, 370 miles northwest of Sao Paulo, was
inaugurated. Full power to 18 turbines was expected in 2003.
(SFC, 2/24/99, p.C3)
1999 Feb 27, Brazilian poet
Haraldo de Campos (b.1929) won the Mexican Octavio Paz Prize for poetry
and essay writing. His major works include "Chess Game of the Stars"
and "The Education of the Five Senses."
(SFC, 3/1/99, p.E5)
1999 Feb, Hildebrando Pascoal was
sworn in as a federal congressman from Acre state.
(WSJ, 3/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 4, In Brazil Arminio
Fraga, the new Central Bank president, raised the interest rates to 45%.
(SFC, 3/5/99, p.D2)
1999 Mar 6, It was reported that
heavy flooding had hit Sao Paulo. 27 people were killed and 10,000 left
homeless.
(SFC, 3/6/99, p.A8)
1999 Mar 8, Brazil sealed a deal
with the IMF for a currency injection in exchange for more belt
tightening.
(SFC, 3/9/99, p.B10)
1999 Mar 12, Bidu Sayao, Brazilian
opera soprano, died at age 94 in Maine.
(SFC, 3/15/99, p.A19)
1999 Mar 24, Federal judges were
reported to have staged a wildcat walkout for a 25% pay increase.
(WSJ, 3/24/99, p.A23)
1999 Mar 29, Paraguay's ousted
president, Raul Cubas, was given asylum by Brazil.
(WSJ, 3/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr, A nationwide probe into
drug trafficking began. Over the next 14 months some 30 people, who
helped or planned to help the investigation, were killed.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.F2)(SFC, 12/1/00, p.A21)
1999 May 18, Alfredo de Freitas
Dias Gomes (77), Salvadoran-born soap opera writer, died in a traffic
accident. He wrote the "Roque Santeiro" satire that began airing in
1985, though it was initially written in 1975. His play "O Pagador de
Promesas" was made into a film that won top prize at Cannes in 1962.
(SFC, 5/19/99, p.A21)
1999 May, Congress outlawed
pregnancy tests for job candidates as part of a labor code reform.
(SFC, 8/24/99, p.A10)
1999 May, The state government of
Rio de Janeiro passed one of world's toughest weapons' laws. Sales of
guns and ammunition were banned to anyone except police, military and
private security. Death rates in Brazil from gunshots had reached 25.78
per 100,000. In Sept. a court ruled the ban unconstitutional.
(SFC, 8/30/99, p.A12)(SFC, 9/11/99, p.A9)
1999 Jun 10, Brazil’s Pres.
Cardoso sanctioned a new law creating the first civilian-run defense
ministry.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.C1)
1999 Jun 23, Amnesty Int'l. issued
a report condemning Brazil's prison system.
(SFC, 6/24/99, p.A12)
1999 Jun 28, A European and Latin
American summit opened for a 2 day conference in Rio De Janeiro. The EU
and Mercosur bloc agreed to form a new free-trade zone.
(SFC, 6/29/99, p.A10)
1999 Jul 26, Brazil said it would
temporarily suspend all trade talks with Argentina after Argentina
moved to curb certain Brazilian exports.
(WSJ, 7/28/99, p.A20)
1999 Jul 28, In Brazil the army
was ordered by Pres. Cardoso to clear the nation's highways from
blockades set up by striking truckers protesting poor roads, high tolls
and high gasoline prices.
(WSJ, 7/29/99, p.A1)
1999 Aug 27, Archbishop Dom Helder
Camara (90) died in Recife. He had an int'l. reputation for campaigns
against social inequality and human rights abuses.
(SFEC, 8/29/99, p.D5)
1999 Sep 9, It was reported that
Brazil had recently approved minimum retirement ages of 53 for men and
48 for women, but only for employees entering the civil service. The
pension system was broke and expected to run $30 bil in the red this
year.
(WSJ, 9/9/99, p.A1)
1999 Sep 22, The Chamber of
Deputies voted 394 to 41 to expel Hildebrando Pascoal, a 1st term
congressman from Acre state, for "lack of parliamentary decorum."
Hildebrando was accused of torture, mass murder and int'l. drug
trafficking but had been immune due to his congressional status.
Pascoal surrendered to federal police the next day.
(SFC, 9/23/99, p.C16)(SFC, 9/24/99, p.A14)
1999 Oct 7, The Spix macaw of
Brazil (Cyanopsitta spixii), native to the area of Curaca along the Sao
Francisco River, was the world's rarest wild bird, due to animal
trafficking. It's market value was put at $60,000. 218 species in
Brazil were endangered, including 109 birds, 68 mammals, 31
invertebrates, 9 reptiles and 1 amphibian. The last wild Spix macaw
disappeared in 2000.
(SFC, 10/7/99, p.A15,18)
1999 Nov 18, In Brazil assailants
broke into a house in Sao Vicente and shot 8 people to death, 2 men, 3
boys and 3 women.
(SFC, 11/19/99, p.A21)
1999 Nov, Sen Luiz Estevao and a
judge were indicted for pocketing funds from a court complex in Sao
Paolo with $300 million in cost overruns.
(SFC, 11/22/99, p.A16)
1999 Dec 2, In Brazil riot police
killed one person and wounded 9 others during a worker protest at the
Bandeirantes television station in Brasilia
(SFC, 12/3/99, p.D5)
2000 Jan 3, In Brazil flooding
killed at least 11 people in Rio de Janeiro.
(WSJ, 1/4/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 12, An Argentine a tour
bus crashed into a 2nd local bus in Brazil and 42 people were killed.
(WSJ, 1/13/00, p.A1)
2000 Jan 13, In Brazil Mexican
singer Gloria Trevi was arrested with her manager Sergio Andrade and
Maria Raquenal Portillo on Mexican charges of corrupting Karina Yapor
(17). Trevi became pregnant in May and rape was suspected. Brasilia
federal police chief Paulo Magalhaes was removed from his post in
October.
(SFC, 1/15/00, p.A10)(SFC, 10/18/01, p.C2)
2000 Jan, A broken crude oil
pipeline in Rio de Janeiro spilled at least 130,000 gallons near the
coast and into Guanabara Bay. The ruptured pipeline at a Petrobras
refinery dumped at least 340,000 gallons of crude into the Guanabara
bay, killing birds and fish and devastating environmentally sensitive
mangrove swamps.
(SFC, 1/22/00, p.A6)(AP, 9/6/05)
2000 Feb 9, It was reported that
death squads operating in 12 of the 26 states had killed some 2,500
people in the past 2 years. The squads targeted petty thieves, the poor
and minorities.
(WSJ, 2/9/00, p.A1)
2000 Mar 1, Hildebrando Pascoal, a
former congressman from Acre state, was sentenced to over 6 years in
prison for tax fraud and other financial crimes.
(SFC, 3/3/00, p.D4)
2000 Apr 5, In Brazil Jose Rainha
Jr., leader of the Landless Rural Workers Movement, was acquitted of
the 1989 killing of farm owner Jose Machado Neto.
(SFC, 4/6/00, p.A12)
2000 Apr, UNESCO declared the
Atlantic rain forest of Brazil a World Heritage site. Only 3% of the
original 4,500 square mile rain forest remained.
(SFC, 9/4/00, p.B10)
2000 Jun 9, In Brazil legal rights
for same-sex couples were extended to include inheritance, pension and
social security benefits.
(SFC, 6/10/00, p.A13)
2000 Jun 11, Gen. Lino Oviedo of
Paraguay was arrested in Foz do Iguacu.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.A12)
2000 Jun 12, In Rio de Janeiro bus
No. 174 was hijacked for 4 ½ hours before police killed
the assailant and one hostage.
(SFEC, 6/18/00, p.A21)
2000 Jun 20, Brazil decreed an
immediate ban on the sale of firearms as part of a broad $1.7 billion
national security plan.
(SFC, 6/21/00, p.A14)
2000 Jun, The Senate expelled Luiz
Estevao (50) for lying about his involvement in a construction company
that helped build a federal courthouse. He allegedly diverted $100
million in government funds for the project. It was the 1st expulsion
in the Senate’s 170 year history.
(SFC, 7/4/00, p.A9)
2000 Jul 16, An oil leak in
Brazil’s Parana state began near the Getulio Vargas Refinery in
Araucaria and dumped over 1 million gallons of crude into a tributary
of the Iguacu River. Petrobras was later fined $94 million for the
country’s worst spill in 25 years.
(SFC, 7/18/00, p.A12)(SFC, 8/3/00, p.A13)
2000 Aug 16, Armed hijacked an
airliner and forced it to land in southern Parana state. They escaped
with an estimated $3.3 million in stolen money.
(SFC, 8/17/00, p.A15)
2000 Aug 31, A meeting of South
American presidents opened in Brasilia. They expressed concern over the
civil war in Colombia and planned to discuss the creation of a South
American trade block.
(SFC, 9/1/00, p.A16)
2000 Sep 17, Gangs of armed gunmen
broke into jails and freed over 200 inmates. 2 of the breaks occurred
in Sumare and Santa Isabel. A 3rd took place the next day in Sao Paolo.
(SFC, 9/19/00, p.A10)
2000 Oct 1, Some 110 million
voted in municipal elections with advances by the Workers Party.
A tilt to the left was seen as a response to corruption.
(WSJ, 10/3/00, p.A23)
2000 Oct 29, Marta Suplicy (55) of
the Workers Party was elected mayor of Sao Paulo in a runoff election
with 58.5% of the vote.
(SFC, 10/29/00, p.A12)
2000 Nov 17, Gunmen in Sao Paulo
shot to death 10 people, 13 to 20, sleeping in an abandoned house. Drug
gang retaliation was suspected.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.C16)
2000 Nov 30, In Brazil a 5,000
page report, begun in Apr 1999, was released and covered the $25
billion drug trafficking trade and implicated almost 200 public
authorities including 10 national and state legislators.
(SFC, 6/13/00, p.F2)(SFC, 12/1/00, p.A21)
2000 Nov, In Manaus an oil leak at
an abandoned asphalt factory spilled as much as 6,600 gallons into
feeder streams of the Amazon.
(SFC, 11/25/00, p.D8)
2000 Dec 15, Pres. Mbeki of South
Africa spoke at a MERCOSUR meeting in Brazil and planned to begin
negotiations to join the trading block.
(SFC, 12/31/00, p.B2)
2000 Central Bank pres. Arminio
Fraga set up the printing of 10-real bills on long lasting plastic. The
move was symbolic of currency stability.
(WSJ, 6/2/00, p.A1)
2000 A UN study put the murder
rate in Rio de Janeiro at 26.3 per 100,000, one of the highest in the
world.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A13)
2001 Jan 20, It was reported that
12.5% of the original forest in the Amazon region had been destroyed.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Jan 25, The first World
Social Forum (WSF), originated by Oded Grajew, opened in Porto Alegre,
Brazil, organized by many groups including the French Association for
the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Social_Forum)
2001 Jan, In Brazil Gol Airlines
was launched by the Constantino family, which ran a fleet of buses.
Employee owned Varig had 40% of the market, but was crumbling under
competition from TAM. Varig went into bankruptcy in 2005.
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.76)
2001 Feb 3, Mexico followed Canada
and the US in a ban on beef from Brazil due to fears of mad cow
disease.
(WSJ, 2/5/01, p.A17)
2001 Feb 18, In Brazil some 15,000
convicts held uprisings in 29 prisons that left 16 people dead. It was
coordinated by Idemir Carlos Ambrosio, leader of the PCC prison-based
gang. Ambrosio was killed in prison in July.
(SFC, 2/19/01, p.A9)(SFC, 5/16/06, p.A7)
2001 Mar 6, Sao Paulo Gov. Mario
Covas died at age 70.
(SFC, 3/8/01, p.C4)
2001 Mar 15, A Petrobras
oil-platform explosion killed 1 worker and left 9 missing at the
40-story offshore facility. The platform was in danger of sinking.
(WSJ, 3/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 20, The damaged Brazilian
P-36 Petrobras oil platform sank 75 miles offshore. 400,000 gallons of
fuel and crude oil began leaking into the sea. An immediate revenue
loss of $50 million per month was expected.
(SFC, 3/21/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 3/21/01, p.A1)
2001 Mar 27, The Brazilian
Electricity Regulatory Agency, Aneel, ordered federal agencies and
state companies to reduce consumption by 10% due to power shortages
caused by poor rains.
(WSJ, 3/28/01, p.A16)
2001 Apr 15, A prison takeover in
Cuiaba ended when inmates killed 6 leaders of the rebellion after they
took visitors hostage.
(WSJ, 4/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Apr 17, A group of 20, who
claimed to be armed with syringes of the AIDS virus, kidnapped 4
armored car workers and their families. The Proforte armored car
company handed over $2.5 million the next day.
(SFC, 4/19/01, p.A11)
2001 Apr 21, Luiz Fernando da
Costa (33), a Brazilian drug lord, was arrested in Colombia after his
plane was forced down by the Colombian air force. He was accused of
selling arms to FARC in exchange for cocaine.
(SFC, 4/23/01, p.A12)
2001 May 2, It was reported that a
large embezzlement case in Brazil threatened to unravel the ruling
coalition. Some $2 billion had disappeared from the Amazon Development
Bureau (Sudam). Fakery of land deals (grilagem) was estimated to
involve some 100 million acres of the Amazon Basin.
(SFC, 5/2/01, p.A8)(SFC, 5/3/01, p.B5)
2001 May 18, Brazil ordered
consumers and businesses to cut energy use by 20% due to shortages
created by drought. Rationing was to start June 1.
(SFC, 5/19/01, p.A8)
2001 May, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, 10 masked gang members with assault rifles freed drug
trafficker Marcio Greick (21) from the Bonsucesso Hospital. One police
officer was killed, 7 people were injured and 2 guards beaten as they
shot their way out.
(SFC, 11/18/05, p.A19)
2001 Jun 1, Senator Antonio Carlos
Magalhaes, former president of the Senate, resigned his seat following
accusations of tampering with the vote tallying system.
(SFC, 6/2/01, p.A9)
2001 Jun 20, Brazil’s Central Bank
raised the key interest rate 1.5% to 18.25%.
(WSJ, 6/22/01, pA11)
2001 Jun, Brazil signed a trade
agreement with Guyana.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.36)
2001 Jul 5, Pres. Cardoso
announced a plan to boost the electrical supply with imports and new
generators. The real fell to 2.47 to the dollar.
(WSJ, 7/6/01, p.A7)
2001 Jul 8, Some 100 inmates
escaped through a tunnel from Latin America’s largest prison in Sao
Paulo. 35 were soon captured.
(WSJ, 7/10/01, p.A1)
2002 Jul, The $1.4 billion Amazon
surveillance system (SIVAM) was scheduled to be completed by Raytheon
Systems.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.Spe.Adv.)
2001 Aug 5, In Brazil a 2-week
police strike in Salvador, Bahia state, was reported to be over.
Threats of strikes remained in other cities due to low wages.
(SSFC, 8/5/01, p.T14)
2001 Aug 6, Jorge Amado (b.1912),
author of 32 novels, died at age 88. He was considered Brazil’s
greatest contemporary writer.
(SFC, 8/9/01,
p.D2)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorge_Amado)
2001 Aug 17, Congress approved a
legal civil code that made women equal to men.
(SSFC, 8/19/01, p.A10)
2001 Aug 20, Patricia Abravanel
(23), the daughter of Silvio Santos, was kidnapped by a band of thugs
that included Fernando Dutra Pinto (22).
(SFC, 8/31/01, p.D2)
2001 Aug 22, Brazil moved to
produce a generic version of the anti-AIDS drug nelfinavir under int’l.
patent protection by Roche.
(SFC, 8/23/01, p.A8)
2001 Aug 23, Francisco de Assis
Santana (56), a Xukuru Indian leader aka Chico Quele, was killed in an
ambush near Pe de Serra in Penambuco state.
(SFC, 8/25/01, p.A9)
2001 Aug 28, Fernando Pinto and
his accomplices received $200,000 in ransom money for the daughter of
TV tycoon Silvio Santos. The next day Pinto killed 2 policemen and
escaped.
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.A5)
2001 Aug 30, In Sao Paulo Fernando
Dutra Pinto (22) held Silvio Santos hostage for 8 hours and then
surrendered to police.
(WSJ, 8/31/01, p.A5)(SFC, 8/31/01, p.D2)
2001 Aug 31, Brazil withdrew its
threat to make a generic version of the Nelfinavir AIDS drug after
Roche Pharmaceuticals agreed to produce the drug locally and cut the
price by 40% next year.
(SFC, 9/1/01, p.A7)
2001 Sep, Antonio Costa Santos,
Worker’s Party (PT) mayor of Campinas, was assassinated.
(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A8)
2001 Nov 23, An oil pipeline leak
near Rio was stopped after some 26,000 gallons spilled into Guanabara
Bay.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.A18)
2001 Nov 24, A fire at a dance
club in Belo Horizonte killed at least 6 people.
(SSFC, 11/25/01, p.A18)
2001 Dec 5, Sir Peter Blake (53)
of New Zealand, 2-time America’s Cup winner, was killed on the research
vessel Seamaster by gunmen at Macapa, Brazil, near the mouth of the
Amazon. 7 men were arrested 2 days later and an 8th was still sought.
The final 2 suspects were arrested Dec 9.
(SFC, 12/7/01, p.A1)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A2)(SFC,
12/10/01, p.A3)
2001 Dec 26, Rescue workers
searched for victims of earth slides and flooding that killed at least
49 people in Rio de Janeiro state.
(SFC, 12/27/01, p.A5)
2001 Brazil ended the year with
7.7% inflation.
(WSJ, 2/21/02, p.A15)
2001 In Brazil an 840-pound
emerald was discovered in Bahia. It was sold to Americans for $60,000
and then transferred among a number of people, who moved it to San
Jose, Ca., then to Louisiana, where it was trapped in a flooded
warehouse, and then back to California. In 2009 it came under police
control as courts attempted to unravel ownership of the mineral, now
said to be worth nearly $400 million.
(WSJ, 2/28/09, p.A1)
2002 Jan 18, Celso Daniel, the PT
mayor of Santo Andre, a Sao Paulo suburb, was kidnapped by a gang
seeking to free comrades from prison. His bullet-riddled body was found
Jan 20. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Brazil claimed responsibility
(Brazilian Revolutionary Action Front) for the killing and the Sep
murder of another Workers’ Party mayor.
(WSJ, 1/21/02, p.A1)(SFC, 1/26/02, p.A8)
2002 Feb 19, Pres. Cardoso
announced that electricity rationing would end March 1.
(WSJ, 2/20/02, p.A1)
2002 Mar 7, Brazil’s 4-party
coalition collapsed with the pullout of the Liberal Front Party.
Roseana Sarney (40), Gov. of Maranhao state and PFL presidential
candidate, was involved in a scandal over a consulting firm she owned
with her husband. Sarney called the government investigation a
witch-hunt.
(SFC, 3/8/02, p.A13)(SFC, 3/9/02, p.A7)
2002 Mar 25, It was reported that
poachers were destroying the palms in Itatiaia National Park in order
to harvest the palm hearts. A 100-year-old tree has enough heart to
fill 2 14-oz cans sold retail at $3.99.
(WSJ, 3/25/02, p.A1)
2002 May 24, A shootout between
drug gangs in a Rio slum left 6 people dead.
(SFC, 5/25/02, p.A13)
2002 Jun 2, Tim Lopes (50), an
undercover TV journalist reporting on crime and drugs in Rio de
Janeiro's shantytowns, was captured as he tried to infiltrate a dance
party in the Vila Cruzeiro shantytown of northern Rio.
(AP, 6/10/02)
2002 Jun 10, In Brazil police
reported that Tim Lopes (50), an undercover TV journalist, had been
tortured and put to death with a sword by Elias Pereira da Silva, a
drug lord known as Mad Elias, who runs his territory like a medieval
fiefdom.
(AP, 6/10/02)
2002 Jun 12, A jury in northern
Brazil acquitted 124 police officers accused of taking part in the 1996
massacre of 19 farm workers.
(AP, 6/13/02)
2002 Jun 12, Brazil’s currency
fell to a 9-month low and marked a looming debt crises and the possible
election of a left-wing president in October.
(WSJ, 6/13/02, p.A15)
2002 Jun 13, Brazil said it will
draw down $10 billion in approved IMF credit, tighten fiscal policy and
buy back $3 billion in foreign debt. The currency soared and settled at
2.71 to the dollar.
(WSJ, 6/14/02, p.A1)
2002 Jun 30, Ronaldo, the world's
greatest goal-scorer, capitalized on an error by the best goalkeeper,
Oliver Kahn, then scored again to lift Brazil to an unprecedented fifth
World Cup title Sunday night, 2-0 over Germany.
