As Brazil’s Amazon grows drier, Indigenous people feel the squeeze
The Waurá people are fighting to restore degraded springs, with historic droughts increasing the vulnerability of waters and ways of life in the Xingu Basin
Featured
An Amazon indigenous village’s flight from sprawling soy
Photography and reporting for National Geographic Brazil and Diálogo Chino - Mato Grosso state, 2021
Other featured articles
Solar power to the people: how the sun is bringing light – and TV – to Amazon villages
At dusk, Piyulaga village starts to wake up. Families gather at the entrances of their huts, children play and cycle around, and Brazilian country music fills the air as lights flicker on in the small settlement in the Xingu Indigenous territory of Mato Grosso, Brazil.
The New Threat to Brazil’s Forests: Chemicals
Brazil’s satellites did not detect anything alarming. Yet down on the ground, the trees were dying.
Solar power is turning the tide on energy inequality in the Amazon
At the height of the day, the relentless sun and heat of the Amazon plunge the village of Piyulaga into a sleepy silence. Those who aren’t fishing or harvesting manioc in the distance find refuge in the shade of thatched huts, with even the birds and insects seemingly taking cover.
Madonna Brings Massive Free Concert to Rio, Capping Celebration Tour
When Madonna stepped out onto the mammoth stage constructed on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach on Saturday night in a gleaming halo headpiece and black kimono, she was greeted by the largest live crowd of her four-decade career.
Epidemic fears as 80% of Indigenous Amazon tribe fall ill
More than 100 Indigenous people in Brazil’s Javari valley have been diagnosed with flu-like symptoms, raising fears that the situation could escalate into an epidemic.
Brazil’s Congress Weakens Protection of Indigenous Lands, Defying Lula
While Brazil vows to fight climate change, lawmakers approved a law making it harder for Indigenous tribes to block deforestation, overriding a veto by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
A fourth-grader in Brazil
What does an average day look like for Elloá de Oliveira Ramos?
Jump in child deaths reveals impact of industrialisation on Amazon’s Indigenous peoples
The infant mortality rate among the Indigenous peoples of Brazil jumped by 16% last year, according to new data, as experts warn that the expansion of legal and illegal extractive industries in the Amazon rainforest has had profound effects on the health and quality of life of Indigenous people living in unprotected areas.
Ravaged by Covid, Brazil Faces a Hunger Epidemic
Tens of millions of Brazilians are facing hunger or food insecurity as the country’s Covid-19 crisis drags on, killing thousands of people every day.
Strongmen Find New Ways to Abuse Interpol, Despite Years of Fixes
For years, strongmen and autocrats had a novel weapon in their hunt for political enemies. They used Interpol, the world’s largest police organization, to reach across borders and grab them — even in democracies.
A Global Web of Chinese Propaganda Leads to a U.S. Tech Mogul
The Times unraveled a financial network that stretches from Chicago to Shanghai and uses American nonprofits to push Chinese talking points worldwide.
Podcast: Amazônia Ocupada
Esta série de áudio em cinco episódios viaja pela rodovia BR-163 para explicar o que faz da maior floresta do planeta um atacadão global de madeira, ouro, carne e soja.
Uma produção do Diálogo Chino, com minha coordenação. Links para o Spotify - Setembro, 2022.
This is a five-episode audio series that travels through an Amazonian highway to explain how the region became a large commodities producer and exporter, who are its settlers and why this is driving deforestation of the rainforest . A Diálogo Chino production, under my supervision. Links to Spotify, in Portuguese - September, 2022.
De floresta a mercadão de soja
Sinop é a sigla para Sociedade Imobiliária no Noroeste do Paraná. Essa foi a empresa que desmatou a terra e fundou a cidade que hoje leva seu nome. Partimos de lá para contar como o governo militar estimulou a ocupação da Amazônia por agricultores pobres e como a cidade enriqueceu até se tornar o epicentro do principal produto de exportação brasileiro: a soja.
Seis bois para cada morador
Nos anos 80, o Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária dividiu as terras de Guarantã do Norte em assentamentos para distribuir entre os pequenos agricultores. Mas faltou apoio para a agricultura familiar. Hoje, a cidade vive da produção e exportação de carne bovina — o principal vetor do desmatamento da Amazônia.
Tudo começa pela madeira
Saindo do cais de Santarém, seguindo pelo rio Tapajós até o Arapiuns e percorrendo o rio quase inteiro, chegamos até Cachoeira do Aruã. Estamos numa comunidade ribeirinha conhecida pelo turismo e também por ser um polo madeireiro, apesar da floresta nativa nas margens do Arapiuns. Portos madeireiros são o ponto de partida de enormes balsas carregadas com toras de madeira — legais e ilegais.
