Journalled on Thursday, 27 April 2025 | Santo Cristo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 31degrees, hot, sunny and slightly overcast.
It is Thursday, nearly the end of the week, and Brazil is in chaos.
The dollar is sky-high, and the Brazilian Real is in the gutter. Record numbers of companies are shutting their doors and declaring bankruptcy, and never before in Brazil’s history have so many medium- to large-sized companies applied for judicial reorganisation.
Public safety is precarious, to say the least, with latrocinio; theft resulting in death at its highest level ever.
The Senate and the Federal Chamber of Deputies have lost all their representative power. They are now controlled by corrupt presidents of the different branches in Brasília, who are always prioritising their own interests over those of their constituents or the country.
PT, the socialist political party that was re-elected and returned to power in January 2023 with Lula as president, was absent for four years while Jair Bolsonaro was in office and also because Lula was imprisoned, tried, and sentenced for various corruption cases.
The Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) ordered the release of Lula from prison, clearly intending for him to challenge Bolsonaro in the upcoming election for a second presidential term.
Bolsonaro’s popularity was high, and the country was starting to make positive strides under his leadership and that of Paulo Guedes, the renowned economist who has served as Brazil’s economic minister since the beginning of Bolsonaro’s presidency.
Many have clearly seen that, although not proven, foul play was involved in the 2022 elections, which, surprisingly, allowed Lula to win by a very narrow margin over Bolsonaro. To me, this was too well planned and secretly orchestrated to be authentic.
What was strange, funny, and even ridiculous, while also being a point of criticism, was that throughout Lula’s campaign, he and his team promoted the idea of peace, both politically and economically, within Brazil and in its relations with other countries. They asserted that peace would return to Brazil.
I don’t know whether the Brazilian people believed it.
Still, certainly, since Lula’s re-election in January 2022, peace has slipped out the back door, with corruption, incompetence, disrespect, perversity, lies, and more entering through the front door.
It is sad and frustrating to say that Brazil as a nation is sinking into a mire of scandals, organised crime, and blatant corruption and dishonesty that only a fool would fail to see.
Hypocrisy across all levels of Brazilian society is destroying the country. Good, honest, hard-working people are being persecuted and falsely accused of crimes they did not commit.
There has been an increasing inversion of values that has been worsening exponentially over the past few years, where corrupt politicians, drug lords, and traffickers are left unchecked. At the same time, a female demonstrator who wrote a message on a public statue with her lipstick has been tried and sentenced to 15 years in prison with a fine of 30 million Reais.
How perverse and crazy is that!
The Brazil I fell in love with and saw so much potential in seemed to have died, and I don’t even know if it went to heaven or hell; what I’m sure of is that it is gone, and I don’t think it will be resurrected anytime soon.
It is clear that an internal cancer is consuming, destroying, and killing Brazil, and this cancer is spreading, poisoning, and destroying everything in its way. I only hope it is not too late because the pain is overwhelming.
There is a sliver of hope through external intervention, but even that remains merely a glimmer.
I’m trying to find a positive outlook for Brazil, but it’s difficult.
In bed by 10 p.m.
Thank you.
Thanks for reading this blog post. Please explore my other posts and share your thoughts in the comments section.
Richard