(AP, 6/30/02)
2002 Jul 3, Brazil and Mexico
signed a trade agreement that reduced import duties on some 800
products.
(WSJ, 7/5/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 5, Twenty vehicles piled
up in early morning fog in southeastern Brazil, killing at least 13
people, including a pregnant woman and six police officers.
(AP, 7/5/02)
2002 Jul 22, In Brazil assailants
tortured and killed Bartolemeu Morais da Silva (44), a prominent
activist who had been organizing land occupations by the poor in a
southern Amazon state.
(AP, 7/23/02)
2002 Jul 26, In Brazil the new
$1.4 billion Amazon Radar Surveillance (SIVAM), developed by Raytheon,
was unveiled. It was to be used to curb crime and gather economic data.
(SFC, 7/26/02, p.A16)
2002 Jul 30, In Brazil the real
fell 3.3% to 3.3 to the dollar, its 7th consecutive record low.
(WSJ, 7/31/02, p.A12)
2002 Aug 7, The IMF agreed to lend
Brazil $30 billion to stem a financial panic. This was its biggest loan
to date.
(SFC, 8/8/02, p.A10)
2002 Aug 22, In Brazil President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed a decree creating the Tumucumaque (the
rock on top of the mountain) Mountains National Park bigger than
Maryland covering a region of virgin rainforest in Amapa state, along
Brazil's northern borders with Surinam and Guyana.
(AP, 8/22/02)(SFC, 8/23/02, p.A2)
2002 Aug 30, A twin-engine plane
with 31 people crashed while trying to land in heavy rains near Rio
Branco, a northwestern Brazilian city, killing 24 people.
(AP, 8/31/02)
2002 Sep 13, It was reported that
political theater in Brazil had taken on a new grass-roots form called
the Theater of the Oppressed, wherein spectators stepped into scenes in
"interventions" to take the part of the underdog.
(WSJ, 9/13/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 6, Brazilian voters voted
46% in favor of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, former factory worker and
union boss, as president. Jose Alencar was da Silva’s running mate. A
runoff with Jose Sera (23%) was scheduled.
(WSJ, 10/2/02, p.A1)(AP, 10/6/02)(SFC, 10/8/02,
p.A10)
2002 Oct 25, In Brazil unknown
gunmen shot and killed eight people in the state of Sao Paulo in two
killings. In the first six months of 2002, the state's Public Security
Bureau registered 6,159 homicides.
(AP, 10/26/02)
2002 Oct 27, In Brazil Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva (57) won elections with 61% of the runoff vote. He
reiterated that his administration would honor Brazil's $230 billion
foreign debt, but said lending institutions and the international
community "must know that we cannot have people suffering from hunger
every day."
(AP, 10/28/02)
2002 Oct 29, In Brazil Pres.-elect
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promised to honor the foreign debt but also
pledged that ending hunger would be his chief priority.
(AP, 10/29/02)
2002 Oct 30, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
Suzanne von Richtofen (22) let her lover Daniel Cravinhos (21) and his
brother, Christian (26) into her house, and checked to make sure her
parents were sleeping. Then the brothers sneaked into the parents'
bedroom and bludgeoned them to death with iron bars. In 2006 all 3 were
tried for murder. Each was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in
prison. Daniel Cravinhos said he beat Manfred and Marisa von Richtofen
to death with an iron bar as they slept at home in a wealthy district
of Sao Paulo because the couple's daughter, Suzanne von Richtofen,
persuaded him to do it.
(AP, 6/5/06)(AP, 7/17/06)(AP, 7/22/06)
2002 Nov 22, Amilcar de Castro
(82), Brazilian sculptor, died. His work was composed from massive
sheets of iron.
(SFC, 12/3/02, p.A24)
2002 Dec 5, In Brazil 6 South
American presidents convened a summit of the continent's largest
trading bloc, aiming to work out a timetable for a free trade agreement
covering most of the continent.
(AP, 12/6/02)
2002 Dec 6, In Brazil South
American leaders set a timetable for creating a free trade agreement to
cover South America and possibly the Caribbean.
(AP, 12/7/02)
2002 Dec 9, In Angra dos Reis,
Brazil, mudslides triggered by torrential rains slashed through this
southeastern city, burying houses and killing at least 34 people.
(AP, 12/10/02)
2002 Dec 12, In Brazil Pres.-elect
Lula da Silva nominated Henrique Meirelles, a former executive for
FleetBoston, as Central Bank governor.
(WSJ, 12/14/02, p.A12)
2002 Dec 18, In Brazil a ferry
accident on a the Para River killed at least 22 people with 28 more
believed missing. The death toll grew to 44.
(AP, 12/19/02)(AP, 12/23/02)
2002 Dec 26, In Curtiba, Brazil, a
C-95 Bandeirante air force plane crashed during an emergency landing,
killing two people and injuring the other 14 people aboard.
(AP, 12/26/02)
2002 Mexico ended its visa
requirement for Brazilians as both countries liberalized their trade
regimes. Illegal immigration of Brazilians to the US via Mexico quickly
increased.
(WSJ, 1/24/05, p.A16)
2002 The city of Diadema, Brazil,
passed a law to ban bars and restaurants from selling alcohol between
11 p.m. and 6 a.m. This led to a 47% drop in homicides, a 30% drop in
traffic accidents and a 55% drop in assaults against women.
(SFC, 5/10/06, p.A1)
2003 Jan 1, In Brazil Gilberto
Gill (60), musician, became minister of culture under Pres. Silva.
(SFC, 1/2/03, p.A3)
2003 Jan 3, In Brazil Pres. Silva
delayed a plan to spend $700 million on jet fighters. The military's
$7.4 billion budget is scheduled to be cut by $282 million.
(AP, 1/3/03)
2003 Jan 11, In Brazil mudslides
caused by torrential rains near Rio de Janeiro left 17
dead.
(AP, 1/12/03)
2003 Jan 16, In Brazil mudslides
killed at least 36 people in Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo states.
(SFC, 1/17/03, p.A10)(AP, 1/18/03)
2003 Jan 23, In Porto Alegre,
Brazil, the 3rd World Social Forum began as anti-globalization
activists demonstrated at the start of the third annual summit on ways
to limit the excesses of global capitalism.
(AP, 1/23/03)
2003 Jan 30, Brazil's President
Lula da Silva launched his anti-hunger program with a move to provide
$14 a month to 1.5 million families, most from the country's
poverty-stricken northeast.
(AP, 1/30/03)
2003 Feb 4, Beauty pageant
organizers stripped Miss Brazil of her title after they discovered she
was married. Joseane Oliveira (21) was replaced by first runner-up
Taiza Thomsen (21).
(AP, 2/5/03)
2003 Feb 12, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
Bishop Paulo Pereira (38) of the Vetero Catholic Church, in the
low-income district of Guainazes, was gunned down inside his church's
headquarters. Elsewhere in San Paulo 3 gunmen killed Wallace Ornelas
Passos, a 17-year-old student with a police record for theft and other
criminal activities.
(AP, 2/13/03)
2003 Feb 14, In Brazil police
found the bullet-riddled bodies of six men in the back seat and trunk
of a car parked near a Rio de Janeiro slum.
(AP, 2/14/03)
2003 Feb 28, Carnival began
in Brazil as a large crime wave swept Rio. Imprisoned Red Command
leader, Luiz Fernando da Costa, was believed responsible and was moved
to a maximum security prison in San Paolo state.
(SFC, 2/28/03, A16)
2003 Mar 1, In Brazil a
truce between landless farmworkers and President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva peace ended, when some 1,000 landless farmers occupied a ranch 80
miles west of Sao Paulo.
(AP, 3/6/03)
2003 Mar 7, Jose Marcio Ayres
(49), Brazilian biologist and senior Wildlife Conservation Society
(WCS) biologist, died in NYC. In 1996 he set up the Mamiraua
Sustainable Development Reserve to protect a 4,300 square-mile area of
the Amazon rain forest.
(Econ, 6/19/04, p.77)
2003 Mar 24, In Brazil gunmen
killed Alexandre Martins de Castro Filho , a judge who focused on
organized crime, 10 days after another prominent judge was gunned down
in a similar slaying.
(AP, 3/25/03)
2003 Apr 4, In southern Brazil 2
buses crashed head-on during heavy rains, killing 18 people and
injuring seven others.
(AP, 4/4/03)
2003 Apr 16, In Jahangir, Brazil,
4 young men were killed by police in the Borel shantytown on Rio's poor
north side. The community was unanimous that they were not gang members
and had no involvement in crime. More than 800 civilians died from
police bullets in Rio during the first eight months of this year. In
2006 Capt. Marcos Duarte Ramalho was the third police officer to stand
trial and the first to be convicted in connection with the killings.
Two more officers awaited trial for the killings.
(AP, 11/10/03)(AP, 10/20/06)
2003 Apr 19, In Brazil a tourist
schooner with 64 people on board sank in a canal east of Rio de
Janeiro, killing at least 11 people.
(Reuters, 4/20/03)
2003 May 10, A Brazilian police
SWAT team killed eight men in a shootout as they raided a shantytown
looking for drug traffickers.
(AP, 5/10/03)
2003 May 12, In Brazil some 1,000
other landless farmers knocked down the barbed-wire fences surrounding
the Tres Marias ranch in southern Brazil, evicted its owner and claimed
the land for themselves. 90 percent of the Brazil's land was owned by
just 20 percent of the people, while the poorest 40 percent of the
population held just 1 percent.
(AP, 6/29/03)
2003 Jun 20, Pres. Bush and
Brazil's Pres. Lula da Silva said that relations between the two
nations remain on track despite sharp disagreements over Iraq and some
trade issues.
(AP, 6/21/03)
2003 Jun 22, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
some 800,000 danced their way through one of the world's biggest gay
pride parades.
(AP, 6/23/03)
2003 Jun 26, Researchers said the
Amazon rain forest is disappearing at an increasing rate, mainly
because of a growing appetite for farm land.
(AP, 6/26/03)
2003 Jul 17, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, police killed 3 alleged gang members and pulled the
bullet-riddled bodies of 7 others from a sludge-filled river in 2
notorious shantytowns due to an escalating gang war over drug control
between The Red Command and Third Command.
(AP, 7/18/03)
2003 Aug 4, Brazilian novelist
Rubem Fonseca (b.1925) won Mexico's prestigious Juan Rulfo Prize for
literature.
(AP, 8/4/03)
2003 Aug 6, Roberto Marinho (98),
who turned his father's O Globo newspaper into a media empire and
became one of Brazil's richest men, died.
(AP, 8/7/03)(SFC, 8/9/03, p.A14)
2003 Aug 9, In northeastern Brazil
84 inmates from a maximum security prison escaped through a tunnel.
(AP, 8/9/03)
2003 Aug 16, Haroldo de Campos
(73), Brazilian poet, died in Sao Paulo. He was the best know of the
Brazilian Concrete poets.
(SFC, 8/26/03, p.A19)
2003 Aug 19, In northeastern
Brazil federal police and government inspectors freed about 800 slave
workers from two farms in Bahia state. Another 200 were freed a week
later. The Brazilian government estimated that some 25,000 people work
in slavery conditions in Brazil, most of them in remote Amazon areas.
(AP, 8/30/03)
2003 Aug 19, In Baghdad a car bomb
exploded in front of the hotel housing the UN headquarters, collapsing
the front of the building. UN Special Representative Sergio Vieira de
Mello (55) of Brazil and 22 other people were killed. UNICEF said that
its program co-coordinator for Iraq, Canadian Christopher
Klein-Beekman, was among the dead. In 2008 Samantha Power authored
“Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the
World.”
(SFC, 8/20/03, p.A12)(AP, 8/21/03)(SSFC, 2/10/08,
p.M1)
2003 Aug 20, The G-20 (G20) was
formed with Brazil as one of its leading member nations. The group
emerged at the 5th Ministerial WTO conference, held in Cancun, Mexico
from 10 September to 14 September 2003. The other members are
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, China, Cuba, Egypt, the Philippines,
Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, South
Africa, Thailand, Tanzania, Uruguay, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.
(AP,
9/10/06)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G20_developing_nations)
2003 Aug 22, In Brazil a $6
million rocket exploded on its launch pad while undergoing final
pre-launch tests, killing 21 people. The VLS-1 rocket which was
undergoing tests at the Alcantara Launch Center.
(AP, 8/25/03)
2003 Aug 25, Brazil's Pres. Lula
da Silva and Peru's Pres. Toledo signed a free-trade agreement between
Peru and Mercosur. Peru planned to join as an associate member.
(Econ, 8/30/03, p.25)
2003 Sep 15, A new human rights
report on Brazil said summary executions and killings by death squads,
often formed by police officers, are commonplace and frequently
tolerated by authorities.
(AP, 9/16/03)
2003 Sep 26, In Cuba Brazil's
Pres. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed business accords with Castro
that included an agreement to renegotiate Havana's $40 million debt
with Brazil.
(AP, 9/27/03)
2003 Sep 27, Brazil and Cuba
signed $200 million in new business deals in Cuba by private Brazilian
enterprises.
(AP, 9/27/03)
2003 Oct 4, In southwest Brazil a
small airplane carrying congressman Rep. Jose Carlos Martinez and three
others went missing. All 4 were found dead the next day.
(AP, 10/4/03)(AP, 10/5/03)
2003 Oct 9, In Santo Antonio de
Jesus in Bahia state, Brazil, gunmen shot and killed Gerson de Jesus
Bispo, a man who spoke to a UN investigator about police death squads.
(AP, 10/10/03)
2003 Oct 27, In Brazil the 22nd
Socialist International Congress opened. Some 600 delegates from more
than 100 political parties met under the 52-year-old Socialist
International's motto: "For a more human society. For a world more fair
and just."
(AP, 10/28/03)
2003 Nov 9, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
87 inmates attempted a prison escape through a 390-foot tunnel. 48 were
captured and 8 died when the tunnel collapsed.
(AP, 11/10/03)
2003 Nov 21, In Brazil Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to provide homesteads for 400,000 poor
farm families by 2006. His Bolsa Familia plan merged 4 income transfer
programs into one with payments to the poorest families of up to 95
reais ($33) a month. By 2008 some 11 million families received benefits
under the plan.
(Econ, 10/25/03, p.35)(AP, 11/22/03)(Econ, 2/9/08,
p.39)
2003 Nov 30, In Brazil Todd and
Michelle Staheli were beaten to death in bed at home in an exclusive
Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. Todd Staheli (39), an American executive
with Shell oil company, and his wife were found slain the next day. In
2004 Jociel Conceicao dos Santos (20), a handyman, recanted a
confession and denied he killed the American couple. He blamed two
other Brazilians for the crime. In 2006 Jossiel Conceicao dos Santos
(22) was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison for killing the
American couple.
(AP, 12/1/03)(AP, 3/5/06)
2003 Dec 14, Brazil's ruling
Workers Party expelled four leftist lawmakers after they voted against
the party on crucial legislation being sought by President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva.
(AP, 12/15/03)
2003 Dec 15, The IMF extended for
15 months a $34 billion loan agreement with Brazil.
(WSJ, 12/16/03, p.A15)
2003 Dec 22, Brazil's Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva signed a sweeping gun-control law in an effort to
rein in what he called "an epidemic of murder by firearms."
(AP, 12/23/03)
2003 The Brazil Labor Ministry
freed 4,995 people who were working in debt bondage, mostly on remote
ranches in the southern Amazon. The rights group Land Pastoral, linked
with the Roman Catholic Church, estimated that between 15,000 and
25,000 workers live in slave-like conditions in Brazil,
(AP, 3/18/04)
2003 In Brazil the Anaconda police
operation caught judges selling favorable sentences to criminals.
(Econ, 3/27/04, p.37)
2003 The introduction of flex-fuel
cars, vehicles that could run on ethanol as well as regular petrol,
took off in Brazil due to a policy that dated to the 1970s of promoting
fuel derived from home-grown sugar cane.
(Econ, 9/24/05, p.79)
2003 Brazilian ranchers, soybean
farmers and loggers destroyed a chunk of the Amazon rainforest about
the size of Massachusetts.
(AP, 4/8/04)
2004 Jan 1, Brazil began
fingerprinting and photographing American visitors in retaliation to
similar new US procedures.
(WSJ, 12/31/03, p.A1)
2004 Jan 9, In southeastern Brazil
floodwaters swept a bus carrying 30 orange pickers off a road, and at
least eight people drowned.
(AP, 1/10/04)
2004 Jan 17, In Brazil the death
toll rose to 11 as heavy rains and mudslides pounded the Brazilian
state of Rio de Janeiro for the second day in a row.
(AP, 1/17/04)
2004 Feb 4, Hilda Hilst (73), who
provoked Brazilian readers with fiction and poetry depicting insanity,
the supernatural and erotica, died.
(AP, 2/4/04)
2004 Feb 8, In Brazil 49 inmates
slipped through a bathroom wall of a Rio de Janeiro jail cell in an
escape caught on a surveillance camera. Authorities suspended six
prison guards.
(AP, 2/9/04)
2004 Feb 15, In Brazil gunmen
ambushed a busload of police in Rio and killed 3 officers.
(WSJ, 2/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb, Zumbi dos Palmares,
Brazil’s 1st college catering mainly to blacks, opened.
(Econ, 2/14/04, p.34)
2004 Mar 10, Brazil's government
said the army burned all documents about the suppression of a 1970s
insurgency against the military dictatorship. The papers were destroyed
in the 1970s and 1980s in accordance with laws in force at the time.
(AP, 3/10/04)
2004 Mar 16, It was announced that
Carlos Slim, owner of Mexico’s Telmex, planned to buy a controlling
interest in Brazil’s biggest long distance operator, Embratel.
(Econ, 3/20/04, p.64)
2004 Mar 20, In Sao Goncalo,
Brazil, Carlos Leite and his companion, Maria da Penha, inaugurated a
free library in their home with some 100 volumes. By late 2005 the
collection had grew to 10,000 volumes and took up most of the space in
the home of the illiterate couple.
(AP, 10/2/05)
2004 Mar 28, A powerful storm,
dubbed Catarina, lashed Brazil's southern coast, damaging thousands of
homes, killing two people.
(AP, 3/29/04)
2004 Apr 2, In Brazil Jociel
Conceicao dos Santos (20), a handyman, recanted a confession and denied
he killed an American couple (Nov 30, 2003). He blamed two other
Brazilians for the crime.
(AP, 4/2/04)
2004 Apr 7, In Brazil Amazon
Indians attacked prospectors who were illegally digging for diamonds.
Cinta Larga Indians massacred 29 illegal wildcat diamond miners on
their remote northern reservation. 28 Indians were charged in the
killings, but the case has stalled over jurisdictional questions.
(AP, 4/14/04)(AP, 12/10/07)
2004 Apr 12, In Brazil more than
1,000 police stormed into two Rio shantytowns, attempting to halt a
violent dispute among drug traffickers that has left at least 10 people
dead.
(AP, 4/12/04)
2004 Apr 13, Brazil's 10,000
federal customs agents began a 4-day strike, threatening to tie up the
nation's ports and international airports unless the government grants
them a pay raise.
(AP, 4/13/04)
2004 Apr 16, In Recife, Brazil,
thousands of militant farmers converged to press the government for
speedier land reform.
(AP, 4/16/04)
2004 Apr 19, In Brazil riot police
used tear gas and rubber bullets to eject hundreds of squatters who had
seized a vacant building in Sao Paulo to demand the government speed up
redistribution of land to the poor.
(AP, 4/19/04)
2004 Apr 22, In Brazil inmates at
Urso Branco State Prison ended a 5-day rebellion that left nine people
dead at the overcrowded prison, after authorities agreed to improve
conditions.
(AP, 4/22/04)
2004 Apr, Brazil’s Independent
Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) began operations. It replaced the
Police Complaints Authority.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.47)
2004 May 11, Brazil decided to
expel American journalist Larry Rohter, who had just published a story
on Pres. Lula’s drinking.
(Econ, 5/15/04, p.36)
2004 May 14, A Brazilian domestic
airliner crashed near the Amazon city of Manaus, killing all 30
passengers and three crew members.
(AP, 5/15/04)
2004 May 26, Amnesty International
charged that Brazilian police killed hundreds of suspects over the past
year, despite a commitment by the government to set higher standards
for public security.
(AP, 5/26/04)
2004 May 29, In Brazil Inmates
rioted at the Benfica detention center in a northern Rio district,
seizing guns and taking guards hostage after 14 inmates broke out in a
mass escape.
(AP, 5/29/04)
2004 Jun 1, In Brazil police
entered the Benfica prison after a three-day rebellion and found the
bodies of 38 inmates, some of them mutilated. At least 14 of 900 had
escaped.
(AP, 6/2/04)
2004 Jun 1, In northeast Brazilian
state of Alagoas 2 days of heavy rains killed 20 people and left some
2,100 homeless.