Um lugar tranquilo para viver
Ao sul de Santarém e Itaituba, fica a Província Mineral do Tapajós: uma região de 90 mil quilômetros quadrados rica em ouro e outros minérios. Em um desvio, entramos na Transgarimpeira, uma via transversal à BR-163. Ela começou a ser construída em 1983 pelo governo militar e atualmente os quase 200 quilômetros de estrada têm garimpos de ambos lados. Essa atividade econômica é, hoje, uma das principais causas da degradação de terras públicas da Amazônia, sobretudo terras indígenas. Pouco regulamentada, vem exacerbando as tensões fundiárias na Amazônia.
O futuro da Amazônia em jogo
Longe da Amazônia, da complexidade de seus conflitos e do dia a dia de seus habitantes, o destino da floresta é decidido em reuniões, comissões e tribunais de Brasília. A capital federal é o principal palco político das batalhas pelo futuro da Amazônia e onde o velho modelo de ocupação é continuamente renovado. Mas é também na capital federal que a resistência acontece, e novos modelos econômicos são discutidos.
Brazilian elections and Jan. 8, New York Times
The Moment the Brazil Rioters Broke Through
The invasion of Brazil’s halls of power began with a severe shortfall of security forces.
‘We Will Die for Brazil’: How a Far-Right Mob Tried to Oust Lula
The storming of Brazil’s capital failed to overthrow the elected government. But an examination of the attack reveals how extremism is threatening Latin America’s largest democracy.
How Bolsonaro Built the Myth of Stolen Elections in Brazil
For years, President Jair Bolsonaro has attacked Brazil’s election systems. One of his claims has been that apparent patterns in vote results show proof of fraud.
Bolsonaro lost. Will he accept the results?
While the election is over, there remains the concern for the health of one of the world’s biggest democracies.
Brazil’s disputed runoff faces ‘spiritual warfare’ for evangelical voters.
As the race between Brazil’s right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, and his leftist challenger, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, tightened, Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies intensified their courting of a voting bloc key to his campaign: evangelical Christians.
Brazil Braces for ‘White-Knuckle Race’ Between Bolsonaro and Lula
Supporters gathering in front of President Jair Bolsonaro’s residence in Rio de Janeiro as votes were counted on Sunday.
The deforestation of the Amazon is in the electoral spotlight.
The Amazon rainforest in Brazil has experienced sharply increasing levels of illegal deforestation and mining, violence against environmental activists and Indigenous people and a loosening of environmental enforcement under the administration of President Jair Bolsonaro.
At the polls, Brazilians show their colors — and help test the voting machines.
At the polls on Sunday in Brazil, picking out whom someone voted for was often as easy as looking at the color of their shirt.
Third-party candidates could have a big effect on Sunday’s election outcome.
President Jair Bolsonaro and former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva are not the only candidates in Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday.
Brazil’s Favorite Leftist Is Back From Prison and Trying to Defeat Bolsonaro
Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is trying to cap a stunning political comeback by defeating the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s elections on Sunday.
Can green rubber help protect the Amazon?
The New Republic and Food & Environment Reporting Network - Acre state, 2021
Other Selected Work
After Eras Tour Triumphs, Taylor Swift Finds Trouble in Brazil
Thousands of fans had already traveled to the stadium in Rio de Janeiro by the time the show on Saturday was called off because of safety concerns.
Historic drought in the Amazon, explained
For around two months now, a severe drought has been ravaging the west of the Brazilian Amazon and reaching across the border to other South American countries that share the rainforest.
David Miranda, Gay Rights Activist and Snowden Ally in Brazil, Dies at 37
Emerging from Rio’s slums, he helped Edward Snowden reveal classified documents and lobbied for his asylum before rising to his country’s Congress.
Poor Countries Face a Mounting Catastrophe Fueled by Inflation and Debt
Before war ravaged Yemen, Walid Al-Ahdal did not worry about feeding his children. At his hometown near the Red Sea, his family grew corn, raised goats and relied on their own cow for milk.
An Amazon indigenous village’s flight from sprawling soy
Every night, Kisêdjê men carry plastic chairs to the centre of a huge yard surrounded by the dozens of huts that make up the village of Khikatxi.
In Brazil, Firms Sought Black Workers. Then LinkedIn Got Involved.
After Brazilian activists fought LinkedIn for removing job ads that sought Black and Indigenous candidates, the company changed its global policy.
Inflationary Wave Changes Political Terrain for Right-Wing Populists
President Jair Bolsonaro on Brazil’s Independence Day in September. The country’s currency has steadily declined in value, and its economy slipped back into recession in the third quarter.
