Ashish Kumar Sen

For the first time since the early 2000s, Brazilians have elected a president that does not belong to the Workers’ Party (PT). On October 28, Brazilians elected as their president Jair Bolsonaro, a populist former army captain who has served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies representing the state of Rio de Janeiro since 1991. Bolsonaro, who belongs to the Social Liberal Party (PSL), defeated his PT rival, Fernando Haddad, in a runoff election after a highly contested election. Bolsonaro won 55.1 percent of the votes against 44.9 percent for Haddad.

Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right populist who has been compared to Donald J. Trump, won the first round of the presidential election in Brazil on October 7, but fell just short of the majority required to avoid a second-round runoff. The former army captain will face left-wing Workers’ Party (PT) candidate, Fernando Haddad, in a runoff on October 28.

An appeals court in Brazil on January 24 upheld the conviction of the country’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on charges of corruption and money laundering.

What Does Dilma Rousseff’s Impeachment Mean for Brazil?  Brazil’s Senate on August 31 impeached President Dilma Rousseff, the country’s first female president, on the grounds that she had manipulated the budget to conceal growing economic problems.

In Brazil, Is Impeachment the Answer?   A series of missteps, mismanagement, and misfortunes have brought Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to the threshold of the fate she now faces: impeachment.   Brazil’s President, Dilma Rousseff, is facing impeachment following a vote in the lower house of Congress on April 17. (Reuters/Ueslei Marcelino)

Absence of a Plan B Will Give Brazil’s President Rousseff a Lifeline The brief detention of former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in connection with a federal investigation of a bribery and money laundering scheme turns up the heat on his successor, but it is unlikely that Dilma Rousseff will be impeached in the short term for one simple reason: Brazil has no Plan B.

A Mosquito Adds to Brazilian President’s Woes   There is never a good time for an epidemic, but Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will agree that the outbreak of mosquito-borne Zika in her country could not have come at a worse time. Rousseff, who is facing impeachment charges, has been the target of massive rallies in Brazil at which protesters have demanded her ouster. Brazil is facing one of its worst recessions ever and Rousseff has been accused of doing too little too late to address this severe economic downturn.

Putting Brazil on US Department of Labor Blacklist ‘Unfair’   The US Department of Labor’s decision to place Brazil on a list of countries where forced and child labor are practiced is “unfair” and could have an adverse impact on the South American nation’s exports, said an official with Brazil’s textile association.

Rousseff Version 2.0: A New Chapter in US-Brazil Ties? Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff’s second term in office may present an opportunity for Washington and Brasilia to improve relations. Despite recent bumps in the road in the US-Brazil relationship, Anthony S. Harrington, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Brazil from 1999 to 2001, said he was “cautiously optimistic that we can turn the page again in 2015 and begin to regain the momentum that we saw at the beginning of President Rousseff’s administration.”

With social media, middle classes in Brazil, Turkey grow stronger, angrier Mass protests in Brazil and halfway around the world in Turkey are the latest manifestations of the coming of age of a politically aware global middle class that, armed with little more than Twitter and Facebook , is demanding greater government accountability, basic rights and a more equitable distribution of resources.