(AP, 6/2/04)
2004 Jun 1, In Haiti US commanders
began turning over authority to a UN force under Gen. Augusto Pereira
of Brazil.
(SFC, 6/2/04, A1)
2004 Jun 4, In Brazil President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva designated four new national forests to
protect more than a million acres of rainforest.
(AP, 6/4/04)
2004 Jun 13, The UN Conference on
Trade and Development opened in San Paulo, Brazil. This marked its 11th
forum over a 40 year history. The so-called Group of 77 developing
nations actually has 132 member nations.
(AP, 6/13/04)
2004 Jun 17, Brazil’s Senate
backed a rise in the minimum wage to 275 reais ($88) per month and
approved a new bankruptcy law.
(Econ, 6/26/04, p.42)
2004 Jun 17, In Brazil the Camara
Dam on the Mamanguate River burst and flooded the city of Alagoa Grande
in Paraiba state, some 1,300 miles northeast of Sao Paulo. At least 3
people were killed.
(AP, 6/18/04)
2004 Jun 21, Leonel Brizola
(b.1922), former governor of Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro
states, died of a heart attack. Brizola, one of Brazil's most notable
leftist politicians, created and armed the so-called "Groups of 11,"
cells designed to resist the military dictatorship.
(AP, 6/22/04)(SFC, 6/24/04, p.B6)
2004 Jul 18, Idjarruri Karaja
(40), an activist who worked to include Indian rights in Brazil's
constitution, died of complications from kidney surgery.
(AP, 7/20/04)
2004 Jul 27, Brazil’s police said
they have arrested 6 suspects in the Jan 28 shooting deaths of 4 Labor
Ministry employees. They still don't know who ordered the killings.
(AP, 7/27/04)
2004 Jul 28, Luiz Candiota,
Brazil’s central bank director of monetary policy, resigned following
press allegations of tax evasion. He was succeeded by Rodrigo Azevedo,
chief economist of CSFB, an investment bank.
(Econ, 7/31/04, p.34)
2004 Aug 20, In Brazil 4 homeless
men were bludgeoned to death and six were in critical condition
following early morning attacks by unknown assailants in downtown
streets of Sao Paulo.
(AP, 8/20/04)
2004 Aug 29, Closing ceremonies
were held in Athens, Greece, for the 28th Olympiad. During one of the
final events, lead marathon runner Vanderlie Lima of Brazil was pushed
into the crowd by an intruder, but managed to finish 3rd behind Stefano
Baldini of Italy.
(SFC, 8/30/04, p.D1)
2004 Aug 29, In Brazil an
overcrowded balcony collapsed inside a popular Sao Paulo nightclub that
featured male strippers, killing six people and injuring at least 117.
(AP, 8/29/04)
2004 Aug, An $11 billion merger
between Belgium’s Interbrew and Brazil’s largest brewer AmBev formed
InBev.
(Econ, 10/29/05, p.66)
2004 Aug, Brazil and Peru
inaugurated the construction of a $7 million bridge between Assis,
Brazil, and Inapari, Peru. It was part of a 2,500 mile Transoceanic
Highway program.
(SFC, 11/5/04, p.W1)(Econ, 3/26/05, p.40)
2004 Sep 22, In southern Brazil a
school bus swerved off a narrow road and plunged into a reservoir,
killing at least 16 children.
(AP, 9/22/04)
2004 Sep 23, In southern Brazil
seven teenagers were beaten to death and five others were injured in a
rebellion at a juvenile detention center.
(AP, 9/24/04)
2004 Sep 27, In Brazil a strike by
bank workers entered its 2nd full week.
(WSJ, 9/28/04, p.A20)
2004 Oct 3, The party of Brazil's
left-leaning president emerged stronger from nationwide municipal
elections but did not come in first in the Sao Paulo.
(AP, 10/4/04)
2004 Oct 9, In Brazil a member of
a government task force working to stop illegal diamond mining on
Indian reservations in the Amazon was shot dead at an ATM.
(AP, 10/10/04)
2004 Oct 14, In Brazil Pres. da
Silva signed an executive order permitting farmers to plant genetically
modified soybeans.
(SFC, 10/16/04, p.A3)
2004 Oct 17, Effective as of today
Brazil's air force will be allowed to shoot down small planes suspected
of carrying drugs under a law meant to stem the flow of cocaine.
(AP, 10/15/04)
2004 Oct 24, Brazil launched its
1st rocket into space.
(WSJ, 10/25/04, p.A1)
2004 Oct 31, In Brazil Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva suffered major defeats in an electoral test of his
ruling party's influence. Silva’s PT Party won in 11 of the 23 cities
where it fielded candidates. Jose Serra won the mayoral election in Sao
Paulo over Marta Suplicy.
(AP, 11/1/04)(Econ, 1/29/05, p.35)
2004 Nov 5, Latin American leaders
wrapped up a two-day summit in Brazil with a pledge to help rid Haiti
of political violence and grinding poverty.
(AP, 11/5/04)
2004 Nov 23, In Brazil government
data indicated that 47% of its rainforest was now occupied by man or
logged.
(WSJ, 11/24/04, p.A1)
2004 Nov 24, Paraguayan police
captured Ivan Mezquita, a leading Brazilian drug trafficking suspect,
after a gunbattle with occupants of a cocaine-laden plane near the
border with Brazil.
(AP, 11/25/04)
2004 Nov 25, Mohamed ElBaradei,
head of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, said a deal was reached with
Brazil on inspecting its uranium enrichment plant.
(AP, 11/25/04)
2004 Dec 12, The Brazilian
Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) decided to leave the ruling coalition
of Pres. Lula da Silva. The principals included 6 state governors.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.48)
2004 Dec 16, An apartment building
was inaugurated in Brazil, each of whose 11 storeys turned
independently, giving residents 360-degree views of the eco-friendly
city of Curitiba.
(AP, 12/16/04)
2004 Dec 20, A truck and a bus
collided head-on in northeastern Brazil, killing 19 people and injuring
34 others.
(AP, 12/20/04)
2004 Dec 26, In Brazil an angry
mob destroyed police stations and a courthouse in two Amazon towns
while trying to lynch murder suspects. One man was killed during the
rioting and 44 people were arrested.
(AP, 12/27/04)
2004 Ruy Castro authored “Rio de
Janeiro: Carnival Under Fire.”
(SSFC, 8/15/04, p.M6)
2004 Peter Robb authored “A Death
in Brazil: A Book of Omissions.” He explores Brazil’s ambiguous racial
history with a focus on the rise and fall of Pres. Fernando Collor de
Mello.
(Econ, 5/8/04, p.79)(SSFC, 8/15/04, p.M6)
2004 Angus Wright and Wendy
Wolford authored “To Inherit the Earth: The Landless Movement and the
Struggle for a New Brazil.”
(Econ, 1/10/04, p.73)
2004 Brazil’s public debt fell to
52% of GDP from 57% in 2003.
(Econ, 2/5/05, p.36)
2005 Jan 1, Brazil was forecast
for 3.6% annual GDP growth with a population at 181.4 million and GDP
per head at $3,200.
(Econ, 1/8/05, p.92)
2005 Jan 19, Brazil raised its
reference lending rate for a 5th consecutive month by a half point to
18.25% in an effort to curb inflation.
(WSJ, 1/20/05, p.A12)
2005 Jan 20, Brazil’s central bank
said Brazil posted a current-account surplus of $11.7 billion for 2004,
its 2nd straight annual surplus.
(WSJ, 1/21/05, p.A7)
2005 Jan 26, The 5th annual World
Social Forum opened in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Activists from some 4,000
non-governmental organizations and 112 countries gathered under the
theme “Another World Is Possible.”
(SFC, 1/29/05, p.A6)
2005 Jan 31, In Brazil leftist
activists opposed to the spread of American influence ended the fifth
World Social Forum with a protest against unfettered capitalism and the
war in Iraq.
(AP, 1/31/05)
2005 Feb 4, Brazil’s annual
pre-Lenten Carnival got under way. It's long been an open secret that
Rio's annual samba parade is largely funded by the kingpins of an
illegal numbers game known here as the "jogo do bicho," Portuguese for
animal game.
(AP, 2/5/05)
2005 Feb 12, In northern Brazil
Dorothy Stang (73), an American nun, was shot to death. She had spent
decades fighting efforts by loggers and large landowners to expropriate
lands and clear large areas of the Amazon rainforest. In 2006 Amair
Feijoli da Cunha (38) pleaded guilty and said he offered money to two
gunmen to shoot nun, at the behest of ranchers Vitalmiro Moura and
Regivaldo Galvao. In 2008 A jury voted 5-2 to acquit Vitalmiro Moura,
one of two ranchers who allegedly ordered the killing Stang.
(AP, 2/12/05)(WSJ, 2/14/05, p.A1)(AP, 4/27/06)(AP,
5/6/08)
2005 Feb 15, Brazil’s Chamber of
Deputies chose Severino Cavalcanti, a leader of Congress’s “low
clergy,” as president. The position determines the agenda of Congress
and his selection was seen as a setback to Pres. da Silva
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.36)
2005 Feb 17, In Brazil Pres. Da
Silva signed decrees creating 2 new Amazon environmental protection
areas in a region of Para state coveted by soy farmers and ranchers
less than a week after an American nun was gunned down trying to
protect the jungle from deforestation.
(AP, 2/18/05)(SFC, 2/18/05, p.A14)
2005 Feb 25, Brazil’s government
awarded a disputed patch of Amazon rainforest to a sustainable
development project championed by the slain American nun Dorothy Stang.
(AP, 2/26/05)
2005 Feb 26, In Brazil Cleone
Santos and Magnaldo Santos, known as Negao, were taken into custody,
for aiding 2 gunmen who shot 73-year-old Dorothy Stang on Feb. 12.
(AP, 2/28/05)
2005 Mar 2, Brazil's lower house
of Congress overwhelmingly approved a law creating a framework to
legalize biotech seed sales for genetically modified crops.
(AP, 3/3/05)
2005 Mar 8, Brazilian prosecutors
formally charged four men in the death of a 73-year-old American nun
who worked to defend poor rainforest communities. Rayfran Neves Salles
was charged with firing the six shots that killed Dorothy Stang.
Clodoaldo Batista was charged as an accomplice. Two other men, Amair
Feijoli and Vitalmiro Moura, were charged with homicide.
(AP, 3/8/05)
2005 Mar 13, In southern Brazil a
tourist-filled bus crashed into a logging truck, killing seven people
and injuring at least 20.
(AP, 3/13/05)
2005 Mar 27, In Brazil Vitalmiro
Moura, the rancher accused of ordering the killing of American nun
Dorothy Stang in the Amazon rainforest six weeks ago, surrendered to
police and declared his innocence.
(AP, 3/27/05)
2005 Mar 31, Severino Cavalcanti,
president of Brazil’s lower house, forced the government to withdraw a
tax increase that would have fallen on professionals and farmers.
(Econ, 4/9/05, p.29)
2005 Mar 31, In Brazil a massacre
in Nova Iguacu, outside of Rio, left 29 people dead. The next day state
officials said they might have been carried out by police incensed by
investigations of brutality and corruption by "bad" cops. In 2006 a
court convicted Carlos Jorge Carvalho (32) a state police officer, of
taking part in the Baixada massacre. In 2009 ex-officer Julio Cesar de
Paula was sentenced to 480 years in prison and ex-officer Marcos
Siqueira Costa to 543 years for homicide and belonging to a criminal
organization. The length of the sentences was largely symbolic because
under Brazilian law no one can serve more than 30 years in prison.
(AP, 4/1/05)(SFC, 6/24/05, p.A16)(AP, 8/23/06)(AP,
9/16/09)
2005 Apr 2, Brazilian state police
detained 2 police officers in the Mar 31 shooting spree that left 30
dead in Rio’s north side.
(SSFC, 4/3/05, p.A9)
2005 Apr 4, In Brazil authorities
arrested 11 police suspected of participating in death squad killings
that left 30 people dead in two towns on Rio's poor outskirts.
(AP, 4/5/05)
2005 Apr 5, In Brazil authorities
charged eight policemen with murder for the mar 31 death-squad killings
that left 30 people dead on the outskirts of Rio.
(AP, 4/6/05)
2005 Apr 16, The Brazilian
government created "Raposa Serra do Sol" reserve in Roraima state,
which borders Venezuela and Guyana. The 1.7-million-hectare
(4.2-million-acre) reserve was set aside for the 15,000 people of the
Macuxi, Taurepang, Wapixana and Ingariko indigenous populations that
had demanded the territory for 30 years.
(AFP, 4/17/05)
2005 Apr 20, Ecuador’s Congress
voted 60 to 0 to remove President Lucio Gutierrez from office amid
street protests calling for his ouster for abuse of power and misrule.
Brazil granted asylum to Gutierrez. Alfredo Palacio, a heart surgeon
and Ecuador's vice president, assumed the presidency.
(AP, 4/21/05)(SFC, 4/21/05, p.A3)
2005 May 2, Brazil posted a record
trade surplus for the month of April. During the month its currency
rose 5% against the dollar.
(WSJ, 5/3/05, p.A14)
2005 May 8, In Brazil top
government officials from the 11 South American nations and 22 Middle
Eastern and North African countries attending the Summit of South
American-Arab Countries met ahead of the two-day summit's opening on
May 10.
(AP, 5/8/05)
2005 May 9, In Espertantina,
Brazil, Mayor Felipe Santolia (32) declared May 9 as an official Orgasm
Day.
(AP, 5/9/05)
2005 May 12, Leaders from 12 South
American and 22 Arab nations ended their first summit by endorsing a
"Declaration of Brasilia," urging Israel to abandon Palestinian
territory and insisting free trade must be harnessed to benefit the
world's poor.
(AP, 5/12/05)
2005 May 14, In Brazil more than
12,000 landless farmers who have marched nearly 125 miles to protest
the slow pace of land reform reached the outskirts of Brasilia.
(AP, 5/15/05)
2005 May 16, In Brazil thousands
of landless farmers, organized as the Movement of Landless Rural
Workers (MST), swarmed into Brasilia.
(Econ, 5/21/05, p.39)
2005 May 16, In Brazil the Indian
rights group Survival International said logging companies were cutting
down the forest in the Rio Pardo area, about 1,400 miles northwest of
Rio de Janeiro, despite repeated reports that there were isolated
Indians in the region.
(AP, 5/16/05)
2005 May 24, The environmental
group Greenpeace nominated President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and five
others for its first "Golden Chainsaw" prize, to be awarded to the
Brazilian deemed to have contributed most to the Amazon's destruction.
(AP, 5/25/05)
2005 May 26, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
at least 1.5 million evangelical Protestants rallied in the heart of
the financial district, demonstrating their growing clout in the
world's largest Roman Catholic country. "The purpose of this march, and
of all the other ones we have organized over the years, is to conquer
Brazil for Jesus Christ."
(AP, 5/26/05)
2005 May 28, It was reported that
American rancher John Cain Carter served as the driving force behind
Alianca da Terra, a Brazilian NGO promoting certification and standards
of good practice for ranchers and farmers.
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.68)
2005 May 29, In Brazil almost 2
million gay men, lesbians, transvestites and their supporters, many in
lavish Carnival costumes and waving rainbow-colored flags, paraded in
Sao Paulo to celebrate gay pride and call for the legalization of civil
unions between homosexuals.
(AP, 5/30/05)
2005 May 31, In Brazil authorities
ordered the slaughter of 17,000 chickens after 6,000 chickens died from
a mysterious respiratory illness in Mato Grosso do Sul state. Brazil is
the world's largest chicken exporter.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 May, A “Brazilian Front” for
tax reform took to the streets and forced the government to scrap
planned new taxes. The Brazilian tax code contained over 55,000
articles and 63 separate levies.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.35)
2005 May, Energy ministers from
Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela agreed to develop a field in
Venezuela’s heavy-oil belt in the Orinoco, a refinery in Brazil’s
north-east and an oil and gas venture in Argentina under the name
Petrosur.
(Econ, 7/30/05, p.33)
2005 Jun 2, Federal police
targeted Brazil's environmental protection agency in a crackdown on
illegal logging, arresting 48 officials and several independent
businessmen.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 2, In northeastern Brazil
a government bus carrying Indians from a health clinic went out of
control on a wet road and careened into a creek, killing at least 19
people.
(AP, 6/2/05)
2005 Jun 3, In Brazil new logging
permits were suspended in Mato Grosso state where the rain forest is
being cleared at an ever increasing rate.
(AP, 6/3/05)
2005 Jun 7, Brazil’s Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to carry out a battle against corruption
that would reduce it to a "sad memory."
(AP, 6/7/05)
2005 Jun 8, In Brazil the top
financial officer for Pres. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's party denied
paying off congressmen to keep the fragile governing coalition alive,
making a bid to contain political damage from an alleged
bribes-for-votes scandal.
(AP, 6/8/05)
2005 Jun 15, Blairo Maggi,
Brazilian soyabean magnate, governor of Mato Grosso, and winner of this
year’s Greenpeace “golden chainsaw” award for deforestation, refused to
accept the award and slunk out through the back door of the school he
was visiting, to the taunting shouts of hundreds of children.
(Econ, 8/8/09,
p.70)(www.treehugger.com/files/2005/06/brazilian_soy_k.php)
2005 Jun 16, In Brazil Chief of
Staff Jose Dirceu resigned over accusations he knew of a vote-buying
scheme in Congress, becoming the highest-ranking official hit by a
scandal that has shaken President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's
administration.
(AP, 6/16/05)(Econ, 6/25/05, p.37)
2005 Jun 27, France, Germany,
Brazil and Chile called for a tax on airline tickets to help finance
the global fight against poverty.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2005 Jul 5, In Brazil a top
official of the ruling Workers' Party stepped down, the second ally of
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to resign this week amid new
allegations regarding a bribes-for-votes scandal.
(AP, 7/5/05)
2005 Jul 6, Brazil’s Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva named 3 cabinet ministers from a centrist party to
shore up support for his governing coalition, mired in charges of
buying votes in Congress.
(AP, 7/7/05)
2005 Jul 9, The leader of Brazil's
governing Workers Party stepped down, the third ally of President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva to resign this week amid charges of buying votes
in Congress.
(AP, 7/10/05)
2005 Jul 11, Joao Batista Ramos da
Silva, a Brazilian congressman and an ordained minister of the
evangelical Christian Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, was
detained with 6 other people as they tried to board a private jet with
seven suitcases stuffed with cash. Ramos said the $2.6 million in
Brazilian reals was from tithes collected during religious services
(AP, 7/11/05)
2005 Jul 11, It was reported
kidnappers in Brazil were targeting the mothers of top soccer players
with 5 mothers kidnapped in the last 7 months.
(SFC, 7/11/05, p.A1)
2005 Jul 12, In Brazil Luiz
Gushiken, Pres. Lula’s communications wizard, was stripped of
ministerial status following reports that his business partners had
been blessed with fat federal contracts.
(Econ, 7/16/05, p.33)
2005 Jul 21, In Brazil an Indian
rights group warned that wildcat miners who have entered the Yanomami
Indians' Amazon reservation have brought guns and diseases that
threaten the stone-age tribe. An estimated 500 prospectors have invaded
the reservation, which is rich in gold, magnesium and niobium.
(AP, 7/21/05)
2005 Jul 22, In London a man, who
appeared to be South Asian, was slain by officers at the Stockwell
subway station. Police said the man was challenged and refused to obey
instructions. The next day police identified the man as Jean Charles de
Menezes, a Brazilian electrician, and said he was not related the
bombings and expressed regret for his death. Menezes was shot in the
head 7 times.
(AP, 7/22/05)(AP, 7/23/05)(Econ, 7/22/06, p.18)
2005 Jul 23, The man shot at the
Stockwell subway station on July 22 was identified as Jean Charles de
Menezes (27) of Brazil. London police acknowledged that Menezes had
nothing to do with recent bombings on the city’s transit system.
Brazil's government demanded an explanation for the fatal police
shooting of a Brazilian citizen on a London subway car.
(AP, 7/24/05)
2005 Jul 25, In Gonzaga, Brazil,
hundreds of relatives and friends of Jean Charles de Menezes, the
Brazilian shot to death in London after being mistaken for a terrorist,
marched along the cobblestone streets of his hometown, demanding the
arrest of the British police who fired the fatal shots.
(AP, 7/25/05)
2005 Aug 1, In Brazil Rep.
Valdemar Costa Neto, president of the government-allied Liberal Party
resigned from Congress, the first lawmaker to step down in a widening
corruption scandal that has plagued the government of President Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva.
(AP, 8/1/05)
2005 Aug 6-2005 Aug 7, In Sao
Paulo, Brazil, thieves tunneled 260 feet to a Central Bank vault and
stole some $70 million, in what has been described as the biggest such
robbery ever in Brazil. On Feb 25, 2008, police arrested Antonio
Jussivan Alves dos Santos, the leader of the thieving gang. In
March he was sentenced to nearly 50 years in jail.