A Martial Arts Star Is Criticized for His Handling of Abuse Cases
Roberto Abreu, known as Cyborg, has acknowledged missteps in the way he responded to sexual abuse allegations in his Brazilian jiu-jitsu organization.
Pro-Bolsonaro Rallies May Be Prelude to Power Grab, Critics Say
President Jair Bolsonaro rallied a crowd of supporters in Brasília, the capital, on Brazil’s Independence day.
Can Fashion Help Small Farmers Preserve the Amazon?
On a rainy March afternoon, Rogério Mendes strides through the dripping vegetation of a tract of virgin Amazonian forest and stops at a tree with scars arranged in neat diagonal rows across its trunk. From his back pocket he produces a wood-handled tool with a blade on one end, called a cabrita, and cuts another diagonal line though the bark, beneath the others. A milky white goo—raw liquid latex—begins to trickle down this tiny canal and into a metal pail below. “I love being in the forest, it’s an inexplicable feeling,” says the 23-year-old, who sports a tattered canvas hat and a forearm inked with tree tattoos.
Fresh protests in Brazil against Bolsonaro’s handling of Covid pandemic
Thousands of Brazilians returned to the streets on Saturday in protest against the response of Jair Bolsonaro’s administration to a pandemic that has killed close on half a million people in the country – the most after the United States.
‘Makes you sick’: fury in Rio as pregnant 24-year-old killed amid police raid
In early June, Kathlen Romeu posted a photo of herself and her boyfriend on a Instagram, with a caption announcing that she was pregnant. “I am discovering myself as a mother, and I am scared thinking about how it is going to be,” the 24-year old interior designer wrote on 2 June. “I laugh, I cry and I am afraid.”
‘Calamity of maternal deaths’: Covid concern grows for Brazil’s pregnant
This month should have been one of the happiest in Letícia Aparecida Gomes’s life. The pregnant 23-year-old Brazilian had been due to marry before delivering her baby, Elloah, in August.
How Working From Home Changed Wardrobes Around the World
It wasn’t all sweats and leggings. A whirlwind tour of how the pandemic affected what we wore, from India to Italy.
Brazil's President Still Insists the Coronavirus Is Overblown. These Governors Are Fighting Back
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro is in a class of his own. He is the only leader left in the world to reject the consensus of scientists and statisticians on the gravity of the coronavirus outbreak.
The Amazon Rain Forest Is Nearly Gone. We Went to the Front Lines to See If It Could Be Saved
If nothing is done, the Amazon might completely disappear before the end of the century
Brazilian Media | Colaborações para o Brasil
A jornada de uma aldeia amazônica para escapar do avanço da soja
Todas as noites, homens kisêdjê carregam cadeiras de plástico até o centro de um enorme pátio circundado pelas dezenas de ocas que compõem a aldeia Khikatxi. O período seco e a pouca luz criam um céu negro profundo e estrelado sobre o território indígena Wawi, a nordeste do Mato Grosso.
Jovens indígenas sofrem impacto mais agressivo do coronavírus que a média brasileira na mesma faixa etária
Elo mais frágil entre povos que sobrevivem a desigualdades históricas, crianças e adolescentes indígenas representam 5% das vítimas da covid-19 em suas comunidades.
O turbulento processo de habilitação de frigoríficos de carne para a China
No credenciamento, Hong Kong e China pedem ainda breve descrição do rastreamento dos bovinos, ou seja, dados das fazendas que fornecem o animal vivo aos frigoríficos. O objetivo é garantir a qualidade sanitária desde a origem do boi, mas, se reforçada, poderia servir como ferramenta contra a compra de áreas onde há desmatamento ilegal.
Oito lições de combate à corrupção que a Dinamarca pode dar ao Brasil
Desde que o índice foi criado, em 1995, o país está nas primeiras posições – em que estão as nações vistas como menos corruptas. Nos últimos cinco anos, só não esteve no primeiro lugar em 2011, que ficou com a Nova Zelândia. Esse é o segundo ano consecutivo em que está sozinha no topo.
As garotas dinamarquesas
Com quatro indicações ao Oscar, o filme “Garota Dinamarquesa” trouxe de volta aos holofotes a história até então esquecida do casal de pintores dinamarqueses Einar e Gerda Wegener, interpretados por Eddie Redymane e Alicia Vikander, cuja relação foi combustível para avanços na arte e nas discussões de gênero no início do século XX.
The ‘forgotten’ people picking your Brazil nuts
Photography and reporting at the Kaxarari Indigenous Territory for The Guardian and Diálogo Chino - Brazilian Amazon, 2021
Reporting from Sertão region in Brazil, 2018
