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Foreign Policy

Brazil’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations

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Brazil’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations

by: Fernanda Nogueira and Mario Saraiva


On October 27, Brazil Talk in the company of Brazilian students at Columbia University was invited to visit the Brazilian Mission at the UN in order to learn more about this massive and at times veiled organization. Members of the Mission exposed the actions Brazil is undertaking at the UN and discussed the role of international organizations in different developmental challenges in Brazil. We’ll aim to highlight the main learning points from the visit.

Brazil Talk Visits Brazil's UN Mission
Brazil Talk Visits Brazil’s UN Mission

It was startling to realize how little we know about what exactly entails the work of the UN. The UN is a complex organization. (more…)

Blog, Culture, National Politics, Society

What do you know about the military regime in Brazil?

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What do you know about the military regime in Brazil?

by Mario Saraiva, MPA-DP candidate 2018 at SIPA

We need to talk about the military regime. I don’t think the issue has received the attention it deserves. Some stories from the period of dictatorship in Brazil are famous, such as the kidnapping of the American ambassador by the communist guerrilla, and how the US was a key supporter of the regime. However, many Brazilians are still unaware of the atrocities that happened from 1964 to 1985.  Our neighbors, Argentina and Chile, have publicly examined the crimes committed against human rights during their dictatorships regimes but Brazil…let’s just say Brazil is not there yet. Open dialogue about the military regime remains limited and consequently, my generation—born after 1985—is at risk of forgetting what we as a nation have been through.

 “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana words carry a timely lesson for Brazil as the country approaches the one-year countdown for its 2018 presidential election.

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