(AP, 8/8/05)(AP, 3/6/08)
2005 Aug 10, In Brazil impeachment
proceedings began against Rep. Jose Dirceu, a federal legislator and a
former top Cabinet official, in connection with a bribery scandal that
has rocked President Luiz Inacio da Silva's Workers' Party.
(AP, 8/10/05)
2005 Aug 10, In Brazil authorities
said they had identified some of the Sao Paulo bank heist thieves and
were looking into the possibility the heist was pulled off by the First
Capital Command, one of Brazil's most notorious organized crime groups.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 11, Brazilian police said
they recovered a small percentage of the currency stolen from the
Central Bank in one of the world's biggest heists. Brazil's Central
Bank released an official statement saying that the amount stolen was
$70 million, instead of the $67.8 million it reported earlier.
(AP, 8/12/05)
2005 Aug 12, Police detained four
men in connection with one of the world's biggest heists and recovered
more than $2 million of the $70 million stolen from Brazil's Central
Bank. The recovered cash was found hidden in 3 pickup trucks that were
on a vehicle transporter truck located several hundred miles from the
Central Bank vault in Fortaleza. In 2008 police arrested Jossivam Alves
dos Santos, the suspected leader of the gang which carried out the
heist. Less than $10 million of the money has been recovered.
(AP, 8/13/05)(AP, 2/27/08)
2005 Aug 12, In Brazil Celio
Marcelo da Silva (32), a prison escapee believed to have masterminded
last year's abduction of the mother of a Brazilian soccer star, was
arrested. In 2003 da Silva tunneled his way out of a Sao Paulo prison
where he was serving a 38-year sentence for murder and robbery.
(AP, 8/13/05)
2005 Aug 13, James Petersen (51),
a Univ. of Vermont anthropology professor on a research trip to Brazil,
was killed while he was being robbed in Iranduba near the Amazon River.
Three suspects were taken into custody.
(AP, 8/14/05)
2005 Aug 19, Antonio Palocci,
Brazil’s finance minister, was accused of taking monthly payments from
a rubbish collection firm when he was mayor of Riberao Preta in Sao
Paulo state. The news caused speculators to dump Brazilian bonds,
shares and the real.
(Econ, 8/27/05, p.33)
2005 Aug 24, Brazilian police
arrested Francisco Antonio Cadena Collazzos, a Colombian man accused of
being an unofficial ambassador for Colombia's largest rebel group.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Aug 24, Brazilian officials
said an 80-year-old woman filmed drug traffickers near her Copacabana
beach apartment for two years and delivered 22 films to police,
triggering a massive raid against a slum drug gang. Police arrested 15
suspected traffickers, including two Rio de Janeiro state police
officers.
(AP, 8/24/05)
2005 Sep 2, A powerful storm
packing winds of up to 70 mph slammed into southern Brazil, killing and
least one person and injuring five others.
(AP, 9/2/05)
2005 Sep 6, In Brazil thousands of
anti-corruption demonstrators rallied in Sao Paulo, demanding harsh
punishment for politicians caught up in a bribery scandal shaking the
administration of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
(AP, 9/6/05)
2005 Sep 9, The presidents of
Bolivia, Brazil and Peru inaugurated a $810 million highway project to
connect Brazil's Atlantic coast to Peru's Pacific ports before the end
of the decade.
(AP, 9/9/05)
2005 Sep 14, Brazil’s police
arrested 43 people during raids on clandestine rings sneaking an
increasing number of Brazilians into the United States, Europe and
Mexico.
(AP, 9/15/05)
2005 Sep 16, In Brazil federal
prosecutors charged six men accused of stealing $70 million from
Brazil's Central Bank last August in one of the world's biggest bank
robberies. 3 men were arrested shortly after the robbery, and another 3
were still at large.
(AP, 9/17/05)
2005 Sep 19, Brazil issued its 1st
int’l. bond in its own currency. Brazil’s export boom had driven the
real upwards against the dollar.
(Econ, 9/24/05, p.90)
2005 Sep 21, The speaker of
Brazil's lower house resigned amid charges he extorted bribes from a
local businessman, the latest casualty of corruption scandals that have
rocked Brazil's government.
(AP, 9/21/05)
2005 Sep 28, Brazilian police
recovered about $4.3 million of the $70 million stolen last month in a
heist from Brazil's Central Bank, making five arrests in one of the
world's biggest bank robberies.
(AP, 9/28/05)
2005 Sep 29, In Brazil an Amazon
River passenger ship crashed into two barges and sank, leaving at least
eight people dead and a dozen missing.
(AP, 9/30/05)
2005 Sep 30, South American
presidents committed themselves to establishing a continental free
trade zone. The South American summit was attended by the presidents of
Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Paraguay, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil and
Argentina.
(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Sep 30, Olga de Alaketu (80),
the high priestess of one the oldest temples of the Afro-Brazilian
religion Condomble, was buried. She had died of complications from
diabetes. Alaketu presided over the Ile Maroia Laji "terreiro," as
Candomble temples are known, which was established in 1636, making it
one of the oldest in the coastal city of Salvador da Bahia, where the
religion is based.
(AP, 10/1/05)
2005 Oct 3, Bishop Luiz Flavio
Cappio (59), a Catholic bishop on a hunger strike to protest plans to
alter the course of a river to irrigate parts of Brazil's arid
northeast, said he was "ready to die" if the project goes forward.
Pres. Lula da Silva, who was born in one of the drought stricken
regions that would benefit from the altered course of the Sao Francisco
River, wrote the bishop a letter saying the $2 billion project will
help 18 million people in northeastern Brazil.
(AP, 10/3/05)
2005 Oct 3, Singer Emilinha Borba
(82), the queen of Brazil's golden age of radio, died of a heart
attack. In 1939, Borba recorded her first record, "Pirulito," or
"Lollipop," launching her career as a radio singer. Between 1939 and
1964, Borba recorded over 200 songs.
(AP, 10/4/05)
2005 Oct 7, In Brazil former
security guard Deusimar Neves Queiroz, a suspect in one of the world's
biggest bank robberies, was arrested after his sister-in-law tipped off
police to his alleged involvement.
(AP, 10/8/05)
2005 Oct 9, The bullet-riddled
body of Luis Fernando Ribeiro (26), the suspected mastermind of a $70
million heist from a branch of Brazil's Central Bank, was found on an
isolated road west of Rio de Janeiro. A document signed by four state
prosecutors was published Oct 21 in the Rio newspaper O Globo saying
there were signs police may have been involved in Ribeiro's kidnapping
and killing. Almost $63 million remained unaccounted for.
(AP, 10/21/05)
2005 Oct 11, Authorities in Brazil
declared part of the Amazon River a disaster area after a drought left
the levels of parts of the river too low for navigation.
(AP, 10/11/05)
2005 Oct 13, Argentina and Chile
suspended imports of Brazilian meat, joining 28 other countries with
similar bans after an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.
(AP, 10/13/05)
2005 Oct 18, Brazil's government
pledged $14 million for relief efforts in the Amazon River basin, an
area ravaged by the worst drought in decades.
(AP, 10/18/05)
2005 Oct 23, Brazilians struck
down a proposal to ban the sale of guns in a national referendum,
rejecting a bid to stem one of the world's highest firearm murder
rates.. Gun violence took the lives of about 39,000 people in Brazil
each year, more than any country in the world.
(AP, 10/25/05)
2005 Oct 27, A Brazilian
congressional panel voted overwhelmingly to submit former presidential
aide Jose Dirceu to impeachment proceedings over his alleged
involvement in a corruption scandal.
(AP, 10/28/05)
2005 Oct 31, In Brazil a man
accused of torturing and killing five people was killed in a Sao Paulo
shantytown gunfight with police who were trying to arrest him. Celso
Alencar dos Santos (33) and an accomplice allegedly killed five members
of the Yonekura family in September, when the family returned to Brazil
with thousands of dollars they had saved while living for six years in
Japan.
(AP, 11/1/05)
2005 Nov 14, Archbishop Geraldo do
Espirito Santo Avila (76), the head of the Brazilian Archdiocese for
the Military Services, died of cancer.
(AP, 11/15/05)
2005 Nov 17, In Brazil a
congressional investigation said it found no evidence of an alleged
bribes-for-votes scheme.
(AP, 11/17/05)
2005 Nov 19, Brazil's president
ordered the intelligence service to make dictatorship-era documents
public by the end of the year.
(AP, 11/20/05)
2005 Nov 20, In Brazil TV da Gente
(Our TV), the 1st channel to be directed at Brazil’s black population,
was launched.
(SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A21)
2005 Nov 30, Brazils’ government
said federal police are evicting settlers and loggers from an Amazon
area that experts believe is home to one of the world's most isolated
Indian tribes.
(AP, 11/30/05)
2005 Dec 1, Brazil's Congress
voted to expel Rep. Jose Dirceu (59), the president's former
chief-of-staff, and bar him from holding public office for 8 years amid
a corruption scandal that has rocked the government.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 1, Brazilian authorities
said they have arrested three more men suspected of taking part in the
August $70 million cash heist, and that a fourth allegedly has been
kidnapped.
(AP, 12/01/05)
2005 Dec 3, In Brazil the Greek
billionaire Athina Roussel Onassis (20) married Alvaro Afonso de
Miranda (32) a Brazilian Olympic equestrian in a palm-tree lined estate
in Sao Paulo.
(AP, 12/04/05)
2005 Dec 10, In Brazil Rayfran das
Neves Sales and Clodoaldo Carlos Batista were convicted of killing
Dorothy Stang, an American nun. Stang had spent decades trying to save
the Amazon rain forest. Prosecutor Esdon Cardoso said the case would
only be resolved when three other men accused in the killing are
convicted, including two ranchers accused of ordering the killing. A
third man has been charged with acting as a go-between for the gunmen
and the ranchers. The three are expected to face trial some time next
year.
(AP, 12/10/05)
2005 Dec 13, Brazil’s finance
ministry said it would make a full repayment of its $15.5 billion IMF
debt over the next 2 years.
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.49)
2005 Dec 22, Brazil said it will
pay off its remaining $2.6 billion debt to the Paris Club in January,
2006.
(WSJ, 12/23/05, p.A13)
2005 Dec 27, Inmates at a prison
in Brazil's remote Amazon jungle held more than 200 people hostage,
demanding the return of their leader from another prison. Authorities
agreed to bring him back, but both sides remained at an impasse,
waiting for the other to make the first move.
(AP, 12/27/05)
2005 Dec 28, Rebellious inmates at
a prison in Brazil's remote Amazon jungle ended a four-day uprising and
released more than 200 hostages after authorities met their principal
demand by returning one of their leaders from another prison.
(AP, 12/28/05)
2005 Johan Eliasch (43),
Swedish-born English business executive, bought 400,000 acres around
Manicore, Brazil, in order to cut timber cutting operations and to
plant trees.
(WSJ, 4/7/07, p.A1)
2006 Jan 7, A study reported by
Brazilian media said more than 1,000 children have been living
underneath highway overpasses, inside tunnels and on city squares in
Sao Paulo.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 7, In Haiti Brazilian Lt.
Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, commander of UN peacekeepers,
was found dead in an apparent suicide in a room at the Montana hotel in
Port-au-Prince.
(AP, 1/7/06)
2006 Jan 23, Brazilian Gen. Jose
Elito Carvalho de Siqueira (59) took command of the UN peacekeepers in
Haiti, vowing to make the impoverished nation secure for elections on
Feb. 7.
(AP, 1/23/06)
2006 Jan 24, In Brazil rebellious
inmates ended a one-day prison uprising in the remote jungle state of
Rondonia that left four dead.
(AP, 1/24/06)
2006 Jan 27, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, a sudden flood caused by heavy rains killed at least four
people in the underground parking garage of a shopping mall.
(AP, 1/28/06)
2006 Jan 29, Heavy rains in Brazil
led to the deaths of 12 people in Rio de Janeiro, including six people
killed when an underground shopping mall garage filled with water.
(AP, 1/29/06)
2006 Jan, The presidents of
Venezuela, Argentina and Brazil met in Brazil and promised to come up
with the first set of preliminary studies in March for a $20 billion,
5,000-mile gas pipeline, stretching from Venezuela to Argentina.
(AP, 1/26/06)
2006 Feb 4, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
thousands of fans surged through security barriers at an autograph
session for a wildly popular Mexican band, leaving three people crushed
to death and 38 injured.
(AP, 2/5/06)
2006 Feb 7, Indians from Brazil
and four other South American countries called for the "resurrection"
of an Indian nation, the 250th anniversary of the killing of a tribal
chief by European soldiers.
(AP, 2/7/06)
2006 Feb 13, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva created two new national parks in the Amazon
rain forest and expanded another to protect an environmentally
sensitive region where the government plans a major highway project.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 14, In Porto Alegre,
Brazil, leaders and envoys from across Christianity opened their most
ambitious gathering in nearly a decade with a host of troubles on their
agenda, from the faith's many internal rifts to easing discord with
Islam, even as it deepens over cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
(AP, 2/14/06)
2006 Feb 18, In Brazil a coalition
of American churches sharply denounced the US-led war in Iraq, accusing
Washington of "raining down terror" and apologizing to other nations
for "the violence, degradation and poverty our nation has sown."
Christian leaders explored the question: Should churches use their
investment portfolios to protest Israeli policies toward Palestinians?
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 24, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, began its yearly carnival. Officials expected some 600,000
tourists for this year's celebrations. Gunmen overpowered museum
security guards and stole four paintings by European masters, using the
cover of Rio's Carnival to make their getaway,
(AP, 2/24/06)
2006 Feb, The government of Brazil
exempted foreign buyers of reais denominated bonds from income tax.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.78)
2006 Feb, Four works of art and
other objects, including paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Monet and Dali,
were stolen from the Museu Chacara do Ceu in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by
4 armed men during Carnival. Local media estimated the paintings' worth
at around $50 million.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2006 Mar 3, In Brazil Jossiel
Conceicao dos Santos (22), a handyman, was convicted and sentenced to
25 years in prison for killing an American couple. Todd and Michelle
Staheli were beaten to death in bed at home in an exclusive Rio de
Janeiro neighborhood on Nov. 30, 2003.
(AP, 3/5/06)
2006 Mar 3, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, 10 assault rifles and a pistol were stolen from a barracks by
seven gunmen wearing army-issued camouflage gear and ninja masks. The
gunmen overpowered three guards, stole the weapons from a small depot
and sped away in at least two cars waiting outside the building.
(AP, 3/7/06)
2006 Mar 8, Brazil’s central bank
dropped its benchmark interest rate by .75% to 16.5%.
(WSJ, 3/10/06, p.A15)
2006 Mar 8, In Brazil about 2,000
highly organized farm workers, mostly women, invaded a plantation owned
by a big paper and pulp company about 700 miles south of Sao Paulo.
They uprooted saplings and destroyed a laboratory in an environmental
rampage. Via Campesina said it organized the invasion "to denounce the
social and environmental impact of the growing green desert created by
eucalyptus monoculture.”
(AP, 3/8/06)
2006 Mar 13, Rana Abdel Rahim
Koleilat (39), a fugitive bank executive wanted for questioning in the
U.N. probe of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's
assassination, was arrested in Brazil on an unrelated charge. She
offered officers up to $200,000 to release her and was arrested on a
charge of attempted bribery. In 2003 Koleilat made headlines in Lebanon
and Europe in connection with questions about her role in the
disappearance of $300 million from the private Medina Bank where she
worked. The funds' disappearance was the worst financial scandal at a
Lebanese bank since the country's 1975-90 civil war.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 14, In Brazil military
officials said weapons stolen from an army barracks have been found.
The theft triggered a massive search of Rio de Janeiro's crime infested
shantytowns.
(AP, 3/14/06)
2006 Mar 22, In Brazil the US
Embassy said agents from the US Department of Homeland Security will
soon be helping Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay combat money laundering
and terrorism financing.
(AP, 3/23/06)
2006 Mar 27, Finance Minister
Antonio Palocci, the architect of Brazil's economic recovery and
market-friendly fiscal policy, resigned after becoming caught up in a
political scandal. His office was party to the illegal disclosure of
payments to a bank account belonging to a witness against him in a
corruption case.
(AP, 3/27/06)(Econ, 4/1/06, p.32)
2006 Mar 30, A Russian-American
crew and Marcos Pontes, Brazil’s 1st astronaut, lifted off in a Soyuz
TMA-8 spacecraft to dock with the int’l. space station.
(SFC, 3/31/06, p.A3)
2006 Mar 31, A plane carrying 19
people crashed in a mountainous region outside Rio de Janeiro, killing
all aboard. A small LET 410 twin-engine plane belonging to the local
Team airline went missing about 20 minutes after leaving the city of
Macae.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, Cracking down on
visitors who come to Brazil for sex, police raided clubs in Natal known
for using call girls and strippers, detaining 118 foreigners to
discourage what authorities called "sexual tourism."
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 1, A Soyuz capsule docked
with the international space station (ISS), bringing Brazil's first
astronaut, a new Russian-American crew and a fresh load of supplies,
equipment and experiments.
(AP, 4/1/06)
2006 Apr 5, A Brazilian
congressional investigative committee gave its final approval to a
report recommending prosecution of over 100 people linked to a campaign
finance and corruption scheme run by former members of the governing
Workers Party.
(AP, 4/5/06)
2006 Apr 9, Paulo Mendes da Rocha,
Brazilian architect, was named winner of the 2006 Pritzker Architecture
Prize. His work included the Brazilian Sculpture Museum in Sao Paulo.
(SFC, 4/10/06, p.A2)
2006 Apr 9, A capsule carrying a
Russian, American and Brazilian landed in Kazakhstan following a
weeklong trip to the Int’l. Space Station.
(SSFC, 4/9/06, p.A3)
2006 Apr 12, In Brazil federal
prosecutors charged a former top presidential aide and dozens of others
with trying to bribe legislators into supporting Brazil's ruling party.
(AP, 4/12/06)
2006 Apr 14, Miguel Reale (95),
widely considered one of the chief architects of Brazil's civil code,
died of a heart attack.
(AP, 4/14/06)
2006 Apr 24, In Rio de Janeiro a
law went into effect requiring “women-only” cars on subway and above
ground trains.
(SSFC, 4/30/06, p.G2)
2006 Apr 24, The annual Goldman
Environmental Prizes were awarded in San Francisco. The winners
included Craig Williams (58) for helping to persuade Congress to order
the Defense Dept. to consider alternatives to incinerating chemical
weapons; Tarcisio Feitosa (35) of Brazil for his campaign against
rampant logging; Olya Melen (26) of Ukraine for her suits forcing the
government to scale back a large canal project impacting wetlands; Yu
Xiaogang (35) of China for his reports on damages caused by new dams;
Silas Siakor (36) of Liberia for his documentation showing how logging
was used to fund civil war; and Anne Kajir of Papua New Guinea for her
work to get reimbursements from logging companies to peasants.
(WSJ, 4/24/06, p.B7)
2006 Apr 28, In Brazil police
charged Antonio Palocci, a former finance minister, with four crimes,
including money laundering. He was viewed as the architect of Brazil's
economic recovery.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 May 4, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with Argentina’s Pres. Nestor Kirchner,
Venezuela’s Pres. Chavez and Bolivia’s Pres. Morales in response to
Bolivia’s decision to nationalize its oil and gas industry. Morales
offered to refrain from cutting off supplies and to negotiate prices.
(Econ, 5/13/06, p.43)
2006 May 12, Relations between
Brazil and Bolivia sank to their lowest point in a century, as the two
sparred over Bolivia's nationalization of its energy sector and threats
to seize Bolivian land held by Brazilian farmers.
(AP, 5/12/06)
2006 May 13, The presidents of
Brazil and Bolivia said they patched things up after days of
accusations and threats.
(AP, 5/14/06)
2006 May 13, One of Brazil's most
notorious gangs staged dozens of attacks on police before dawn, setting
off gunbattles in three cities that killed at least 30 people,
officials said. 74 of 140 prison uprisings were reported across Sao
Paulo state. Authorities blamed the violence on the prison-based gang,
First Command of the Capital (PCC), which formed in the aftermath of
the 1992 massacre at Carandiru Penitentiary. It was later reported that
a recording of Congressional talks to transfer gang leaders to a remote
prison had been leaked to the PCC.
(AP, 5/13/06)(SFC, 5/16/06, p.A7)(SFC, 5/23/06,
p.A6)(Econ, 5/20/06, p.39)
2006 May 15, In Brazil prison
riots and attacks on police by a criminal gang extended into a 4th day,
raising the reported death toll to 70.
