A New World with New Ideas - A Brazilian Timeline

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXX - Crisis in the East.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

With the end of the 2nd World War, China emerged as one of the preeminent Asian power. As such, they thought of themselves as deserving of the same treatment and recognition of other powers. However, soon after the end of Japanese Occupation, American allies began emerging throughout he Chinese periphery. First it was Japan, then Korea and then Vietnam. As a result, Nanjing sought to distance themselves from the Americans and gravitated towards the Germans. Now that the Cold War ended however, China was left to pick up the remainders. For their economy throughout the late 80’s and early90’s, was best described as a “shit show”.

But now in the mid 1990’s, the Chinese fortune began to turn as new market reforms aiming at bringing investment to the country began working. This was possible because the Chinese workforce was dirty cheap, as well as the fact that the Nationalist government (which held unto power from WW2 to today) essentially guttered Chinese worker’s protections. As a result, throughout the 1990’s and 2000’s, China became the world’s fastest growing economy[1], though the Chinese product always faced competition in the form of the safe markets of South America, USA and Europe. Thus, China’s influence only really began spreading towards Africa and Asian. To them however, this was enough as they could now build up China into a proper world power.
One nation however stood in their way throughout Africa and Asia, and surprisingly it was not the United States. I’m talking abou none other than Brazil, the giant of South America. For you see, Brazil held diplomatic and military ties directly into areas China wished to expand their influence. Brazil, for instance, had military bases in Macau, Ceylon, as well as close diplomatic relations with India and Malaysia. In Nanjing’s mind, Brazil had to leave if China was to take its rightful place as the queen of Asia. To accomplish this, China began a massive military buildup in order to begin launching their influence overseas. This buildup alarmed the president of Macau, Carlos Sun[2], which requested for the Brazilians to increase their military presence in the area. Now, the Brazilian labor government had campaigned on an explicitly isolationist policy of “South American Brazil”. However, an opportunity as good as this could not be ignored, specially with the Minister of War, Armando Rutkowski, bitching about the issue to the Federal Government all the damn time. Thereby, the Hitler administration authorized for the Pacific Squadron, previously docked in Timor, to go forth and dock in Macau instead.

Brazilian Pacific Fleet on their routinely Timor-Macau trip​

To say this move was controversial would be an understatement. China heavily criticized Brazil as an imperialist nation, which anchored its fleet right at China’s doorstep as a way to demand concessions from Nanjing. Also given the fact that China explicitly states that Macau should be a part of the country, much like Hong Kong, tensions rose. Similarly, the Brazilian public also found the move to be unpopular, as they did not want Brazil to be involved in a major war on the other side of the world. The only guys really agitating for more action by Brazil’s part, were the Macanese government, as well as the Brazilian opposition, which spoke about Brazil’s needs to defend their allies and secure world democracy against the authoritarian and corrupt Chinese Government. Hoping to court some favor with the opposition, Hitler saw fit to just sit their fleet there and ingnore Chinese demands. So much so, that she even flew there alongside the Portuguese Prime Minister, Fernando Nogueira, to meet with Carlos Sun in person. All the while, Chinese military presence in the region increased exponentially.

Shit really hit the fan however, on the 7th of July of 1995. In that day, a Chinese fighter jet came face-to-face with a Brazilian pilot carrying a training exercise in Macanese waters, both planes eventually crashed onto each other, with both pilots surviving and falling in the South China Sea. Eventually, a Brazilian boat came by and rescued the two, with the Chinese, which took somes wounds during the crash, staying for a bit in a Brazilian medical facility. To his commander on the ground however, all they knew is that his plane came into contact with a Brazilian and then was gone. To them, the Brazilians had downed one of their pilots, which meant an act of war. Thus, ground forces and aerial forces went on high alert and just one signal was needed to bomb the Brazilians into oblivion. Said orders however were not carried out, because a shortly afterwards, the downed pilot came back to his base and was like “Wow, let’s calm ourselves down, I did not get shot down, please don’t make me die in a pointless war.” With that, the worst of the crisis had ended and a more ample room for negotiation was created out of this good willed gesture.

