Jailed former president Lula da Silva has increased his support by five percentage points and would win Brazil's October presidential election if he was allowed to run, a poll by CNT/MDA showed on Monday. The survey, which was last taken in May, found that almost half of the leftist leader's supporters would transfer their votes to his running mate Fernando Haddad if Lula is disqualified from Brazil's most uncertain race in decades.
Brazil's government has not ruled out closing its border with Venezuela at Pacaraima, in Roraima state, but sees obstacles to doing so because of international treaties it has signed, Political Affairs Minister Carlos Marun said on Monday.
Brazil is sending additional troops to its northern frontier after residents of one of its border towns attacked Venezuelan immigrants, forcing hundreds of them to flee back into their country. Brazil's Ministry of Public Security said over the weekend it would send an additional 60 soldiers to Roraima on Monday, reinforcing a contingent already operating in the northern state.
The United Nations Human Rights Committee, a panel of independent experts, on Friday said it had requested that the Brazilian government allow imprisoned former president Lula da Silva to exercise his political rights as a presidential candidate.
Brazil will likely step down to become the world's second-largest sugar producer on low global sugar prices and higher profitability and strong demand for ethanol, according to a report by Brazilian consulting company JOB Economia e Planejamento.
A potential ban on the popular herbicide glyphosate in Brazil over concerns it may cause cancer in humans would be a “disaster” for the country’s agricultural industry, Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi said on Thursday.
An indigenous leader has been found murdered in Brazil, exposing the growing threat to tribes fighting illegal logging in the Amazon, campaigners and authorities said. Jorginho Guajajara was found dead in the northern state of Maranhao with his neck broken, rights group Survival International said. Police in Maranhao confirmed on Thursday they were investigating the case.
Brazil’s top electoral court must decide whether the country’s most popular politician can run in upcoming elections despite being jailed for corruption. The court is expected to declare former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ineligible in the coming weeks, ahead of the Oct. 7 vote, but that may not stop his Workers Party (PT) winning anyway.
Brazilian President Michel Temer is endorsing another party’s candidate as well as his own in October’s presidential election. On the day the campaign took off, Temer said in an interview published on Thursday by the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper that he sees former Sao Paulo Gov. Geraldo Alckmin of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party as a candidate who would carry on with his work.
Brazilian farmers are expected to plant a record amount of soybean acres this coming season, encouraged by strong demand from China, and yield a record harvest next year, consultancy Céleres said in its first forecast for the new cycle. The next crop cycle in Brazil, the world's No. 1 soybean exporter, begins in September.