(AP, 5/15/06)
2006 May 16, In Brazil an
unprecedented crime wave, that killed at least 97 people and terrified
the 18 million residents of Sao Paulo, seemed to be waning as stores
reopened and bus service was fully restored. Police struck back at
gangs that rampaged through Sao Paulo, killing 33 suspected gang
members in less than 24 hours and frisking motorists at roadblocks
while reporting only one death of their own.
(AP, 5/16/06)
2006 May 16, Colombian-born Pablo
Rayo Montano, one of the world's most hunted drug traffickers was
arrested in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as part of an international crackdown.
He was accused of shipping more than 70 tons of cocaine to the United
States.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 17, In Brazil the body
count grew in Sao Paulo as police, who lost 41 comrades in gang
attacks, killed 22 more suspected criminals. Authorities said little
about the latest deaths, generating criticism from rights groups.
(AP, 5/17/06)
2006 May 20, In Brazil Sao Paulo's
government refused to release the names of 109 people killed by police
during a week of gangland violence, despite increased pressure from
activists who said public confidence in law enforcement had been shaken.
(AP, 5/21/06)
2006 May 24, It was reported that
Google will shut down 6 sites on its Orkut service in Brazil in
response pressure from Brazilian law enforcement.
(SFC, 5/24/06, p.C3)
2006 May 30, A missionary group
said more than one-quarter of Brazil's isolated Indian tribes face
extinction unless the government defines their boundaries and gives
them control of their land.
(AP, 5/30/06)
2006 Jun 6, In Brasilia a melee
that erupted when hundreds of landless farmers demanding agrarian
reforms demonstrated at Brazil's Congress injured 20 people.
(AP, 6/6/06)
2006 Jun 7, In Brazil a shootout
between police and drug gangs in a Rio shantytown left 17 children
injured, several hit by stray bullets even though their teacher ordered
them to lie down on the floor when the shooting began.
(AP, 6/7/06)
2006 Jun 9, In Brazil police
arrested 28 people suspected of operating an illegal logging ring in
the Amazon rain forest and were looking for 46 more. Some 300 officers
in five states were involved in the operation to shut down a gang
accused of using phony permits to harvest rare tropical hardwoods.
(AP, 6/9/06)
2006 Jun 15, In Brazil some 3
million evangelical Protestants staged a huge rally in of Sao Paulo,
demonstrating their growing influence in the world's largest Roman
Catholic country. Brazil was nearly 100% Roman Catholic a century ago,
but the percentage dropped to 84% in 1995 and is 74% today.
(AP, 6/15/06)
2006 Jun 23, A bankruptcy judge
canceled the planned sale of Brazil's flagship Varig airline to a
workers' group, throwing the future of the carrier into limbo and
virtually ensuring more travel chaos ahead for ticket holders in Brazil
and abroad.
(AP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jun 24, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced his bid for a second term, pledging
to push harder to eradicate poverty in Latin America's largest country
if re-elected.
(AP, 6/24/06)
2006 Jun 26, In Brazil 12 men and
one woman were killed in a gunfight with police outside a prison in Sao
Bernardo do Campo, an industrial suburb on the outskirts of Sao Paulo.
Acting on orders from imprisoned PCC leaders, they had planned to shoot
as many as 60 guards from four lockups over a 10-day period as they
headed to work or finished their shifts.
(AP, 6/27/06)
2006 Jun 27, In northeastern
Brazil a two-story abandoned building collapsed onto three houses and a
construction supply store in Recife, killing 7 people and injuring 7
others.
(AP, 6/28/06)
2006 Jun 29, Brazil's Supreme
Court ordered the release of Regivaldo Pereira Galvao, a rancher who
had been jailed pending trial in connection with the killing last year
of American Nun Dorothy Stang.
(AP, 6/29/06)
2006 Jul 6, Brazilian police broke
up an international drug ring and arrested Luciano Geraldo Daniel, a
man suspected of being the country's top cocaine trafficker.
(AP, 7/6/06)
2006 Jul 13, In Brazil gangs
torched buses and attacked banks and police stations across Sao Paulo,
deepening crime fears as a wave of rampant violence entered its third
day.
(AP, 7/13/06)
2006 Jul 27, A fire raged through
a rain forest along Brazil's eastern coastline, burning up to 25,000
acres of trees.
(AP, 7/27/06)
2006 Jul 29, In Brazil about
$200,000 was found in a house in Natal, about 1,400 miles northeast of
Sao Paulo. Police were convinced the money was part of the $70 million
stolen from the Central Bank in Fortaleza in Aug 2005. By this time
only $8 million was recovered.
(AP, 8/4/06)
2006 Aug 3, In Brazil officials
said authorities are evicting thousands of peasants who have been
ordered off ranches in northern Brazil by a court ruling obtained by
the land owners.
(AP, 8/3/06)
2006 Aug 7, In Brazil suspected
PCC gang members in the pre-dawn hours attacked 78 symbols of
government and businesses across Sao Paulo state, many in the city
itself. Police killed two suspects after they allegedly opened fire on
a gas station, torched a bus and tried to flee in a car as officers
chased them. This marked the third time in four months that the gang
has unleashed its fury on the streets to oppose the prison transfer of
its leaders.
(AP, 8/8/06)
2006 Aug 9, In Brazil suspected
gang members threw homemade bombs, sent banks on fire, and torched
buses in the region and two other cities overnight in Sao Paulo state.
In Rio de Janeiro gunbattles between gangs vying for control of the
city's lucrative drug trade have resulted in the deaths of 19 people
since Aug 6.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 9, Brazil’s environment
ministry said police had arrested 46 people, including 16 agents of the
federal environmental protection agency, for allegedly operating
illegal logging operations in the Amazon rainforest and in southern
Brazil.
(AP, 8/10/06)
2006 Aug 10, A Brazilian
congressional committee approved a report recommending the expulsion of
72 federal lawmakers from Congress on charges of participating in a
nation-wide plan to divert funds from the country’s health-care system.
(WSJ, 8/11/06, p.A5)
2006 Aug 11, In Brazil officials
said police had arrested 30 businessmen, government officials and
soldiers accused of taking part in a scheme to net millions of dollars
by over-billing for meals in the military and at schools.
(AP, 8/11/06)
2006 Aug 14, In Brazil Guilherme
Portanova (30), a kidnapped television reporter, was freed after Globo
met the gang's demand to broadcast a video calling for improvements in
Brazil's troubled prison system. In Rio de Janeiro Andres Costa Ramos
Bordalo was stabbed to death by an assailant who stole his knapsack on
Copacabana beach. Police stepped up patrols but at least 22 tourists
were robbed during the week.
(AP, 8/14/06)(AP, 8/19/06)
2006 Aug 16, Alfredo Stroessner
(93), the anti-communist general who ruled Paraguay with a blend of
force, guile and patronage for 35 years before his ouster in 1989, died
in exile in Brazil.
(AP, 8/16/06)
2006 Aug 25, Officials said drug
users who don't engage in dealing will no longer be sent to prison
under a new drug law now in effect across Brazil.
(AP, 8/25/06)
2006 Aug 27, In Brazil archbishop
Luciano Mendes de Almeida (75), an avid human rights defender, died.
(AP, 8/27/06)
2006 Aug 30, Brazil’s central bank
cut its key interest rate 0.5% to 14.25%, a quarter point more than had
been expected. Brazil also released weaker-than-expected data on GDP.
(WSJ, 9/1/06, p.A8)
2006 Sep 1, Brazil pressured
Google to turn over data from Web sites that the government said were
used by criminals. Authorities gave Google 15 days to comply or face a
daily fine of $23,000.
(SFC, 9/2/06, p.C1)
2006 Sep 9, In Brazil Ubiratan
Guimaraes, the police colonel accused of ordering a 1992 jail massacre
of more than 100 inmates, was shot dead in his apartment in Sao Paulo.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 10, In Brazil
international trade officials sought to strike a positive tone at the
end of a two-day meeting aimed at restarting negotiations for the
stalled World Trade Organization's Doha Round. The talks were billed as
a High Level Meeting of the Group of 20 (G20) developing nations, but
they represented the first time nearly all the parties involved have
come together since the Doha talks were suspended.
(AP, 9/11/06)
2006 Sep 13, The presidents of
Brazil and South Africa, at a trilateral trade meeting in Brasilia,
said they supported changes in international rules to allow India to
buy nuclear fuel and reactors from the United States and other
countries. The trio created the India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue
Forum (IBSA) in 2003 to promote the interests of their emerging markets.
(Reuters, 9/13/06)(AFP, 9/14/06)
2006 Sep 24, Inco, one of Canada’s
two largest mining companies, agreed to be acquired by Companhia Vale
do Rio Doce of Brazil for $17.8 billion.
(www.secinfo.com/dRY7g.v113.d.htm)(WSJ, 4/25/08,
p.A1)
2006 Sep 26, In Brazil officials
said Rio will spend $1 million to map two sprawling shantytowns as the
first step toward granting land titles to residents who otherwise have
no property rights in the sprawling slums.
(AP, 9/26/06)
2006 Sep 29, A Brazilian jetliner,
Gol airlines Flight 1907, with 155 people aboard crashed in the Amazon
jungle after reportedly colliding with a smaller executive jet carrying
16 passengers. The Legacy jet stabilized after the apparent collision
and then landed at a Brazilian air force base in the Amazon state of
Para. It was later reported that the US executive jet was at the wrong
altitude and Brazil confiscated the passports of the pilots. In
November it was reported that the flight recorder transcript from the
executive jet involved in the air disaster showed that the jet's
American pilots were told by Brazilian air traffic control to fly at
the same altitude as a Boeing 737 before the planes collided over the
Amazon rainforest. Pilots Joseph Lepore (42), of Bay Shore, N.Y., and
Jan Paladino (34), of Westhampton Beach, N.Y., were allowed to return
to the US on Dec 8 after signing a document promising to return to
Brazil for their trial or when required by local authorities.
(AP, 9/30/06)(AP, 10/1/06)(WSJ, 10/5/06, p.A1)(AP,
11/2/06)
2006 Oct 1, Brazil held elections.
Brazil voted for president, the lower house of Congress, a third of the
Senate and all state governors and legislatures. Voter outrage over
alleged corruption and dirty tricks left Pres. Silva facing a tough
runoff for a 2nd term after Geraldo Alckmin, his main rival, staged a
surprise comeback. Silva got 48.6% compared to 41.6% for Alckmin, the
former governor of Sao Paulo state. Silva had seemed assured of a
first-round victory until two weeks ago when Worker Party operatives
were caught allegedly trying to pay $770,000 in cash for information to
incriminate Alckmin's Social Democracy Party. The target of the alleged
smear campaign was Jose Serra, an Alckmin ally who won the race to
become Sao Paulo state's next governor, handily beating the Workers'
Party candidate. Electoral officials said former President Fernando
Collor de Mello, forced from office in a corruption scandal in 1992 and
barred from politics for eight years, has won a seat in Brazil's Senate.
(AP, 10/2/06)(AP, 10/3/06)(Econ, 9/30/06, p.31)(AP,
10/1/07)
2006 Oct 4, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
court officials said 14 workers at a juvenile detention center were
convicted and sentenced to up to 87 years in prison for beating inmates
with iron bars and wood to find out who organized an escape attempt in
2000.
(AP, 10/4/06)
2006 Oct 5, In Brazil
environmentalist Eduardo Veado (46) and his wife, Simone Furtini Abras
(41) died after being run over as they walked along a country road in
Minas Gerais state. Veado had received death threats for denouncing
illegal logging around the town of Ipanema.
(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 13, In Brazil a small
private plane with six people aboard went missing after losing contact
with air traffic controllers in Vitoria.
(AP, 10/14/06)
2006 Oct 17, In Brazil some 200
Indians from the Xikrin tribe, wielding war clubs and bows and arrows,
stormed an Amazon mining complex at the company town of Carajas,
shutting it down in an apparent demand for more compensation from CVRD,
the world's largest iron ore miner. The Indians left after 2 days.
(AP, 10/18/06)(AP, 10/19/06)
2006 Oct 19, In Brazil Judge Luiz
Noronha Dantas handed down a 52-year sentence on four homicide counts
and stripped Capt. Marcos Duarte Ramalho of his status as a police
officer. Ramalho was the third police officer to stand trial and the
first to be convicted in connection with the April 16, 2003, killings
in the Borel shantytown on Rio's poor north side. Two more officers are
set to stand trial for the killings.
(AP, 10/20/06)
2006 Oct 29, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (61) won a landslide victory giving him a
powerful mandate to press his anti-poverty campaign, but corruption
scandals dogged his leftist party and thinner support in Congress could
mar his second term. Lula’s Worker’s Party (PT) won 5 of the 27 state
governorships.
(AP, 10/29/06)(AP, 10/30/06)(Econ, 11/4/06, p.46)
2006 Nov 5, Marilson Gomes dos
Santos of Brazil won the NYC Marathon in 2:09:58. Jelena Prokopcuka of
Latvia won the women’s race for the 2nd year in a row in 2:25:05.
(WSJ, 11/6/06, p.A1)
2006 Nov 14, In Brazil Ana
Carolina Reston (21), an anorexic model who weighed only 88 pounds,
died of generalized infection. Reston had worked in China, Turkey,
Mexico and Japan for several modeling agencies.
(AP, 11/17/06)
2006 Nov 25, A group of 18 English
tourists was robbed by heavily armed gunmen shortly after arriving in
Rio de Janeiro for vacation. Last month, gunmen attacked a bus carrying
Chinese tourists and robbed them of $17,000.
(AP, 11/26/06)
2006 Dec 5, In Brazil a court said
it had released the passports of two US pilots of a private jet
involved in a collision with a Boeing 737 over the Amazon that killed
154 people.
(AP, 12/6/06)
2006 Dec 12, In southeastern
Brazil a couple and their 5-year-old son were tied up, locked in their
car and burned to death during a robbery.
(AP, 12/12/06)
2006 Dec 15, In Brazil 5 Rio de
Janeiro state police officers, most from one of the city's most violent
neighborhoods, were arrested as they arrived at work as part of a probe
into drug trafficking.
(AP, 12/15/06)
2006 Dec 22, President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva called in the Brazilian air force to help transport
airline passengers on an emergency basis as long delays and overbooked
planes snarled commercial flights over the busy holiday weekend.
(AP, 12/22/06)
2006 Dec 23, In Brazil El Al Yoram
(35), an Israeli man known as the "King of Ecstasy" and alleged to be
one of the world's foremost traffickers of the drug, was arrested in
Rio de Janeiro. Yoram left the US in 2004 and had been hiding in
Uruguay, where he was arrested in 2005 but fled from jail.
(AP, 12/23/06)
2006 Dec 27, Brazilian travelers
incensed about an overbooked flight stormed a runway to prevent a
commercial jet from taking off. A tourism industry leader said two
months of chronic flight delays have been a "disaster" for tourism.
(AP, 12/27/06)
2006 Dec 28, In Brazil at least 18
people were killed in gang attacks on buses and police posts in Rio de
Janeiro.
(AP, 12/28/06)
2006 Dec 30, In Brazil Rio police
killed six suspected criminals as authorities vowed to restore order
ahead of a huge New Year's Eve bash on Copacabana Beach, deploying
officers across the city two days after gang-initiated violence left 19
dead.
(AP, 12/31/06)
2006 Dec, Brazil’s government
agreed to spend $3 million on a bridge to Guyana over the Takutu River.
An attempt 5 years earlier had failed over financial irregularities.
(Econ, 1/13/07, p.36)
2006 Dec, In Brazil a gold rush
began in the Amazon jungle after Ivani Valentin da Silva, a math
teacher in Apui, posted pictures and stories of Eldorado do Juma on the
Internet.
(AP, 2/3/07)
2006 Brazil’s former Pres.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso authored “The Accidental President of Brazil:
A Memoir”
(WSJ, 4/6/06, p.D8)(Econ, 4/8/06, p.81)
2006 A Brazilian nuclear
enrichment plant run by Industrias Nucleares do Brasil S.A. was
expected to open bringing Brazil into the world’s nuclear elite group.
(SFC, 4/21/06, p.A11)
2007 Jan 1, In Brazil Sergio
Cabral took office as governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The
state’s economy was valued at around $130 billion, about the same as
that of Venezuela.
(Econ, 1/20/07, p.50)
2007 Jan 2, In Brazil an explosion
in Sao Paulo ripped through a state police warehouse used to store guns
and ammunition, killing one officer and injuring five.
(AP, 1/2/07)
2007 Jan 6, In southeastern Brazil
officials said mudslides and flash floods triggered by torrential
downpours killed at least 31 people and drove thousands from their
homes during the past five days.
(AP, 1/6/07)
2007 Jan 11, Brazilian prosecutors
sought the extradition of two church leaders arrested in the United
States on money smuggling charges.
(AP, 1/11/07)
(AP, 1/13/07)
2007 Jan 18, South America's most
prominent leaders met in Rio for a two-day summit of the fractured
Mercosur economic bloc. Leaders sought to refocus Mercosur on the needs
of the region's poor as Venezuela's outspoken president called for
remaking Mercosur to fit his vision of "21st century socialism."
(AP, 1/18/07)
2007 Jan 20, Anselmo Oliveira
Magalhaes (32), a man accused of helping steal more than $70 million in
cash from a branch of Brazil's central bank in 2005, was found dead
with a broken neck and his hands and feet tied inside a 75-foot well at
a ranch in Santa Izabel. The bodies of two other men were found in the
well, but it wasn't immediately clear whether they had any connection
to the bank heist.
(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 22, Brazil’s government
announced a growth acceleration package.
(Econ, 1/27/07, p.34)
2007 Jan 23, Brazil said it had
requested the US extradite two leaders of an evangelical church (Reborn
in Christ) who allegedly used their followers' donations to buy
mansions, a horse farm and apartments in Brazil and the US. Estevam
Hernandes Filho (52) and his wife, Sonia Haddad Moraes Hernandes (48)
were arrested by US customs agents in Miami earlier this month on
charges of carrying a large sum of undeclared cash. The couple was
sentenced to five months in prison, five months of house arrest and a
probation period for failing to declare they were carrying more than
$10,000 into the United States. They were also fined $60,000. Both
returned to Brazil on Aug 1, 2009.
(AP, 1/24/07)(AP, 8/2/09)
2007 Jan, In Brazil the Mato
Grosso do Sul state government stopped distributing food baskets to
some 11,000 Guarani-Kaiowa Indians on the Dourados reservation, about
800 miles west of Rio de Janeiro when a new government was elected. The
suspension worsened malnutrition among thousands of Indians, and at
least two young children died.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 6, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
suspected gang members torched 3 buses and shot at police, raising
concerns the violence could mushroom into a repeat of last year's crime
wave.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 7, A twin-engine plane
crashed in Brazil’s Amazon jungle, killing all six people aboard.
(AP, 2/7/07)
2007 Feb 13, In Brazil 2 students,
who endured more than 60 hours without food and water, were rescued
after being robbed and thrown into an abandoned well. Police entered a
Rio slum and clashed with drug gangs in shootouts that killed six
people, including at least four suspected gang members.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Bolivian President Evo Morales reached a
deal late on how much Brazil will pay for Bolivian natural gas,
apparently resolving an issue that has deeply divided the neighboring
nations for a year.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 14, In Brazil violence
cast a shadow over Rio's famed Carnival when gunmen killed Guaracy Paes
Falcao (42), a leader of one of the premiere samba band groups. Falcao
was with an unidentified woman who was also shot dead.
(AP, 2/14/07)
2007 Feb 17, In Rio de Janeiro the
Black Ball band, which has played carnival since 1918, opened the first
full day of Carnival.
(AP, 2/17/07)
2007 Feb 25, In Brazil gunmen
killed five people in a Sao Paulo slum in what police suspect was a
drug-related crime, bringing to 21 the death toll from attacks this
month in South America's biggest city.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 26, In Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, the concrete awning of a hotel in the Copacabana beach district
collapsed, killing two people and injuring six.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb 26, Coordinated
international efforts led to the capture in Brazil of Manuel Juan
Cordero (67) a retired Uruguayan colonel wanted in "dirty war" probes
in both Argentina and Uruguay. He was detained in Santana do
Livramento, a town near the Uruguayan border where he was living.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb 27, In Brazil 3 French
nationals who ran a nonprofit group that helps poor children were
stabbed to death at their headquarters near Rio's Copacabana beach and
authorities arrested three suspects. The slayings that left one of the
victims decapitated were part of a botched scheme to protect a
Brazilian accountant, Tarsio Wilson Ramires (25), accused of stealing
money from the group.
(AP, 2/27/07)
2007 Feb, In Brazil 21 political
parties were represented in the 513-seat Congress.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.36)
2007 Mar 1, In Brazil Slovenian
Martin Strel approached the halfway point of his attempt to swim the
entire length of the Amazon river, trying to avoid severe burns,
alligators and the dreaded bloodsucking toothpick fish.