So, now you must be thinking, “Did they reach an accord in the end?”. Well, the answer is no, Brazil refused to take out their fleet completely from Macau, tough they did return some ships to Timor. China for their part, also refused to decrease their number of troops in southern China, as well as refused to drop their claims on Macau. The whole ordeal however, was a big PR win for the Hitler administration, which by now gained a reputation of dependable, despite their previously mentioned isolationist stance. Not only that, but the SLP, NFP, Greens opposition also began extending an olive branch to the Hitler administration, not that she needed it, but it was nice anyways.

As for China, the whole country was emerged into a deep anti-Brazilian rage throughout the 1990’s and early 2000’s, with Brazilian media and culture being highly big no-no in the Middle Kingdom. It also didn’t help that Brazil had the largest Japanese community outside of Japan, which also played into China’s hatred for Japan due to the 2nd World War. Anyhow, the only reason China did not invade Macau, was because they were trying to develop the country rapidly, and a way against the 4th largest economy in the world (almost becoming the third), as well as a nuclear power, was bad for business. Said business relationships, would eventually also lead to both countries getting on better terms, specially as trade with Brazil (and the Mercosul in general) increased rapidly, as well as the vast numbers of Chinese students that went to Brazilian universities to learn, coupled with the huge increase in the Sino-Brazilian population (going to 1.5 million as of 2023).

Another result of this crisis, was Brazil’s change in foreign policy. Previously, due to the general optimism that crisis and tensions were a thing of the past, the Conservative-PTB coalition kinda neglected foreign policy and defense spending. Now however, they developed a new policy called “Pan-Isolationism”. Which basically dictated that Brazil would be more than willing to intervene with matters regarding their immediate sphere[3], though Brazil would also not seek to enlarge their sphere, not get into matters outside their zone of influence. As for China, the country now became locked in an influence struggle, as Brazilian allies in Ceylon, Malaysia and India proved roadblocks to further Chinese ambitions. However, China would not stop, they might have lost the battle, but they swore to win the war. Wether they will win or lose, is outside of its post’s scope however.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

[1] This growth however is smaller than OTL, as more protectionist policies by the US, Brazil and Europe, stops much of their industries from going overseas
[2] Due to lasting Portuguese influence in Macau, Macanese typically use Portuguese first names, as well as the European method of naming [Given Name + Surname], as opposed to the East Asian model [Surname + Given Name]
[3] Basically, Portugal, Lusophone Africa, Lusophone Asia and South America

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXI - Brava gente Brasileira

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

Not long after the Macanese Crisis, Brazil would continue its development throughout Latin America. So much so, that during the 7th of September of 1995, Brazil would be marking their 201st Birthday (much like today, happy birthday Brazil). As a result, Brazilian paternalism towards the Mercosul only increased as Brazil began influencing Bolivian politics for their own benefits. See, Bolivia had vast quantities of Natural Gas, a commodity Brazil had to previously acquire by imports from the Middle East. And as we all know, Brazil has for the past 5 years been trying to distance themselves from the overseas market, instead focusing on building up a partnership with South American nations.

As such, when the Bolivian elections of 1995 rolled up, Bolivians needed to chose between Gonzales Sánchez de Lozada and Hugo Banzer. Now, Lozada campaigned on a nationalist platform of using Bolivian gas for Bolivia only, while Banzer was more than happy with selling out his nation to foreign interests. Which is why, once the polls rolled up, Lozada got ahead of Banzer as Bolivians wanted a change. Brazil however had other plans. Secretly, the IBIS stated meddling in the Bolivian election, by bribing officials, fabricating votes and threatening pro-Lozada supporters. Thereby once the results rolled along, Banzer “won” the election with 50,1% of the popular vote. This result however enraged the Bolivian people, who hoped to take actions into their own hands to secure their country’s future.

