Right-wing populism

World Congress of Families XI meeting, Budapest Congress Center, May 27, 2017, Budapest, Hungary.

Home front: Part II

Critical State, a foreign policy newsletter by Inkstick Media, takes a deep dive this week into the World Congress of Families, an organization that has helped shape and share a reactionary agenda among conservatives across the globe.

Protesters hold a banner with a message that reads in Spanish: "Duque, stop the massacres," directed at Colombia's President Ivan Duque, as they march to Bolivar Square in Bogotá, Colombia, Wednesday, May 12, 2021.

Discourse of justice: Part I

Critical State
Firefighters extinguish a fire in Amazon jungle in Porto Velho, Brazil, on August 25, 2019.

Brazilian firefighters scramble for resources as Bolsonaro deflects help

Amazon rainforest

Brazil’s Bolsonaro wants to mine on Indigenous lands — illegally

Global Politics
Bolsonaro smiles and puts his hand out

Brazil’s Bolsonaro heads to White House amid scandals at home

Global Politics
Marielle Franco speaks on a mic

One year after Marielle Franco’s death, Brazil’s human rights activists demand answers

Justice

Marielle Franco was Brazil’s most prominent advocate and defender of human rights. A year after Franco was shot dead, her followers continue to mourn and demand answers from the government as to the murky circumstances of her murder.

Four men sit in a row in front of a green backdrop.

Brazil’s new far-right government issues decrees across sectors

Global Politics

In his inauguration address on Tuesday, Brazi’s new President Jair Bolsonaro said his election had freed Latin America’s largest nation from “socialism and political correctness.”

two cars flash their lights on a sign held by anti-Bolsonaro protesters

Social divisions linger after Brazil’s elections

Global Politics

In addition to sparking public violence, political divisions have cut deeply into the private lives of Brazilian families. One week after Brazil voted in the far-right Jair Bolsonaro as their next president, reporter Catherine Osborn met up with a 35-year-old banker from Rio de Janeiro named Raquel to speak about how the election had affected her relationships.

brazilian supporters of president-elect jair bolsonaro

Brazil’s version of Trump makes Trump look like Mr. Rogers

Commentary

Jair Bolsonaro’s rise from fringe candidate to Brazil’s next president has, of course, been likened to Trump’s rise from reality TV star to the White House. But Bolsonaro makes Trump look like Mr. Rogers.  

Jair Bolsonaro pictured with his mouth.

Will fake news carry Brazil’s favored far-right candidate to victory?

Global Politics

Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign has spread deceitful and misleading news debunked by fact-checkers. Brazil’s electoral courts planned to take measures to curb the spread of fake news, but they underestimated its impact, and the measures hardly came to fruition.