(AP, 3/1/07)
2007 Mar 2, Brazilian police
arrested 18 people accused of allowing illegal logging in the Amazon
rain forest and were searching for 19 others, including environmental
protection agents.
(AP, 3/2/07)
2007 Mar 3, In Brazil gunmen
killed five people in Rio de Janeiro's poor outskirts in an attack
blamed on rival drug gangs.
(AP, 3/4/07)
2007 Mar 5, In Brazil Bishop Ivo
Lorscheiter (79), a prominent critic of the former military regime,
died in Santa Maria. Lorscheiter, a leading advocate of liberation
theology, had also squared off with the Vatican over his progressive
beliefs.
(AP, 3/6/07)
2007 Mar 8, President Bush opened
a weeklong tour of Latin America in Brazil. Police clashed with
students, environmentalists and left-leaning Brazilians protesting
Bush’s visit and his push for an ethanol energy alliance. Local news
media said at least 18 people were hurt and news photographs showed
injured people being carried away.
(AP, 3/8/07)(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 9, President Bush
heralded a new ethanol agreement with Brazil as a way to boost
alternative fuels production across the Americas. One roadblock in the
Bush-Silva ethanol talks is a 54-cent tariff the United States has
imposed on every gallon of ethanol imported from Brazil. Bush said it's
not up for discussion.
(AP, 3/9/07)
2007 Mar 13, Brazil announced that
it will build a wall on a small portion of its border with Paraguay in
an effort to combat contraband and smuggling.
(AP, 3/13/07)
2007 Mar 14, In Brazil a
twin-engine plane was carrying $2.6 million worth of Brazilian reals
crashed near the city of Salvador. Locals made off with bags of cash
before rescuers arrived on the scene.
(AP, 3/15/07)
2007 Mar 18, Officials said Cesare
Battisti, a former Italian communist revolutionary who went into hiding
in France two and a half years ago, was arrested in Brazil. In 1993 the
former revolutionary was given a life sentence by an Italian court for
his role in four murders committed in 1978 and 1979.
(AFP, 3/18/07)
2007 Mar 19, Brazil's airlines
were trying to make up for lengthy flight delays after its troubled air
traffic control system failed over the weekend.
(AP, 3/19/07)
2007 Mar 23, Brazil's
environmental agency approved a $2 billion project to shift the course
of a major river in Brazil, a plan bitterly opposed by
environmentalists. The Sao Francisco River project is meant to benefit
some 12 million poor people by allowing large sections of the country's
arid northeast to be irrigated.
(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 23, A Brazilian housewife
was convicted and sentenced to 19 years in prison for killing her
husband, chopping his body into small pieces and frying it. Rosanita
Nery dos Santos (52) drugged her husband in his sleep, then stabbed him
to death two years ago in Salvador, about 900 miles northeast of Sao
Paulo.
(AP, 3/23/07)
2007 Mar 29, Brazil's government
said it will provide free Internet access to native Indian tribes in
the Amazon in an effort to help protect the world's biggest rain
forest. The environment and communications ministers signed an
agreement with the Forest People's Network to provide an Internet
signal by satellite to 150 communities.
(AP, 3/30/07)
2007 Mar 30, A protest by air
traffic controllers forced the suspension of flights from Brazilian
airports, stranding thousands of travelers across the country.
(AP, 3/31/07)
2007 Mar 31, In Brazil air traffic
controllers protesting working conditions ended their one-day strike
after the government agreed to their demands.
(AP, 4/1/07)
2007 Apr 7, In Brazil Martin
Strel, a 52-year-old Slovenian, completed a 3,272 swim down the Amazon
River that could set a world record for distance. In 2000, he completed
an 1,866-mile swim along the Danube. He broke that record two years
later after swimming 2,360 miles down the Mississippi. In 2004 he broke
it again by swimming 2,487 miles along the Yangtze river in China.
(AP, 4/8/07)
2007 Apr 10, Diabetes scientists
reported that 15 Type 1 Brazilians did not need insulin shots after
therapy with stem cells from their own blood. It was also reported that
such stem cells helped repair heart damage due to Chagas disease,
caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, carried by kissing bugs
(barbeiros).
(WSJ, 4/11/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 11, In Brazil Gov. Sergio
Cabral Filho formally requested that the army intervene to contain the
violence that has been spiraling out of control in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 4/11/07)
2007 Apr 12, Brazilian police
broke up a gang accused of killing hundreds of people over several
years, arresting 18 suspects and searching for 10 others. The gang,
made up of police officers, hired guns and businessmen, had carried out
up to 200 killings a year over the past five years, most of them linked
to loan sharking.
(AP, 4/12/07)
2007 Apr 13, Federal police in
Brazil arrested the chief organizer of Rio's carnival parade, a federal
judge and a prosecutor in a crack-down on illegal gaming and money
laundering.
(AP, 4/13/07)
2007 Apr 14, Thousands of landless
workers invaded government property in Brazil's arid northeast to try
to stop a controversial river-diversion project. About 7,500 people
invaded plots of government-owned land near Petrolina, 1,360 miles
north of Sao Paulo in Pernambuco state.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 14, The population of
Brazil numbered about 188 million people.
(Econ, 4/14/07, SR p.3)
2007 Apr 16, Indians from across
Brazil pitched black plastic tents in front of government buildings to
demand that officials discuss with them infrastructure projects they
claim could have a negative impact on their ancestral lands.
(AP, 4/16/07)
2007 Apr 17, In Brazil shootouts
involving drug gangs and police in Rio left at least 20 alleged gang
members dead.
(AP, 4/17/07)
2007 Apr 29, Octavio Frias de
Oliveira (94), who published Brazil's biggest newspaper and Web site
and helped modernize the country's media, died of kidney failure.
(AP, 4/30/07)
2007 May 4, Brazil’s Pres. Lula da
Silva issued a license allowing Brazil to buy or produce a cheap
generic version of AIDS drug efavirenz, bypassing Merck’s patent. The
compulsory licensing for efavirenz will allow Brazil to import
unbranded copies at a quarter of current prices while paying Merck a
nominal royalty.
(WSJ, 5/5/07, p.A1)(Econ, 5/12/07, p.42)
2007 May 6, In Brazil Eneas
Carneiro (68), a three-time presidential candidate who was later
elected to Congress with the largest number of votes ever received by a
Brazilian lawmaker, died of leukemia.
(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 May 9, Police in Brazil and
Norway detained at least 25 people in simultaneous raids on suspected
criminal gangs, seeking evidence of money laundering.
(AP, 5/9/07)
2007 May 9, Pope Benedict XVI
departed for a 5-day visit to Brazil, as evangelical Christians packed
converted storefronts and cavernous churches every Sunday. Benedict
gave his first full-fledged news conference since becoming pontiff in
2005. When a reporter pressed Benedict on whether he agreed that
Catholic politicians who recently legalized abortion in Mexico City
should rightfully be considered excommunicated, the response was "Yes."
(AP, 5/9/07)(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 10, In Brazil Pope
Benedict XVI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to
abortion in his first speech but avoided further suggestion that
politicians who support abortion rights should be considered
excommunicated.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 11, In Sao Paulo Pope
Benedict XVI canonized Antonio de Sant'Anna Galvao (d.1822), an
18th-century Franciscan monk, as Brazil's first native-born saint.
Friar Galvao began a tradition among Brazilian Catholics of handing out
tiny rice-paper pills, inscribed with a Latin prayer, to people seeking
cures for all manner of ailments.
(AP, 5/11/07)
2007 May 13, Pope Benedict XVI
held an inaugural mass for the 5th conference of bishops from Latin
America and the Caribbean. This brought together 166 bishops to discuss
the church's situation in the region, home to nearly half of the
world's 1.1 billion Catholics.
(Econ, 5/5/07, p.47)(AFP, 5/13/07)
2007 May 14, Pope Benedict XVI
returned to Rome after telling Brazilians a growing rich-poor gap is to
be lamented, but that the solution isn’t Marxism.
(WSJ, 5/15/07, p.A1)
2007 May 15, President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva said Brazil will push to improve working conditions for
sugarcane cutters who harvest most of the cane that is turned into
ethanol for the nation's booming biofuel industry. A jury voted 5-2 to
convict rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura of masterminding the shooting
of 73-year-old Dorothy Stang, an American nun and rain forest defender
on Feb. 12, 2005, in a case seen as an important test of justice in the
largely lawless Amazon region. This ruling was overturned in 2008 after
the man who confessed to shooting Stang recanted earlier testimony,
insisting that he'd acted alone. Gunman Rayfran das Neves Sales was
sentenced to 28 years in prison. In 2009 Para state's top court
reversed the 2008 not-guilty verdict for Vitalmiro Moura on a
technicality.
(AP, 5/15/07)(AP, 4/7/09)
2007 May 21, Paraguayan President
Nicanor Duarte and Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met in Paraguay's
capital, Asuncion, and vowed to boost legitimate trade and to
strengthen cross-border cooperation in fighting smuggling in the Triple
Border.
(AP, 5/22/07)
2007 May 22, Silas Rondeau,
Brazil's mines and energy minister, resigned amid accusations he was
bribed by a construction company that obtained contracts to provide
electricity to poor rural areas in a program championed by the nation's
first working class president.
(AP, 5/23/07)
2007 May 28, In Brazil Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva unveiled a program to provide cheap birth control
pills at 10,000 drug stores across the country.
(AP, 5/28/07)
2007 May 29, Brazilian Senate
President Renan Calheiros said that he won't resign over accusations he
accepted payoffs from one of the country's top construction companies.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 Jun 1, In a key legal step
toward assigning blame for Brazil's deadliest plane crash, two US
pilots and four Brazilian air traffic controllers were indicted on
charges equivalent to involuntary manslaughter for the Sep 29, 2006,
mid-air collision that killed 154 people.
(AP, 6/2/07)
2007 Jun 1, In Brazil federal
authorities said an Indian tribe that has had very limited contact with
the outside world, has been located in a remote Amazon region. The
Metyktire, a subgroup of the Kayapo tribe, consisted of some 87 members.
(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Jun 1, Marly de Oliveira
(69), the Brazilian poet who wrote the award-winning volume "O Mar de
Permeio" (The Sea Between Us), died in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 4, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that rich nations should pay poorer
countries to preserve their forests because the rich are responsible
for most of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Police formally
accused a brother of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of influence
peddling after a nationwide crackdown on illegal gambling. About 600
Federal Police agents took part in the raids carrying 87 arrest
warrants and another 50 search and seizure warrants in six states as
part of Operation Razor, an investigation into fraudulent public works
(www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8320/54/).
(AP, 6/4/07)(AP,
6/5/07)(www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/8320/54/)
2007 Jun 4, Emerging economic
powers India and Brazil pledged to increase bilateral trade four-fold
to 10 billion dollars in the next three years.
(AFP, 6/4/07)
2007 Jun 5, The governor of
Brazil's Amazon state signed into law legislation aimed at curbing
global warming in an area bigger than France and Spain combined.
(AP, 6/5/07)
2007 Jun 10, In Brazil millions of
people packed the streets of Sao Paulo for what organizers said was the
world's largest gay pride parade, dancing and waving rainbow flags in a
carnival-like atmosphere to condemn homophobia, racism and sexism.
(AP, 6/10/07)
2007 Jun 15, In Brazil Marc Van
Roosmalen was convicted of trying to illegally auction off the names of
monkey species, keeping rare monkeys at his house without authorization
and selling a scaffolding donated to the National Institute for Amazon
Research where he worked. He was sentenced to 15 years and nine months
in a prison. Roosmalen has claimed in media reports that he was framed
by powerful logging and ranching interests that operate in the Amazon.
In August Roosmalen was ordered released pending an appeal.
(AP, 8/7/07)
2007 Jun 22, Brazil’s government
sacked 14 air controllers in response to go-slow actions that
contributed to chaos at Brazil’s airports.
(Econ, 6/30/07, p.43)
2007 Jun 27, In Brazil police
backed by helicopters raided Rio’s notorious Alemao shantytown and
killed 19 suspected drug traffickers in pitched gunbattles.
(AP, 6/28/07)(Econ, 8/4/07, p.34)
2007 Jun 28, Federal authorities
in Brazil arrested 10 Brazilians accused of luring South American women
to Spain and forcing them into prostitution.
(AP, 6/29/07)
2007 Jun 29, Brazilian authorities
began a 3-day raid an Amazon plantation where more than 1,000 laborers
were found working 13-hour days, in horrendous conditions, cutting
sugar cane for ethanol production.
(AP, 7/3/07)
2007 Jun 29, Mercosur, South
America’s biggest trade block (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay),
held a presidential summit in Asuncion, Paraguay.
(Econ, 7/7/07, p.40)
2007 Jul 4, On the historic
occasion of their first summit, the EU and Brazil decided to establish
a comprehensive strategic partnership, based on their close historical,
cultural and economic ties. Brazil and EU leaders met in Lisbon,
Portugal.
(www.eu2007.pt/UE/vEN/Noticias_Documentos/20070704BRSUM.htm)(Econ,
7/7/07, p.40)
2007 Jul 7, A global poll picked
the Great Wall of China, Rome's Colosseum, India's Taj Mahal, Peru’s
Macchu Picchu, Jordan’s Petra, Brazil's Statue of Christ Redeemer and
Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid as the new seven wonders of the world.
The campaign to name the new wonders was launched in 1999 by the Swiss
adventurer Bernard Weber.
(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 10, President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva said that Brazil will budget about $540 million over
eight years to complete its nuclear program, including uranium
enrichment and possibly building a nuclear-powered submarine.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 12, HM Capital Partners
LLC, a leading, Dallas-based private equity firm, and Booth Creek
Management Corporation sold Swift & Company to Brazil’s JBS S.A.,
the largest beef processor in South America and one of the largest
worldwide beef exporters. Swift was the 3rd largest processor of beef
and pork in America and the biggest processor of beef in Australia.
(Econ, 10/31/09,
p.74)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JBS_USA)
2007 Jul 13, A court in Brazil
issued an arrest warrant for self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris
Berezovsky on charges of money-laundering, but he denied any
involvement. The case dates back to 2004, when MSI spent millions of
dollars acquiring new players, which raised the interest of Sao Paulo
state prosecutors. They wanted to know more about the investment group,
its Iranian-born president, Kia Joorabchian, and the origin of the
money he and his unidentified partners injected into the club.
Brazilian prosecutors said they have also issued an arrest warrant for
Joorabchian, a British citizen.
(AP, 7/13/07)
2007 Jul 13, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, began hosting the Pan American Games. An estimated 5,500
athletes from 42 countries participated in 38 sports. The games ended
July 29.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Pan_American_Games)
2007 Jul 17, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
a TAM airlines Airbus-320 slammed into a gas station and a TAM building
and burst into flames after trying to land on a short, rain-slicked
runway at Congonhas airport. All 187 people aboard were killed along
with 12 on the ground.
(AP, 7/18/07)(AP, 7/17/08)
2007 Jul 20, Sen. Antonio Carlos
Peixoto de Magalhaes (79), one of Brazil's most influential
politicians, died. He had held on to power as the country came under a
military dictatorship and returned to democracy.
(AP, 7/21/07)(SFC, 7/23/07, p.D6)
2007 Jul 23, It was reported that
Rio police had killed 449 people since January, many in clashes with
drug traffickers, while more than 60 police officers lost their lives.
(SFC, 7/23/07, p.A13)
2007 Jul 25, Brazil's Pres. Lula
da Silva fired Defense Minister Waldir Pires in response to a fatal
jetliner crash that turned months of anger over breakdowns in the
military-run national air system into a full-blown political crisis.
(AP, 7/25/07)
2007 Aug 2, In Brazil a strike by
subway workers disrupted the commute of millions of people in Sao
Paulo, causing huge traffic jams and long lines at bus stops.
(AP, 8/3/07)
2007 Aug 4, Thousands of
Brazilians marched in Sao Paulo to denounce President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva's government as corrupt and indifferent.
(AP, 8/5/07)
2007 Aug 7,
Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia (44), an alleged Colombian drug kingpin
wanted by the United States, was arrested in a luxury condominium on
the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He had extensive plastic surgery
but was identified by Brazilian and American anti-drug agents using
advanced voice recognition technology.
(AP, 8/7/07)(AP, 8/10/07)
2007 Aug 14, In Brazil police
arrested Oscar Maroni Jr., for racketeering and trafficking in women.
Maroni, known as the Larry Flynt of Brazil, was also under pressure to
stop construction of his 11-story Oscar’s Hotel at the edge of the
Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, which was cited for impacting air
safety.
(WSJ, 9/5/07, p.A1)
2007 Aug 23, In Ponte Nova,
Brazil, at least 25 prisoners died after inmates broke out of a
cellblock and set a fire in an apparent attempt to settle scores with a
rival gang.
(AP, 8/23/07)
2007 Aug 28, Brazil's Supreme
Court charged one of the president's closest confidants with conspiracy
in a corruption scandal that has toppled much of his inner circle.
Analysts said Jose Dirceu, one of 40 people indicted, would rather
spend years in prison than go down swinging against Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva. This was the first time ever that Brazil’s highest court has
brought criminal charges against politicians.
(AP, 8/28/07)(Econ, 9/1/07, p.32)
2007 Aug 30, A speeding train
carrying hundreds of commuters slammed into an empty train near Rio de
Janeiro, killing eight people and injuring more than 80.
(AP, 8/31/07)
2007 Oct 10, Brazil's Supreme
Court denied a Lebanese request to extradite a fugitive banker accused
of a multimillion-dollar bank fraud and wanted for questioning in the
assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Rana
Koleilat was given eight days to leave the country once her passport is
returned. She was jailed on fraud charges in Lebanon in 2004, but fled
the country. She was arrested in Sao Paulo on March 12, 2006.
(AP, 10/12/07)
2007 Oct 10, In Brazil a truck
coming down a hill plowed into rescue workers and gawkers at the site
of an earlier collision, a double accident that killed least 28 people
and injured 90.
(AP, 10/11/07)
2007 Oct 15, Brazil’s President
Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva arrived in the Congolese capital Brazzaville
for a one-day visit, the first by a Brazilian leader to the African
country.
(AFP, 10/16/07)
2007 Oct 17, Hundreds of police
agents swooped in on drug gangs in two Rio de Janeiro shantytowns,
setting off gunbattles that killed 12 people, including an officer and
a boy (4).
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 17,
In South Africa the leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa
vowed to push the interests of poor nations in stalled international
trade talks and said any agreement would have to benefit the developing
world.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 21,
In Brazil activists trying to invade a 304-acre biotech seed
farm, owned by the Swiss firm Syngenta AG, clashed with guards
and at least two people were shot dead.
(AP, 10/22/07)
2007 Oct 21, In Brazil a girl (15)
was arrested on accusations of breaking and entering a house and jailed
with male inmates in Abaetetuba, Para state. She was locked up for
weeks with 21 men who she said would only let her eat in return for
sex. By her account, officials did nothing, until the story erupted in
the national media and outraged Brazilians demanded her transfer.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Oct 26, Shares in Bovespa,
the stock exchange of Sao Paulo, Brazil, began trading. The IPO opened
at $12.77 and closed at $17.77.
(Econ, 10/27/07, p.88)(http://tinyurl.com/34oyeb)
2007 Nov 8, Brazil’s Petrobras
reported the discovery of a large oil reserve with as much as 8 billion
barrels of crude in a field called Tupi. This represented about 3
months worth of current world supply, with estimated use at 86 million
barrels a day. The oil was sitting between 5.3 and 7km below sea level.
(WSJ, 11/9/07, p.A12)(Econ, 8/30/08, p.36)
2007 Nov 25, In northeastern
Brazil a section of stands at a soccer stadium gave way as fans cheered
at the end of a game, killing eight people.
(AP, 11/26/07)
2007 Nov 27, In Brazil a Catholic
bishop began his second hunger strike in two years to protest a
government project to divert river water to irrigate parts of the
country's arid northeast.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Brazil and China said
they will give Africa free satellite imaging of its landmass to help
the continent respond to threats like deforestation, desertification
and drought.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 30, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited a teeming hillside shantytown to
launch a multimillion-dollar program to build an outdoor elevator,
sewage systems, improve roads and upgrade housing for slum residents.
(AP, 11/30/07)
2007 Dec 4, Sen. Renan Calheiros,
president of Brazil's Senate, resigned while fighting allegations of
corruption. Calheiros, a key ally of President Luis Inacio Lula da
Silva, retained his position as a senator. A legislative commission
voted 17-3 last week to recommend his expulsion after finding evidence
that he used third parties to illegally acquire two radio stations and
a newspaper.
