SHOOTING
The Dark Side of Brazilian Gold
In Paracatú, a little town of Minas Gerais state, Southeast Brazil, one of the largest gold mines in the country generates great controversy due to a surge in cancer cases, death threats to activists, and a silent campaign to investigate critics of the mine.
No Peace in the Favelas
In 2020, some 5,660 people were killed by the Brazilian police, by official count. According to the law, police are entitled to use lethal force to confront an imminent threat. Nowhere in the country does this “license to kill” pose a larger threat to the population than in the favelas of Rio, particularly to Black people.
The End of the Brazilian Left
In 2016, Brazilians demonstrated for months against President Dilma Rousseff and the Workers' Party of Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva. Within months, Rousseff was impeached, and, two years later, President Jair Bolsonaro ended a period of 13 years of uninterrupted government by the Left in Brazil.
In the Amazon, a Clash of Two Models
Making up roughly 40 percent of South America, the Amazon forest, especially in Brazil, is currently at a crossroads. Agribusiness has become a source of prosperity, but for Indigenous tribes, the expansion of soy and cattle ranching threatens the future of the jungle and their own lives.
The Mine, The Train, The Life
A two-mile long, 330-car train currently links one of the richest and largest open-pit mines in the world—the iron ore mine of Carajás, located in the heart of the Brazilian rain forest—with exporting Atlantic ports. Some 550 miles of railroad cut through the jungle, villages, and cities—a blessing for some; a curse for others.
Boxing as a Redemption
Born in a Rio de Janeiro favela, Patrick lost his father when he was three years old because of drug violence. Many believed he too would become a member of a gang. But he focused in sports: football, tennis, then boxing. In 2016, against all odds, he participated in the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.