Right afterwards, the Bolivian people took to the streets to protest the election results. Specially after it was discovered that there were more votes in the election than registered voters. Thankfully for Brazil however, their meddling was done in such a way that it couldn’t be grace back to them. It also didn’t help that all files regarding the latest Bolivian election were accessible only to the head of IBIS, Geraldo Haddad, with no additional copies. Not only that, but Brazil also basically had a gun pointed at the heads of all the guys they supported, so that if they decided to go against them, removing them from the face of the earth wouldn’t be so hard. Which is also why, up to this day the public does not know of Brazilian involvement in the 1995 Bolivian election. But anyways, once the people went to the streets, Banzer basically shat himself and ran away from the capital, allowing for protests to take both La Paz and Sucre. Resulting in Lozada taking over the country. A civil-war was later averted when loyalists to Banzer defected to Lozada, recognizing him as president.

Photo Geraldo Haddad, ex-Director of IBIS from 1989-2000​

Brazil however, was nothing if not frugal and adaptable. Thereby, the Brazilian Foreign Minister Rafael Ambrogio, called the Lozada government to congratulate them in their well earned victory. Banzer became enraged by this, however he didn’t do much else, as he was found dead in his hideout hanging from the felling, with his death being declared a suicide (though we all know what happened). Anyhow, Brazil also stated that Bolivian would be able to join the Mercosul in no time. With negotiations being held between the new Bolivian government and Mercosul going on throughout the 1990’s.

Photo of ex-foreign-minister Rafael Ambrogio, who held the office from 1990-1999​

Simultaneously, Brazil made some major breakthroughs in regards to environmentalism. This time however, efforts to preserve Brazilian nature shifted away from the Amazon and the Mangues, and instead turned to the Mata Atlântica and the Cerrado. Both of whom, became severely devastated after decades of industrialization and intensive farming. To fix this issue, the Hitler administration introduced the Lei Maria Castro and the Lei Wagner both of whom dealt with the Cerrado and Mata Atlântica respectively. In regards to the Lei Maria Castro, the law created a sub-ministry to the Ministry of the Environment, responsible solely for the preservation and general welfare of the Cerrado biome. It looked for the creation of 4 new national parks, as well as declaring some 100,000 sq/km of land as preservation area. The Lei Wagner however, was much more ample in regards to its goals to environmentalism, but in the end it ended up affecting the Mata Atlântica more than other biomes. In essence, the law made it mandatory for single-family housing to have at least 20% of their property in green coverage, not only that but in case of farms over 90 hectares, to have up to 25% of their property as a natural reserve for Brazilian wildlife. Now, this might not seem like it helps the Mata Atlântica in specific, but considering most Brazilians live in what is the Mata Atlântica and much of their food was grown there, it made sense.

To accompany this immediate legislation, parliament also pushed for the Lei da Consolidação da Amazônia Azul, which placed the entire Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone, under the protection of the Ministry of the Environment, and basically expanding the statute of Fernando de Noronha to the whole Brazilian coast. Which also came with an increase in the patrolling of Brazilian waters for the preservation of wildlife. However, what they found instead was something none could have predicted. OIL.

Deep in the Brazilian coastline, some 10 kilometers from the surface, Brazilian research’s found out huge oil deposits of very high quality. These deposits became known as “Pré-Sal”, with many in the worldseeing dollar signs as they wondered how they could exploit this. One problem though, all oil extraction and refining in Brazil, came from the state-owned Petrobras, so foreign-investors could be told to fuck off. Most importantly, Brazilian environmental regulations meant that if Petrobras was to extract petroleum from the depths of the ocean, they’d need to be extra careful about oil-leakages and CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the technology to exploit the oil was pretty expensive, though feasible with he right investments. Lastly, there was also the issue of the Venezuelan government, as Brazil did not wish to anger their neighbor in a nationalist dream of oil digging. However, Hitler was nothing if not stubborn, and when she dais Brazil would be exploring the oil, by god she meant it. In order to appease Caracas, the Brazilians proposed doubling their industrial aid to Venezuela, as well as the fixing of oil prices to the international market. In exchange, the Venezuelans would shut the fuck up and let Brazil dig for the sweet black-gold.