(AP, 12/4/07)(Econ, 12/8/07, p.43)
2007 Dec 13, Brazil's Senate
refused to renew a financial transaction tax that fills the
government's coffers, handing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva a
political defeat that could threaten his social programs for the poor.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 16, Argentina and Brazil
successfully launched a rocket into space in the first joint space
mission by the two South American nations. The VS30 rocket, which
carried experiments from both countries, blasted off from Brazil's
Barreira do Inferno launch center in northern Rio Grande do Norte state.
(AP, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 17, The World Trade
Organization (WTO) launched an investigation into Washington's
multi-billion-dollar farm subsidies that Brazil and Canada say break
international trading rules.
(Reuters, 12/17/07)
2007 Dec 20, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
thieves homed in on two paintings, the Portrait of Suzanne Bloch” by
Pablo Picasso and “O Lavrador de Cafe” by Candido Portinari
(1903-1962), in the first successful heist in the 60-year history of
Brazil's premier modern art museum. In Jan, 2007, police recovered the
paintings and had 2 suspects under arrest.
(AP, 12/21/07)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A2)(AP, 1/9/08)
2007 Dec 21, Brazil announced it
will create a landholder registry and send 700 more federal police to
the Amazon River basin in a new effort to monitor and prevent
deforestation in the environmentally sensitive region.
(AP, 12/21/07)
2007 Dec 23, Aloisio Lorscheider
(b.1924), one of Latin America's most influential cardinals, died in
Sao Paulo, Brazil, after a lengthy hospitalization.
(AP, 12/23/07)
2007 Researchers from Karlsruhe's
Natural History Museum found a 3-millimetre-long (0.118 inch) ant in
the Amazon rainforest and dated its origin back to about 120Mil BC,
making it the oldest still inhabiting the earth.
(Reuters, 9/16/08)
2008 Jan 1, In Rio Piracicaba,
Brazil, a jail fire killed eight inmates who could not be rescued
because the guard had left with the keys.
(AP, 1/2/08)
2008 Jan 15, Brazil signed accords
with Cuba offering economic aid and sealed a deal to drill for oil off
the island’s coast. Brazil’s Pres. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva Trade with
businessmen in tow signed trade and investment deals totaling some $1
billion.
(WSJ, 1/16/08, p.A1)(Econ, 6/28/08, p.45)
2008 Jan 21, Brazil’s Petrobras
announced the discovery of a huge natural gas reserve off the coast of
Rio de Janeiro.
(WSJ, 1/23/08, p.A10)
2008 Jan 24, In Brazil government
officials held a top-level emergency meeting to deal with the problem
of Amazon deforestation. Satellite images showed that as much as 2,700
square miles of land was cleared during the last five months of 2007.
All logging was banned in 36 municipalities and fines stiffened for
illegal cutting.
(AP, 1/24/08)(SFC, 3/22/08, p.A3)
2008 Jan 30, In Brazil heavily
armed police cracking down on crime ahead of Rio's famed carnival
celebrations engaged in shootouts with criminals in two slums, killing
at least seven suspects.
(AP, 1/30/08)
2008 Feb 1, In Brazil men dressed
as nuns swilled beer and danced down the cobblestoned streets of a Rio
hillside to kick off five days of uninhibited carnival madness.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 6, Samba group Beija Flor
was declared Brazil's carnival champion for the fifth time in six
years. While Beija Flor's dancers were topless, the judges drew the
line at going bottomless, penalizing the rival Sao Clemente group for
breaking a rule against display of genitalia during its 80-minute
parade.
(AP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 12, President Nicolas
Sarkozy said France is ready to transfer technology to Brazil so that
an attack submarine, helicopters and the Rafale fighter plane can be
built there.
(AP, 2/12/08)
2008 Feb 14, Brazil flew 50,000
doses of yellow fever vaccine to Paraguay following an outbreak there,
the first in 34 years.
(SFC, 2/15/08, p.A4)
2008 Feb 21, In Brazil a ferryboat
carrying more than 100 passengers collided with a barge carrying fuel
tanks and sank to the bottom of the Amazon River. At least 14 people
died. 92 people were rescued by several small boats and the state's
floating police station.
(AP, 2/22/08)
2008 Feb 23, The presidents of
Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia gathered in Buenos Aires to try to agree
on how to divide scarce supplies of Bolivian natural gas.
(WSJ, 2/23/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 26, In Brazil a
helicopter had just left an oil rig with 17 oil workers and three crew
members on board when it went down some 75 miles off the coast. 15
people aboard were rescued mostly unharmed. Rescuers located two bodies
inside the sunken wreck, bringing the death toll to three. Two others
remain missing.
(AP, 2/27/08)
2008 Feb 29, In Brazil police
killed six alleged drug gang members in Rio de Janeiro, while a
bodyguard for the state security chief was shot dead what appeared to
be an attempted robbery.
(AP, 2/29/08)
2008 Mar 4, In Brazil police used
rubber bullets and tear gas to remove 900 activists from a tree farm
they had invaded to highlight allegations its Swedish-Finnish operators
violated a law forbidding foreign companies from owning certain lands.
(AP, 3/4/08)
2008 Mar 20, Brazilian officials
said an outbreak of dengue in Rio de Janeiro state has killed at least
47 people this year.
(SFC, 3/21/08, p.A4)
2008 Mar 29, In Brazil Isabella
Nardoni (5) died after falling from her father's sixth-floor Sao Paulo
apartment. On April 18 Alexandre Nardoni (29) and his wife, Anna
Carolina Jatoba (24), the father and stepmother of the 5-year-old girl,
were arrested for allegedly throwing the girl from their apartment
window.
(AP, 4/19/08)
2008 Apr 1, In Brazil Juan Carlos
Ramirez Abadia, a reputed Colombian drug lord whose cartel is accused
of having shipped hundreds of tons of cocaine, was sentenced to more
than 30 years in prison in Brazil for crimes committed in that country.
(AP, 4/2/08)
2008 Apr 4, In Brazil officials
said floods triggered by two weeks of torrential downpours have killed
at least 10 people and forced more than 30,000 people to flee their
homes in the normally arid northeast.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 13, In Brazil armed men
firing from pickup trucks and flying in a helicopter attacked a
maximum-security prison holding some of Brazil's highest-profile
inmates but were repelled by guards in Campo Grande, the state capital
of Mato Grosso do Sul.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 14, In Brazil a top
energy official said a deep-water exploration area could contain as
much as 33 billion barrels of oil, an amount that would nearly triple
Brazil's reserves and make the offshore bloc the world's third-largest
known oil reserve.
(AP, 4/14/08)
2008 Apr 15, Brazil and Russia
signed an agreement to jointly develop top-line jet fighters and
satellite launch vehicles.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 15, In Brazil a police
raid on drugs and dealers in a Rio de Janeiro shantytown set off a
fierce gunbattle that killed at least nine people and wounded seven.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 20, In Brazil Rev. Adelir
Antonio de Carli, a 41-year-old Roman Catholic priest, went missing
after he lifted off under hundreds of balloons from the port city of
Paranagua wearing a helmet, an aluminum thermal flight suit, waterproof
coveralls and a parachute. Tugboat workers discovered a body off Rio de
Janeiro in early July that authorities believed belonged to the cleric.
DNA confirmed that it was the body of the priest.
(AP, 4/23/08)(AP, 7/29/08)
2008 Apr 25, Police swarmed a Rio
de Janeiro slum in search of a drug lord, touching off a shootout that
killed 11 people including a 70-year-old woman. Two bystanders were
wounded. Emival Barbosa Machado (50), an Amazon farmer who received
death threats after reporting illegal logging to authorities, was shot
to death as he left his house in Tucurui.
(AP, 4/26/08)
2008 May 4, In Brazil a boat
ferrying people home from a religious festival sank in the Amazon
region on the Solimoes River leaving at least 41 dead and dozens
missing.
(AP, 5/5/08)(AP, 5/7/08)
2008 May 12, Brazil announced that
it is forming a sovereign-wealth fund worth between $10 and $20 billion.
(WSJ, 5/13/08, p.A1)
2008 May 13, In Brazil renowned
rain forest defender Marina Silva resigned as the environment minister,
saying she lacked the necessary political support to protect the
Amazon. A government study said Blacks will outnumber whites in Brazil
this year for the first time since slavery was abolished, but the
income gap between the two groups may take another 50 years to bridge.
(AP, 5/13/08)
2008 May 14, In Brazil a reporter
and photographer for O Dia were abducted with their driver and held for
nearly eight hours in the western Rio de Janeiro shantytown where they
had been working undercover investigating paramilitaries. O Dia said it
contacted state security officials immediately after the incident, but
did not report it publicly until Jun 1 to protect its journalists.
(AP, 6/2/08)
2008 May 20, Painted and feathered
Indians waving machetes and clubs slashed Eletrobras engineer Paulo
Fernando Rezende, an official of Brazil's national electric company
during a protest over a proposed hydroelectric dam on the Xingu River.
Environmentalists warned it could destroy the traditional fishing
grounds of Indians living nearby and displace as many as 15,000 people.
The government said the proposed US$6.7 billion (euro4.3 billion) dam
would supply Brazil with an estimated 11,000 megawatts of power and is
essential to meet growing energy demand.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2008 May 23, In Brazil 12 South
American leaders gathered in Brasilia to set up a Union of South
American Nations. Unasur was expected to replace the South American
Community, declared in 2004, and unite the Mercosur and Andean
Community free trade areas.
(Econ, 5/31/08, p.41)
2008 May 27, President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva swore in Carlos Minc, former environment secretary for
Rio de Janeiro state, as Brazil's new environment minister. Silva used
the swearing-in speech to lash developed nations for alleged hypocrisy
on environmental policy.
(AP, 5/27/08)
2008 Jun 2, Carlos Minc, Brazil’s
new environment minister, said the government will impound cattle
caught grazing on illegally cleared pastures with an operation, dubbed
"Rogue Bull," to attack deforestation in the rain forest. Government
researchers said that preliminary data indicate the Amazon lost at
least 2,258 square miles (5,850 square kilometers) of forest cover from
August to April 2008.
(AP, 6/3/08)
2008 Jun 2, The United States lost
an appeal in its long-running dispute with Brazil over U.S. subsidies
for cotton farmers at the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(Reuters, 6/2/08)
2008 Jun 11, Police in southern
Brazil fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters who tried to
invade a supermarket to protest high food prices, part of widespread
demonstrations across more than a dozen states.
(AP, 6/11/08)
2008 Jun 11, InBev, the
Belgian-Brazilian brewing giant, offered $46 billion, or 65 dollars a
share, in cash for Anheuser-Busch in a bid to create an unrivaled
global brewing giant.
(AFP, 6/12/08)(Econ, 6/21/08, p.77)
2008 Jun 11, In Brazil bankers set
an IPO price of $689 per share in OGX Petroleo e Gas Participacoes SA,
a firm created by Eike Batista (50) to drill for oil in Brazilian
offshore tracts.
(WSJ, 6/12/08, p.B1)
2008 Jun 12, In Brazil 3 armed
robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art
and 2 other paintings in a rapid strike in which they bypassed more
valuable works. By August 18 police recovered all of the paintings and
arrested 3 suspects.
(AP, 6/13/08)(AP, 8/7/08)(AP, 8/18/08)
2008 Jun 15, Eleven Brazilian
soldiers allegedly turned over three shantytown residents to a drug
gang that executed them and left their bodies in a garbage dump. Police
arrested the soldiers the next day and Rio state Gov. Sergio Cabral
denounced the soldiers as criminals.
(AP, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 17, Brazil's environment
minister said grain crushers have extended a two-year-old moratorium on
the purchase of soybeans planted in areas of the Amazon rain forest cut
down after 2006.
(AP, 6/17/08)
2008 Jun 20, Brazil’s Pres. Luiz
Inacio Lula da Silva decreed a new 3.8 million acre (1.5 million
hectare) Indian reservation in the heart of the Amazon rain forest's
logging frontier.
(AP, 6/21/08)
2008 Jul 8, Brazilian police
arrested a former Sao Paulo mayor and two prominent financiers in a
case that grew out of an influence-peddling scandal involving senior
government officials.
(AP, 7/9/08)
2008 Jul 11, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promised to support East Timor during talks
in Dili with Timorese leaders including President Jose Ramos-Horta.
(AFP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 12, In Jakarta,
Indonesia, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged cooperation on biofuels during talks
in a bid to take advantage of surging oil prices.
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 18, In Brazil police said
at least eight alleged drug traffickers were killed during a raid in a
Rio de Janeiro shantytown.
(AP, 7/18/08)
2008 Jul 19, In Bogota the
presidents of Brazil and Colombia vowed to boost trade and investment
between their nations ahead of crucial world trade talks next week.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 19, Brazilian actress and
comedian Dercy Goncalves (101), known for her vulgar wit and scandalous
behavior, died in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 7/20/08)
2008 Jul 25, In Goiania, Brazil,
Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho Santos stabbed to death and dismembered Cara
Marie Burke (17), a British citizen, while high on crack cocaine. In
2009 Santos was sentenced to 19 years for the killing and two more for
hiding the body.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2008 Jul 26, Brazil's Embraer
(EMBR3.SA), the world's third-biggest commercial jet maker, said it
would invest 148 million euros in two new plants in Portugal -- its
first industrial units in Europe that will make wings and tailpieces
for exports.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 29, In central Brazil the
torso of Cara Marie Burke, 17, from London, was found in a suitcase in
Goiania. She had been stabbed to death by Mohamed D'Ali Carvalho dos
Santos (20) over the weekend in his apartment. Santos was arrested on
July 31 and confessed. Reports said he was a cocaine user.
(AFP, 8/1/08)
2008 Jul 31, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched the Amazon Fund to provide grants to
projects intended to stop the Amazon rainforest from shrinking.
(Econ, 8/9/08, p.37)
2008 Aug 11, Brazil's environment
minister said he granted a license for the Santo Antonio hydroelectric
dam but attached stringent conditions to protect Amazon Indian
reservations and nature preserves. The dam is expected to cost 9.5
billion reals (US$5.9 billion) and go online in 2012. The dam is one of
two planned for the Madeira river in the Amazon state of Rondonia.
(AP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 16, Dorival Caymmi
(b.1914), Brazilian composer, died. He had composed over 100 songs and
catapulted to fame when Carmen Miranda performed one of his songs in
1938.
(AP, 8/17/08)
2008 Aug 22, Brazil extradited
Colombian drug lord Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia to the United States to
face racketeering charges.
(AP, 8/22/08)
2008 Aug 26, Brazil asked the WTO
for the right to impose $4 billion in annual sanctions against US goods
and services to penalize the US for handing out illegal cotton
subsidies.
(WSJ, 8/27/08, p.A9)
2008 Aug 26, In Brazil Olavo
Egydio Setubal (b.1923), industrialist and former mayor of Sao Paulo,
died. His industrial and financial empire, which grew up from a metal
shop, included Banco Itau Holding Financiera SA, Brazil’s 2nd largest
bank.
(www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=29439734)(WSJ,
8/30/08, p.A5)
2008 Aug 28, Brazilian authorities
said more than 200 oil-slicked penguins had washed up dead over the
last 4 days on the beaches of Florianopolis, a popular Brazilian island
resort, and that they are searching for a cause.
(AP, 8/28/08)
2008 Aug 30, Brazilian officials
said Amazon deforestation jumped 69 percent in the past 12 months, the
first such increase in three years, as rising demand for soy and cattle
pushes farmers and ranchers to raze trees.
(AP, 8/31/08)
2008 Sep 1, Brazil's Pres. Lula da
Silva suspended the entire leadership of Abin, the nation’s
intelligence agency, after it was accused of tapping the phones of the
Supreme Court chief and members of Congress.
(AP, 9/2/08)(WSJ, 9/2/08, p.A14)(Econ, 9/6/08, p.45)
2008 Sep 11, In Brazil Daniel
Dantas, businessman, found $300 million of his money frozen by the
courts under accusations of laundering public money and offering
bribes. His fortune was estimated at over $1 billion. On Dec 2 Dantas
was convicted of trying to bribe police officers. He was fined $5
million and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but appealed the
conviction.
(Econ, 9/20/08, p.82)(Econ, 12/6/08, p.51)
2008 Sep 15, According to a new UN
report Brazilian police carried out a "significant proportion" of the
48,000 murders that swept Brazil last year, casting doubt on the
government's ability to curtail drug violence and reign in vigilante
militias.
(AP, 9/15/08)
2008 Sep 16, Norwegian PM Jens
Stoltenberg said Norway will give Brazil US$1 billion by 2015 to
preserve the Amazon rain forest, as long as Latin America's largest
nation keeps trying to stop deforestation.
(AP, 9/16/08)
2008 Sep 18, Peru’s Pres. Alan
Garcia led a deputation of half his cabinet and over 200 business
leaders to see Brazil’s Pres. da Silva.
(Econ, 9/13/08, p.44)
2008 Sep 22, In southern Brazil 5
hooded gunmen killed 15 people on an alleged drug trafficker's ranch.
The suspected trafficker and two of his sons were among the 15 dead.
(AP, 9/22/08)
2008 Sep 23, Ecuador expelled a
leading Brazilian construction firm sending in troops to seize projects
worth $800 million. Pres. Correa was battling with the Odebrecht firm
over a dam which the government said was badly built.
(WSJ, 9/24/08, p.A24)
2008 Sep 29, Brazilian officials
said the Amazon is being deforested more than three times as fast as
last year, acknowledging a sharp reversal after three years of declines
in the deforestation rate.
(AP, 9/29/08)
2008 Oct 5, Isolated shootings in
Brazil soured municipal elections that President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva's allies hope will give them a leg up on 2010's presidential vote.
(AP, 10/5/08)
2008 Oct 16, Brazil's President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva arrived in Mozambique to launch a project to
make anti-AIDS drugs in the southern African country.
(AP, 10/17/08)
2008 Oct 22, The DJIA tumbled
514.45 to close at 8519.21, its 7th biggest point drop in history, as
investors believed that the global economy is heading into a deep
recession. Hungary’s central bank raised interest rates by 3 points,
from 8.5% to 11.5%, to prevent a run on its currency. Argentine and
Brazilian stock markets each fell about 10%. Former Fed Chief Alan
Greenspan said he was wrong to think that financial markets could
police themselves.
(WSJ, 10/22/08, p.A1)(SFC, 10/24/08, p.C1)(Econ,
10/25/08, p.33)
2008 Oct 26, Brazil held
nationwide municipal elections. The ruling party was expected to
dominate. Brazil's ruling party lost its chance to retake control of
Sao Paulo, South America's biggest city. Fernando Gabeira, an
ex-guerrilla who once kidnapped a US ambassador (1969), failed in his
bid to become mayor of Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 10/26/08)
2008 Oct 31, Brazil's state-run
oil company signed an agreement to explore for oil in deep Caribbean
waters north of Cuba that officials in Havana say could contain 20
billion barrels of crude.
(AP, 10/31/08)
2008 Nov 3, Two of Brazil’s
largest banks agreed to merge in a move to buttress the country’s
financial system. Itau Holding Financeira SA will purchase its smaller
rival Uniao de Bancos Brasileiros SA.
(WSJ, 11/4/08, p.C1)
2008 Nov 9, In Sao Paulo, Brazil,
finance ministers from 20 leading nations (G20) agreed to boost
emerging economies’ role in negotiations to overhaul the international
financial system.
(SFC, 11/10/08, p.D1)
2008 Nov 10, In Brazil bandits
blew up a police station with dynamite after stealing drugs and weapons
in Botucatu city in Sao Paulo state.
(AP, 11/10/08)
2008 Nov 23, In southern Brazil
weekend rains caused rivers to overflow their banks. The resulting
floods and mudslides left at least 114 people dead. In northeastern
Paragominas a mob of about 3,000 people, enraged by a crackdown on
illegal logging, trashed a government office, and tried to attack
environmental workers.
(AP, 11/25/08)(AP, 11/24/08)(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 8, In Brazil Police chief
Paulo Fernando Fortunato reported that 13 gay men were killed in a park
in suburban Sao Paulo between February 2007 and August 2008.
(AP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 11, Australian police
said detectives have charged 22 men including a policeman, a senior
lawyer and a child care worker in connection with a child
pornography-sharing network spanning 70 countries. Brazilian
information, which was shared via the international policing network
Interpol, identified more than 200 suspects in 70 countries.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 16, In Brazil South
American leaders agreed to create a regional defense council aimed at
preventing local conflicts and reducing dependence on US weaponry. 33
countries from across the Americas had gathered for a 2-day meeting to
discuss issues ranging from defense to economics.
(WSJ, 12/17/08, p.A16)(Econ, 12/20/08, p.57)
2008 Dec 23, Brazil and France
signed an arms deal that could lead to Latin America's first nuclear
submarine.
(AP, 12/23/08)
2008 Dec 26, Brazilian police
detained Regivaldo Galvao, a rancher suspected in the 2005 slaying of
rain forest activist Dorothy Stang (73), for allegedly illegally
acquiring titles to land the US nun died trying to defend.
