Rio de Janeiro

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on December 18th, 2011
This tear gas cannister was reportedly used on Bahrain's pro democracy activists.

On Sunday the New York Times ran a column by Nicholas Kristof titled: “Repressing Democracy, with American Arms.”

The column examines the United States’ millions of dollars in arms sales to Bahrain, a country in the midst of a 10-month government crackdown against pro-democracy protestors that has reportedly left at least 35 dead.

Down south, here in Brazil, a similar discussion – albeit on a much smaller scale - is taking place after photos surfaced on the internet allegedly showing tear gas manufactured in Brazil used against the activists.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on April 25th, 2011
The Metro-Mangueira favela as it is now, is used as a hiding place by residents [Elizondo/Al Jazeera]

Rita Bonfim Silva is trying her best to keep up her normal routine: going out of her way to offer guests coffee, bread and butter.

But her life is likely to dramatically change very soon. The one room she rents in a crumbing three-level brick house in Metro-Mangueira favela in Rio de Janeiro is set to be demolished by the city as part of a re-development project under way in blighted areas of the city in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

But for Ms Silva, it’s not easy for her to pick up and move.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on March 20th, 2011

The banner headline in Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo newspaper says it all: “From Brazil, Obama Orders Attack on Libya.” 

That headline won't win any awards for creativity, but it surely captures the stark essence of the moment. 

Obama’s first-ever trip to South America has been historic alright, but not for the reasons initially expected. All the best intended plans for his journey here were thrown off-track only a few hours after landing in Brasilia yesterday when the US-led airstrikes on Libya began.

Obama is in Rio de Janeiro today. The president and his advisors now face a delicate balancing act the next few days as he continues his South American tour: Juggling the initial phases of the attack on Libya while carrying on with business today in Rio, tomorrow in Chile, and then El Salvador - the final leg of his trip.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on January 22nd, 2011
Firefighters digging for bodies at Manuel's house [Maria Elena Romero/Al Jazeera]

Manuel Antonio de Oliveira is a man with a leathery face, calloused hands and sunken eyes. He is a proud man of the working-class.

He is not rich by any means; maybe lower middle class, by Brazilian standards. He couldn’t afford to pay for private university education for his kids. But it doesn't take a lot of money to raise kids right and instill good values, which he tried to do. And Manuel knows a thing or two about building stuff.

So Manuel worked double shifts and saved up money for years to be able to buy building supplies. And once he had the cash, he then, little by little, built a home for his family. It was located in the remote mountains outside the weekend vacation town of Teresopolis in Rio de Janeiro state.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on January 22nd, 2011
Not all the bodies will be discovered under the vast areas still covered in mud and debris [Maria Elena Romero/ Al Jazeera]

This was the phrase I heard most last week while covering the devastating mudslides in the Serrana region of Rio de Janeiro state: "I have never seen anything like this in my life."

Ten biggest natural disasters in Brazil

- Meningitis epidemic, Sao Paulo, January 1974: 1,500 dead.
- Mudslides, Rio state, January 2011: 785 dead (as of this writing -
- Floods in Rio, January 1967: 785 dead.
- Mudslides, Sao Paulo, March 1967: 436 dead

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on January 17th, 2011
Photo by AFP

The death toll has reached 649 from the floods and landslides that wiped out much of Brazil's Serrana region of Rio de Janeiro state. Of those, 271 are from Teresopolis, where I have been since Wednesday night of last week.

It’s easy – too easy – to get caught up in the phrase "death toll", like it’s some abstract numbering of an algorithm. It’s not. And I was reminded when I visited the cemetery in Teresopolis.  It’s been turned into something more like a mass grave.

When we arrived, it was raining and cold. Gravediggers could not dig the holes fast enough to put in coffins.

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on September 6th, 2010
Luciano Santos helped spearhead the 'clean slate' law [Maria Elena Romero/Al Jazeera]

Most Brazilians will tell you their country has a long and storied history of juicy political corruption scandals here in South America’s largest democracy.

On an almost yearly basis there is at least one major political corruption scandal that erupts into a national frenzy and points a spot light on the dark side of Brazilian politics.

In 2009, the ‘scandal of the year’ involved Jose Arruda, the then Governor of Federal District, which encompasses the capital city of Brasilia.

Arruda and his aides were caught on hidden camera stuffing their pockets (literally) with bundles of cash in a classic money-for-favours scandal. (Watch this local news report, in Portuguese, to see some of the video).

By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on July 7th, 2010
Dead mangrove area in Guanabara Bay 10 years after an oil spill. Photo: Maria Elena Romero/Al Jazeera

I wanted to see the effects of an oil spill years later, so I came to Guanabara Bay near Rio de Janeiro.

It was here 10 years ago that 1.3 million litres of oil leaked from an underwater pipeline smothering in oil birds, sandy beaches, and much of the mangrove swaps that surround Guanabara Bay.

It was a major environmental catastrophe.

"The spill in 2000 on Guanabara Bay was one of the most serious and severe accidents in the environmental history of Brazil," Breno Herrera, the head of the federal governments environment office that oversees Guanabara Bay, told me recently during an interview.

Before I go any further, it’s important to understand the bay is huge. The perimeter is almost 150km long and there are dozens of little islands inside the bay.

By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on April 25th, 2010

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By Gabriel Elizondo in Americas on April 12th, 2010
Photo by Reuters
It's been a less than a week since Rio de Janeiro was thrust into absolute chaos with relentless downpours that flooded the city, killed 229 people (as of Sunday night), injured nearly 200, caused over 11,000 people to evacuate their homes, and left an unknown number buried under the earth in mudslides.
 
Sergio Cabral, the governor of the state of Rio, said it will take weeks to get the city back to normal. Heavy machinery backhoes continue to work around-the-clock to clear mud from the hardest-hit areas.
 

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