Brazil’s political affairs minister Carlos Marun said on Monday that passage of a bill to overhaul the country’s costly social security system has effectively ground to a halt in Congress and would become a campaign issue in this year’s election.
The Brazilian Ministry of Health has reported that from July 1, 2017 to February 15 of this year, 409 cases of yellow fever were confirmed in the country, 183 in São Paulo, 157 in Minas Gerais, 68 in Rio de Janeiro and 1 in the Federal District. There were also 118 deaths throughout the country, 44 in Minas Gerais, 46 in São Paulo, 27 in Rio de Janeiro and one death in the Federal District.
Brazilian President Michel Temer has announced the creation of a public security ministry after giving the military full control over security in crime-plagued Rio de Janeiro. Temer came to the city to meet Governor Luiz Fernando Pezao, several ministers and General Walter Souza Braga Netto, who will lead the operation and who was in charge of coordinating security when the city hosted the 2016 Olympic Games.
Brazil's President Michel Temer on Friday handed the military full control of security in Rio de Janeiro in an increasingly desperate fight to tame runaway gang violence. Army patrols are already used in Rio's gang-ruled favelas, but a decree signed by Temer will now give the military full control of security operations in Rio state, which the president said had virtually been seized by organized crime gangs.
Brazil will not block Venezuelans from entering the country through the border in the northern state of Roraima, but has launched a task force to organize the flow and provide resources for cities and states dealing with the refugees.
Brazilian President Michel Temer criticized the government of neighboring Venezuela for leading that country into a crisis that is causing an exodus of refugees into northern Brazil. Brasilia has called for democratic reforms by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who has consolidated power as his country’s economic crisis deepens with shortages of food and medicine.
Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Luis Barroso asked for the head of the Federal Police to clarify comments he made in a Reuters interview published a day earlier regarding an investigation of President Michel Temer.
In their latest monthly report, Conab (National Supply Company) increased their estimate of the 2017/18 Brazilian soybean crop by 1.2 million tons and they slightly increased their Brazilian corn estimate. Conab is now estimating the 2017/18 Brazilian soybean crop at 110.4 million tons which is 1.2 million tons more than last month's estimate (109.1 million tons). If realized, the 2017/18 crop would be 3.6 million tons lower than the 114.0 million tons produced last year (-3.2%).
Lower power tariffs pulled Brazil's inflation rate below the official target range and even the lowest of forecasts in January. Consumer prices tracked by the benchmark IPCA index rose 2.86% in the twelve months through January, government statistics agency IBGE said on Thursday.
Colombia and Brazil tightened border controls with Venezuela on Thursday as both nations grapple with a mounting influx of hundreds of thousands of desperate migrants fleeing a worsening economic crisis In a visit to the border region, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said he would impose stricter migratory controls, suspend new daily entry cards for Venezuelans and deploy 3,000 new security personnel along the frontier, including 2,120 more soldiers.