(AP, 12/26/08)
2008 Dec 31, In Brazil Christian
Wolffer (70), owner of the Wolffer Estate winery, bled to death after
suffering two deep cuts on his back while swimming on New Year's Eve
near the colonial town of Paraty, about 150 kilometers (100 miles) west
of Rio de Janeiro. A man suspected of piloting a motorboat that struck
and killed Wolffer was detained on Jan 4.
(AP, 1/4/09)
2009 Jan 14, In Brazil Cesare
Battisti (54), a leftist fugitive who wrote police thrillers while
evading a life sentence for two political murders, was granted refugee
status in Brazil and an official said he could go free this week.
Italy's government protested the decision. Battisti escaped from an
Italian prison in 1981 while awaiting trial on four counts of murder
allegedly committed when he was a member of the Armed Proletarians for
Communism. He fled to France and reinvented himself as a mystery
writer. Battisti has repeatedly insisted on his innocence.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 18, The roof of a
Brazilian church in Sao Paulo caved in shortly after a religious
service, killing 9 people and injuring 106 more.
(AP, 1/19/09)
2009 Jan 21, Brazil’s central bank
cut its benchmark overnight rate, the Selic rate, to 12.75%, the
highest rate in the America’s, even considering its nearly 7% inflation.
(WSJ, 1/22/09, p.A8)
2009 Jan 24, Mariana Bridi (20),
Brazilian model, died from complications related to a generalized
infection caused by the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The bacteria
is known to be resistant to multiple kinds of antibiotics. The
infection reduced the flow of oxygen to her limbs, causing her feet to
be amputated last week and her hands this week.
(AP, 1/24/09)
2009 Jan 27, In Brazil some
100,000 activists of all stripes converged on the Amazon city of Belem,
opening the 9th World Social Forum.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 27, Brazil established a
new set of bureaucratic hoops for importers, raising worries about
creeping protectionism.
(WSJ, 1/28/09, p.A10)
2009 Jan 30, In Brazil officials
in Rio Grande do Sul state said 10 victims had drowned in the city of
Pelotas, and that floods had driven thousands from their homes.
(AP, 1/31/09)
2009 Feb 1, In Brazil the world's
biggest counterculture political gathering ended with a flurry of
photo-snapping, tent folding and farewell embraces, as well as
uncertainty about what concrete results were accomplished in the
stifling heat of Belem.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Brazil hundreds of
riot police occupied one of Sao Paulo's biggest slums following a night
of clashes in which three police officers were shot. Residents said the
clashes were a response to the police killing of a man on Feb 1 in
Paraisopolis.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, In Brazil Ocelio Alves
de Carvalho was killed on the Kulina Indian reservation. An Indian who
witnessed the killing, and tried to stop it, arrived at the police
station to report the alleged murder the next day. The witness said
body parts were roasted and eaten.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 4, Brazilian police
killed at least 10 suspects, including two teenage boys, during
operations against drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro.
(AP, 2/4/09)
2009 Feb 7, In Brazil 4 people at
the rear of a plane that crashed in a muddy Amazon river managed to
open an emergency door and swim to safety as the aircraft sank,
dragging 24 others to their death.
(AP, 2/8/09)
2009 Feb 22, In Brazil bubbles,
feathers and glitter swirled on the first night of parades in Rio's
Carnival, as the city's samba schools battled it out for top honors in
what many bill as the world's largest party.
(AP, 2/23/09)
2009 Mar 11, Brazil’s Central Bank
cut its benchmark Selic rate by 1.5% to 11.25%. further cuts were
expected.
(Econ, 3/28/09, p.44)
2009 Mar 11, In Brazil a
prosecutor charged rancher Regivaldo Galvao, accused of murdering US
nun Dorothy Strang, with trying to fraudulently obtain a plot of the
rain forest that Strang had worked to protect.
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 14, President Barack
Obama met with visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva
for talks on the economy, energy and the environment.
(AP, 3/14/09)
2009 Mar 19, Brazil's Supreme
Court sided with Amazonian Indians in a land dispute that some have
called critical for determining the future of the rainforest that
sprawls the size of Western Europe. The court ruling upheld the Raposa
Serra do Sol reservation for 18,000 Indians who lay claim to their
ancestral land, despite a handful of large-scale farmers who also
occupy the territory in the northernmost reaches of Amazon jungle
bordering Venezuela.
(AP, 3/19/09)
2009 Mar 24, The WHO's annual
report on TB, presented in Rio, indicated that there were 1.37 million
cases of people with both TB and HIV in 2007, the latest year for which
statistics are available. About 700,000 people were infected with both
in 2006.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 26, In Brazil
engine pieces from a US plane fell from the sky, hitting 22 houses and
a car but sparing passengers and residents on the ground. Arrow Cargo's
station manager in Manaus, Rai Marinho, said the company will pay local
residents for damages to their property.
(AP, 3/26/09)
2009 Mar 30, Argentina’s health
minister acknowledged that the country was in the middle of a dengue
fever epidemic with nearly 8,000 people infected. Neighboring Bolivia
had about 51,000 cases reported, while Brazil counted some 40,000 cases.
(http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46371)(SSFC,
4/19/09, p.G3)
2009 Mar 31, In Brazil the state
government of Rio de Janeiro said it will build 7 miles of concrete
walls around some of its biggest slums in an effort to halt
deforestation of the jungle surrounding the metropolis.
(SFC, 4/1/09, p.A2)
2009 Apr 28, Peru’s Pres. Alan
Garcia and Brazil’s Pres. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an agreement
for six hydroelectricity schemes in Peru. The Inambari dam would be the
first to be built, and most of its power would be exported to Brazil.
(www.bicusa.org/en/Article.11256.aspx)(Econ,
11/21/09, p.42)
2009 Apr 30, Brazil's Supreme
Court struck down a 1967 press censorship law enacted during the
military dictatorship. In a 7-4 vote the court ruled the law
unconstitutionally violated freedom of expression.
(AP, 5/1/09)
2009 May 2, Brazilian officials
said floods and mudslides from heavy rains in the northeast have killed
at least 14 people in the last month and driven tens of thousands from
their homes.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 2, In Brazil Augusto Boal
(78), theater director and playwright known for the interactive genre
called the "Theater of the Oppressed," died. Seen as a threat to the
dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985, Boal was
arrested, jailed and tortured before being exiled to Argentina. He
returned to Brazil after the fall of the military regime.
(AP, 5/2/09)
2009 May 6, Brazilian officials
said at least 29 people have been killed by floods and mudslides in
northern Brazil as authorities struggled to rush aid to dozens of small
cities cut off from civilization by overflowing rivers in the Amazon
region.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 7, Argentina and Brazil
confirmed five swine flu cases within their borders as the virus
affects more nations in South America.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 8, Brazilians huddled in
cow pens converted into emergency shelters, as swollen rivers continue
to rise and northern Brazil's worst floods in decades boosted the
number of homeless to nearly 300,000. The death toll rose to 39, and
coffins started popping out of the soaked earth.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 10, Floodwaters receded
some in inundated towns across northern Brazil, but the number of
homeless rose above 300,000 and two people were missing after an
overloaded canoe overturned in swift waters.
(AP, 5/11/09)
2009 May 13, In Brazil slum
dwellers rioted after the arrest of drug dealers in a Sao Paulo
shantytown, burning vehicles and tires, pelting police with rocks and
briefly shutting down a major urban highway.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 19, China and Brazil
signed a raft of agreements in Beijing including a $10 billion loan for
the South American country's state energy company and a deal to send
oil to China amid stronger ties between the two developing world giants.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 22, Brazil's Supreme
Court approved the extradition to the US of Pablo Rayo Montano, a
Colombian-born drug lord accused of running one of the world's largest
drug smuggling operations.
(AP, 5/22/09)
2009 May 22, In Brazil a
twin-engine plane crashed near a private airport in a northeastern
coastal resort area, killing all 11 people aboard.
(AP, 5/23/09)
2009 May 28, In Brazil raging
torrents from a ruptured dam and swamped Cocal, a northeastern farming
city of about 25,000 in Piaui state, forcing residents to scramble onto
rooftops and climb high trees to escape the deadly floodwaters. 4
people were killed.
(AP, 5/28/09)
2009 Jun 1, A missing Air France
Airbus A330 jet, Flight 447, carrying 228 people from Rio de Janeiro to
Paris ran into lightning and strong thunderstorms over the Atlantic
Ocean. Brazil began a search mission off its northeastern coast.
(AP, 6/1/09)
2009 Jun 2, An airplane seat, a
life jacket, metallic debris and signs of fuel were found in the middle
of the Atlantic Ocean by Brazilian military pilots searching for a
missing Air France airliner Flight 447.
(AP, 6/2/09)
2009 Jun 6, Brazilian search crews
retrieved the first 2 bodies in the Atlantic from the May 31 crash
of Air France Flight 447. Investigators said faulty speed
readings had been found on the same type of jets.
(Reuters, 6/6/09)
2009 Jun 7, Brazilian and French
ships recovered 14 more bodies from ocean near Air France crash,
bringing the total to 16.
(AP, 6/7/09)(SFC, 6/8/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 8, Brazilian and French
ships recovered 8 more bodies from Air France Flight 447, bringing the
total recovered to 24. The tail section of the plane was also
recovered. The plane disappeared during a flight from Rio de Janeiro to
Paris on May 31 amid strong thunderstorms.
(AP, 6/9/09)(SFC, 6/9/09, p.A3)
2009 Jun 12, A Brazilian ship
recovered three more bodies from the Atlantic bringing the total to 44.
Searchers said weather and currents complicated their job and warned it
is unlikely that all the dead from Air France Flight 447 will be found.
(AP, 6/12/09)
2009 Jun 13, Brazil reported that
a French ship had found six more bodies from Air France Flight 447,
which would bring the total to 50. It went down May 31 with 228 on
board.
(AP, 6/13/09)
2009 Jun 15, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva brought a message of worker solidarity and
economic responsibility to the United Nations. He left with some rare,
sharp criticism from human rights groups that once championed his
government.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 19, The Brazilian
government apologized for the torture and abuse of 44 poor farmers
under the military regime that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985 and
announced reparations for the victims.
(AP, 6/20/09)
2009 Jun 20, It was reported that
that the H1N1 swine flu virus has spread to at least 76 countries and
caused over 160 deaths, and that Brazilian researchers have identified
a new strain of the virus.
(SFC, 6/20/09, p.D12)
2009 Jun 25, Brazil’s President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva approved a law that could legalize
landholdings by some 1 million squatters occupying a Texas-sized chunk
of the Amazon rain forest, despite environmentalist fears it will
accelerate deforestation.
(AP, 6/26/09)
2009 Jul 1, In Brazil Sao Paulo
state officials launched what they say is Latin America's first
passenger bus with an electric engine powered by hydrogen fuel cells.
The bus will start test runs on the streets of Sao Paulo in August and
will be joined by three similarly powered vehicles next year.
(AP, 7/1/09)
2009 Jul 3, In Brazil prison
guards foiled a new attempt to smuggle a cell phone into Danilo
Pinheiro prison near the city of Sorocaba by a carrier pigeon wearing a
tiny backpack. Police said that the practice is becoming almost
commonplace.
(AP, 7/3/09)
2009 Jul 11, It was reported that
Brazilian police were investigating some 660 “secret acts” passed by
the Senate since 1995 which have awarded jobs and pay raises members of
staff.
(Econ, 7/11/09, p.39)
2009 Jul 11, In Brazil the body of
Arturo Gatti (37), former Canadian boxing champion, was found in a
hotel room at the northeastern Porto de Galinhas resort. He was
apparently strangled with the strap of a purse, which was found at the
scene with blood stains. His wife, Amanda Rodrigues (23), was soon
taken into custody after contradictions in her interrogation. A police
inquiry later concluded that he committed suicide using the strap of a
rucksack on a staircase in the early hours of the morning.
(AP, 7/12/09)(Reuters, 7/31/09)
2009 Jul 25, Brazil agreed to
triple its compensation to Paraguay to operate the huge Itaipu
hydroelectric dam on their shared border, ending a decades-long dispute
between the neighbors.
(AFP, 7/25/09)
2009 Aug 1, Brazilian police said
they have busted a ring that allegedly sent some 200 women in the last
year to the United States, Europe and elsewhere to work as prostitutes.
Most of the women were recruited through the Internet or Brazilian
brothels and then sent to Las Vegas, the Dominican Republic and France.
(AP, 8/1/09)
2009 Aug 10, Leaders of the Union
of South American Nations (UNASUL), a 12-member group inspired by
Brazil, met in Quito, Ecuador, in an attempt to further integration.
Colombia’s Pres. Uribe did not attend, in part because Ecuador broke of
ties with Colombia last year.
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.31)
2009 Aug 11, In Brazil authorities
charged Bishop Edir Macedo and nine other people linked to the
Universal Church of the Kingdom of God with siphoning off billions of
dollars in donations from his mostly poor followers to buy jewelry, TV
stations and other businesses for himself. Macedo, who founded the
church in 1977, owns a large television network, three newspapers and
several radio stations. He also owns a tourism agency and an air taxi
company.
(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 11, In Brazil police were
reported to be investigating the "Canal Livre" crime TV show saying the
show's host, state legislator Wallace Souza (51), was suspected of
commissioning at least five murders to boost his ratings and prove his
claim that Brazil's Amazon region is awash in violent crime. Police
also have accused Souza of drug trafficking.
(AP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 26, A Brazilian
prosecutor in Amazonas state accused Wallace Souza, a former police
officer and TV crime show host, of attempting to have a federal judge
assassinated in 2007. Souza was already accused of setting up at least
5 killings to boost his TV ratings. Souza was soon kicked out of the
state legislature and on Oct 5 police issued a warrant for his arrest.
(SFC, 8/27/09, p.A2)(AP, 10/7/09)
2009 Sep 8, Across northern
Argentina and southern Brazil a violent storm that spawned a tornado
and mudslides killed at least 15 people. Dozens were injured in the
winds and hail as their homes were destroyed.
(AP, 9/8/09)
2009 Sep 14, The leaders of Brazil
and Guyana met to inaugurate the $5 million Takutu River Bridge, that
is expected to boost trade between Brazil and the Caribbean. Traffic
began crossing the bridge nearly two months ago but today’s ceremony
was billed as its formal commissioning.
(AP, 9/15/09)
2009 Sep 16, Brazil JBS company
announced that Texas-based chicken processor Pilgrim’s Pride has agreed
to be taken over for $800 million. This and a pending acquisition with
Bertin, another Brazilian firm, would make JBS the world’s largest
processor of meat.
(Econ, 10/31/09, p.74)(http://tinyurl.com/yb7czq9)
2009 Oct 2, In Denmark the IOC
opened a meeting hearing the cases led by government leaders and kings
to win the right to stage the 2016 Olympic Games. US Pres. Obama spoke
for Chicago, Japan's new PM Yukio Hatoyama spoke for Tokyo, Brazil's
President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva spoke for Rio de Janeiro, and
Spain's King Juan Carlos and PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero spoke for
Spain. Brazil won the bid.
(AFP, 10/2/09)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Oct 9, In Brazil Wallace
Souza, a former police officer and TV crime show host accused of
commissioning killings to boost ratings, turned himself in to
authorities in Manaus and was jailed on homicide and drug trafficking
charges.
(AP, 10/9/09)
2009 Oct 11, In Brazil an intense
fire broke out in a slum in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city,
sending residents running across rooftops to escape the flames.
(AP, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 17, In Brazil drug
traffickers shot down a police helicopter during a gunbattle between
rival gangs. The weekend gang fight in Rio de Janeiro left 3 police
officers killed, and continued into the week leaving at least 32 people
dead.
(SSFC, 10/18/09, p.A8)(AP, 10/21/09)(AP,
10/22/09)(Econ, 10/24/09, p.42)
2009 Oct 18, Amazon Chief Almir
Surui (35), unveiled a project in partnership with Google, to make
public the encroachment of illegal mining and logging on his people’s
600,000 acre reserve in Brazil. Almir was evacuated for his safety to
the US in 2006. Eleven chief of the Surui and neighboring tribes have
been shot and killed this decade.
(SSFC, 10/18/09, p.A1)
2009 Oct 20, Representatives of
Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay announced a joint plan in Buenos Aires
to establish protected zones to halt deforestation in their countries
by 2020.
(SFC, 10/21/09, p.A2)
2009 Oct 29, In Brazil a
single-prop Cessna Caravan plane went down on the Itui River in a
remote part of the Amazon rain forest. Members of the Matis Indian
tribe found the plane with 9 survivors of 11 on board.
(AP, 10/31/09)
2009 Oct 29, Honduras filed a case
at the UN's highest court accusing Brazil of meddling in internal
Honduran affairs by allowing ousted President Manuel Zelaya to stay at
its embassy in Tegucigalpa since Sep 21. Representatives of Zelaya
finally reached an agreement with the interim government that could
help end the months long dispute over the June 28 coup, and possibly
pave the way for Zelaya's reinstatement. The agreement would create a
power-sharing government and bind both sides to recognize the Nov. 29
presidential elections.
(AP, 10/29/09)(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 2, In Brazil some 1.5
million evangelical Christians joined the annual "March for Jesus," an
event sponsored by a church whose leaders recently returned after being
imprisoned in the US for money smuggling.
(AP, 11/3/09)
2009 Nov 8, Brazil’s private
Bandeirante University in Sao Bernardo do Campo, outside Sao Paulo,
expelled Geisy Arruda (20) for wearing a short, pink dress to class,
publicly accusing her of immorality. Arruda made headlines after an
Oct. 22 incident, in which she had to be escorted away by police after
wearing the mini-dress to class. The dean of the private college in
suburban Sao Paulo released the next day announcing a decision to
reinstate her.
(AP, 11/9/09)(AP, 11/10/09)
2009 Nov 11, Brazil emerged from a
widespread power outage that plunged its major cities and at least nine
states into darkness for over 2 hours, prompting security fears and
concern from residents about another black eye for a country hosting
the 2016 Olympic Games. Transmission problems had knocked one of the
world's biggest hydroelectric dams offline.
(AP, 11/11/09)
2009 Nov 24, Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva gave a welcoming bear hug Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and urged Western nations to drop threats of
punishment over the Iranian nuclear program and instead negotiate a
fair solution.
(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 24, Rio de Janeiro's posh
beach neighborhoods lost power for hours in sweltering summer weather,
prompting restaurants to toss out spoiled food and business owners to
send employees home.
(AP, 11/24/09)
2009 Nov 25, Officials said
flooding from heavy rains has killed 12 people in Argentina, Brazil and
Uruguay and forced more than 20,000 to flee their homes. Most of the
dead were in southern Brazil, including eight in Rio Grande do Sul.
(AP, 11/25/09)
2009 Dec 4, In southern Brazil at
least 20 people were reported dead in mudslides triggered by heavy
rains as rivers rose to rooftops and thousands were left homeless.
(AP, 12/4/09)
2009 Dec 6, Brazilian thieves
tunneled their way to a money transport firm in Sao Paulo and made off
with nearly $6 million. A day later 6 men were arrested for the robbery.
(AP, 12/7/09)(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 7, Brazilian authorities
arrested 11 people in an alleged US work-visa scam that raked in more
than $50 million from thousands of Brazilians since 2002. Some of those
scammed went to the US and wound up as illegal aliens because promised
jobs didn't exist.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 8, Human Rights
Watch issued a report saying police in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo
have killed more than 11,000 people in the past six years, many
execution-style.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 8, Brazil's largest city
of Sao Paulo was been hit by severe floods for the second time in less
than a week. Local media reported that six people have died in
mudslides caused by heavy rain.
(AP, 12/8/09)
2009 Dec 11, In Brazil a new
presidential decree suspended up to an estimated $5.7 billion in fines
and gave landowners two more years to comply with environmental
regulations meant to stop the razing of the Brazilian rain forest.
(AP, 12/11/09)
2009 Dec 17, In Brazil a
2-year-old boy with 42 sewing needles stuck in him was airlifted to
another hospital in northeastern Bahia state because two of the needles
were close to his heart. A police official said Roberto Carlos
Magalhaes, the boy's stepfather, had been arrested, that he had
confessed to sticking the needles into the boy with the help of a woman
and that authorities were investigating whether black magic was
involved. On Dec 18 doctors removed 4 of the most life-threatening
needles.
(AP, 12/17/09)(SFC, 12/18/09, p.A5)(AP, 12/19/09)
2009 Brazil’s population stood at
about 192 million people.
(Econ, 11/14/09, SR p.3)
2020 Deforestation of the Amazon
region was expected to reach 28-42%.
(SFC, 1/20/01, p.A10)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Subject = Brazil
End of file.