This however drew the ire of Brazilian environmentalists, who relentlessly protested Hitler’s decision. Green peace in particular, rented boats to go out in the ocean and stand there, so as to block the construction of the oil rigs. However, once again Hitler proved indomitable. Thus, she managed to get a law through Congress named Lei Petróleo Nosso, basically ripping off Vargas’ iconic phrase “O Petróleo é Nosso” when he created Petrobras. This law, gave extra funds to Petrobras in order to get them the means to extract Brazilian petroleum. Prime buyers included Japan, in need of diversifying their oil imports, as well as Portugal which sought to distance themselves from Russian and American oil dependency.

In order to achieve their goals however, Petrobras would need modernization and good leadership. Thankfully for the, they had the latter, who was also determined to achieve the former. Thus, Petrobras president Joaquim Enright, began a massive recruitment campaign in order to lure in mechanics, technicians, as well as good old manual labor. His bid proved successful, with Petrobras constructing their installations at breakneck speed. Simultaneously the Federação Brasileira do Operariado and the Sindicato Nacional do Petróleo, successfully negotiated for very good working conditions with the government and Petrobras. Thus, allowing for Brazil to quickly start pumping oil by the end of the 1990’s. Production would only continue to rise, until reaching its peak in 2005, when Brazilian was producing 5 million barrels of oil a day. Not only that, but Brazil also innovated on oil-production and refining as they created new and more efficient methods of separating hydrocarbon byproducts from unrefined petroleum. Leading to much higher output of things like gasoline, querosene, asphalt, etc.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXII - The New Party System

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

With the end of the 20th century, we might as well summarize the party system that has developed in Brazil. Firstly, the terms left-wing and right-wing in a purely western concept are kinda weird when it comes to Brazilian politics. Mostly because, what would be considered the left-wing alternative, the PTB, was still pretty different from traditional western leftist parties.

This development, is due to the fact that, while Western Social-Democratic parties have been watered down, specially with the development of the “new left”, the Brazilian PTB has remained ideologically consistent throughout this period, and despite reinventing their ideology of Trabalhismo to Neo-Trabalhismo, all it did was adapt the original to the new Brazil of the 1990’s. Besides that, the PTB remains very socially-conservative, as the Old Left purged the party’s hierarchies from the new members in the new left. Not only that, but the party’s own origins as a Christian Socialist movement moves it to a very favorable position with religion. Their roots, are also tied to industrial worker’s protests against immigration from Europe due to competition in the job market, and making the PTB’s opposition to immigration a historical phenomenon. The party’s main voting base would be the blue-color workers of the big industrial cities of Brazil, though they also tend to perform well with farmers throughout the South and Center-West. Paraná, Aurélia, Tieté and Araucária are the party’s foremost voting bases. By the 1990’s, this idea solidified itself and the PTB is now definitive in its ideology.

Allied with the PTB are the conservatives, which throughout the western world are deemed to be mortal enemies of the left. Here however due to Catarina Hitler’s influence, the party’s populist wing, akin to US populists like George Wallace, took over the party ideologically. Preaching Welfare Chauvinism, as well as Right-Wing Populism, the party has a strong base with the conservative lower classes and farmers, with the economical elites moving away from the Conservatives as they solidified themselves as the party of the common man. But you guys already now this, so what is new?

