NACLA Radio

Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the Brazilian presidency on October 30th. He defeated far-right president Jair Bolsonaro by just over 2 million votes. Tens of thousands of Lula supporters descended on Sao Paulo’s Paulista Avenue for huge celebrations. Brazil on Fire host Michael Fox was there and he takes us to the streets. 

But Bolsonaro supporters were also mobilizing. They shut down highways and called for the mili...

The first round of Brazil’s elections has come and gone. As expected, former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was the big winner, with 48 percent. But he fell short of winning outright. Current president Jair Bolsonaro exceeded expectations and came in just a handful of points behind the former president. And it’s going to mean weeks of intense campaigning as Bolsonaro has now become a real contender for the second-round electio...

The Amazon is a place that both Brazil’s former military regime and President Jair Bolsonaro have eyed with dreams of development, looking to take advantage of bountiful resources.

It’s a place where Bolsonaro’s deconstruction of state institutions is wreaking havoc. Where illegal and armed actors are pushing into formerly protected areas and plundering the land to make a quick profit. Where Indigenous people are constantly under th...

Brazil’s military dictatorship was a dark time in the country’s history. Hundreds were killed. Thousands jailed and tortured. And it is an era that President Jair Bolsonaro remembers with nostalgia. It's the place where he got his start and something he has long championed as being worthy of returning to.

As president, Bolsonaro has called for the closure of Congress and the Supreme Court, marched with supporters to demand mili...

Brazil has a long and complicated history with fascism, going back to the early 20th century. Far-right and white supremacist groups have been emboldened by President Jair Bolsonaro—with some members of his own cabinet openly sporting Nazi tattoos. They’ve unleashed online attacks, pushed fake news and misinformation in favor of Bolsonaro, and threatened Brazil’s Supreme Court and its justices. But the country’s top court is pushin...

Jair Bolsonaro could not have won the presidency without the support of one very important group: Evangelical Christians. There is, perhaps, no other group that Bolsonaro has so vocally courted, or that has been so loyal to the president. And they remain key for Bolsonaro’s hopes of recapturing the presidency this year. 

 In this episode, we visit those spreading the gospel for Bolsonaro. And look at how Bolsonaro and his allies are...

The election of President Jair Bolsonaro was never a foregone conclusion. For most of that electoral season, someone else was ahead in the polls. But he was jailed on supposed corruption charges by a biased judge, six months out from the election, and blocked from running.

In this episode, we look at the fight to free former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva from prison, the corruption investigation that jailed him, the role of th...

As candidate Jair Bolsonaro neared the presidency in 2018, violence rippled across Brazil, mostly perpetrated by Bolsonaro supporters. Hundreds of threats and attacks, including several killings, were reported in the weeks and months leading up to the election. ​​Bolsonaro's hateful rhetoric and fake news machine spurred on the violence, painting the election as a battle for the soul of the country. With key issues like family...

Jair Bolsonaro's presidency has been a disaster for Brazil. Over 650,000 dead from Covid-19. Amazon deforestation. Rising fascism. Budget cuts. Fake news. Threats to democracy.

In this introduction to Brazil on Fire, host journalist Michael Fox sets the scene for the podcast by looking back on the last four years and why understanding Bolsonaro's rise is important now, ahead of Brazil's presidential electio...

First episodes coming this September!

Jair Bolsonaro's rise was unimaginable just a few years before his election as president of Brazil. With an impending showdown between the incumbent Bolsonaro and popular left-wing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, many suspect Bolsonaro may resort to a January 6-style coup to retain power.

In this special limited podcast series from Latin America-based journal...

Mas de 15 años después de la publicación de Periodistas y magnates, el libro de Guillermo Mastrini y Marín Becerra que ofreció un análisis de la concentración mediática en Sudamérica y México, en un campo mediático atravesado por la creciente digitalización, nos preguntamos: ¿Qué tanto ha cambiado la concentración mediática en América Latina? En este conversatorio, Gustavo Fuchs habla con cuatro investigadores de los medios de comu...