Country Music Meets Militias in the Brazilian Amazon

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Coup Plotters and Militias Are Linked to Former Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro

If you’re Brazilian, you’ve probably heard about the country singers Bruno and Barretto. Among the many songs in their arsenal, they have one called Bruto Memo, which roughly translates to “Brute Indeed.” In the lyrics, some verses attempt to characterize regions of Brazil:

“In the southeast, Brazil's best rodeo
The north is full of wealth
And in the center-west it's picanha [a Brazilian meat cut] and country fashion!”

The song goes on to claim: “It's the gang with the hat that's running this place.” You don’t have to be a semiotic expert to know that they are referring to farmers and agribusiness leaders. Maybe because they are the ones employing the singers. On social media, Barretto poses with Debs Antônio Rosa, a soybean producer and cattle rancher convicted of murdering a landless rural worker in Anapu, Pará, Brazil.

For Repórter Brasil, Pulitzer Center Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN) Fellow Daniel Camargos spent a year investigating how powerful alliances between political figures, militias, and aggressive agribusiness interests are driving environmental destruction, violence, and the erosion of Indigenous rights in the Brazilian Amazon.

While Repórter Brasil was looking into the political drivers of deforestation, RIN Fellow Bruna Bronoski, reporting for O Joio e o Trigo, focused on the financial flows. Her investigation revealed that while the Brazilian Central Bank has rules to exclude deforesters from rural credit, there are other financial instruments coming from the stock exchange that support environmental offenders.

Understanding who finances agribusiness is important to reveal the power dynamics and interests behind agricultural practices, particularly in regions like the Amazon. Financial backers can influence policies and practices, often prioritizing profit over sustainability and human rights.

Bronoski’s ongoing RIN project and other Center-supported environmental investigations will be discussed this weekend by researchers from Cambridge Digital Humanities (CDH), a research center at the University of Cambridge. The conversation is part of a partnership between CDH, the Pulitzer Center, and Earth Genome and features a public event that will provide a platform for discussion about the impact of AI on environmental investigations.

As we uncover the connections between environmental destruction, agribusiness, political pressures, and financial flows, it becomes clear that these forces shape our collective future. Our investigations aim to bring transparency to these dynamics and engage audiences along the way.

We hope you come along,

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Impact

Pulitzer Center grantees have been honored by the 2024 Panafrican Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) Awards for their reporting projects. PACJA celebrates outstanding journalists reporting on environmental and climate change issues in Africa. This year’s theme was “Advancing Accountability for Adaptation Finance for Enhanced Resilience, Climate Justice, and Equity.”

A total of 478 journalists submitted entries; 16 winners were selected in six categories, according to PACJA. Winners included:

Arthur Bizimana and Mukulu Vulotwa Hervé: They won the Data Journalism Award for their Pulitzer Center-supported project, The Impact of the Decline in Family Farmland on Forests. The investigation explores the consequences of farming on previously protected lands across the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi, particularly the effects on local wildlife and social cohesion.

Uchenna Igwe and James Onono Ojok: This duo won the Investigative Reporting Award for their project, Illegal Logging in a Nigerian National Park. The work investigated illegal logging and how it’s spurring deforestation.

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This message first appeared in the September 6, 2024, edition of the Pulitzer Center's weekly newsletter. Subscribe today.

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