Well, after losing two elections in a row, the Brazilian opposition had to change. Mostly because, they came to the realization that milking the legacies of Branco and Henriques could only get them so far. Thusly, a new generation of politicians from the Social Liberals, National Federalists and Greens came to the scene. Amongst them, was the Senate Minority Leader, Gustavo Ashur, from the province of Grão-Pará. Ashur, was born into a wealthy family that managed to climb out of extreme conditions, as his grandfather, Yousif Ashur, an ethnic Assyrian, escaped from the horrors and brutality of the OttomanEmpire during WW1. Ashur’s main line of thinking, was that Liberalism would never be able to establish a foothold in Brazil, if they kept acting like a bunch of elitist douches that looked down on the common laborer. Rather, the party should promote the idea of liberty, by enshrining the rights of social-minorities, as well as expose the Trabalhistas as corrupt kleptocrats that block social development. Similarly, free-market advocates like Adriana Kirchner and Otávio Gusmão, began gaining traction within the younger demographics. Especially due to their unconditional support for Gay Marriage and hate for traditional gender roles. Kirchner above all, was able to capitalize on her beauty, as well as the fact she was in a lesbian relationship. Which does paint an interesting picture. As in most of the Western World, the charge for equal rights for homosexuals was spearhead by gays, with Lesbians, Bisexuals, etc. having to fight for space in the gay movement. In Brazil meanwhile, it was female Lesbian leaders that fought the most for equal treatment.

Photo of Adriana Kirchner in the mid 2000’s​

This new revitalized leadership, would be able to better coordinate the opposition to the Hitler government in the following years. For example, in 1998 the Senate was able to block bill that would allow for police to monitor the homes of recently arrived immigrants. Simultaneously, the SLP, the NFP and Greens were able to successfully pass a bill in parliament that would prohibit discrimination of any sort in a private residency, however this last one was voted down in the senate, with Hitler stating that even if it had passed she would have vetoed it. Anyhow, this better coordinate opposition would make their play in the 1998 Brazilian legislative elections.

The goal there was not to win, as it was impossible to do so due to the Hitler’s government successful economical record, as well as low inflation and low crime. However, they could nab voters in regions dissatisfied with Hitler’s excessive social-conservatism. To do so, the opposition did a massive mobilization to fight the PTB-Conservative coalition. Kirchner for her part, launched the largest Pride Parade in the country’s history, which did alienated conservative voters, but they wouldn’t have voted for them anyway, so who cared. Gusmão and Ashur meanwhile, campaigned heavily in progressive areas of Monterreal, São Sebastião and São José[1]. They also campaigned heavily for market deregulations and an increase in foreign interventionism. The former gaining more support than the latter. But still, they did an impressive campaign, as they were also able to heavily attack Hitler as basically a closeted Fascist, once again bringing up her Grandfather’s less than stellar opinion on Jews, as well as his book “Why Brazil is like this.[2].

The end result was a slight shift in the balance of power. The coalition, was able to retain a workable majority of 228, with the Conservatives having 138 and the PTB wielding 90. But the other parties grew nicely, the Social Liberals were once again the 2nd largest party with 94, the Progressives now had 61 seats, the NFP had 38, the greens 25. With a measly 4 seats being allocated to the rest, 2 of which went to the PCB, one was independent and one went to the AIB. All in all, nothing had really changed, but the country’s leadership did few a slight chill in the spine.

As a result, the 2nd Hitler government would need to capitalize on the country’s economic success more than anything else. Also, the Conservatives-PTB coalition would also need to work closer than ever in order to achieve their goal. Hitler and Fossati for their part, also began to better coordinate with their two parties, which once again, allowed for the opposition to spread rumors that they were having an affair[3]. But once again, they had the exact tool to rid themselves of these allegations. Football. The Cup of 1998, would be a spectacle for Brazilians as it was held in India. There, the Brazilians dominated the field and after years without winning a World Cup, they managed to bring the trophy back home after scoring a 3-2 on the French team, which many held as the favorite to win the tournament. Such wave of patriotism absolutely engulfed the country, silencing critics, as nobody gave a damn about politics now that Brazil brought football back home. In celebration of this victory, Hitler also announced the “Plano Dias”, after the Minister of the Economy Bartolomeu Dias, an economic plan to massively expand Brazilian electronic and scientific production, in order to share the greatness of the Brazilian nation to the rest of the world.

Speaking of the Plano Dias, it involved major deals with Brazilians technological titans. Not only that, but as a result more companies began sprinting up to milk that sweet sweet government cash. Amongst these was Dalca, headed by Antônio Dalca, a company which innovated greatly on the cellphone market. This plan, allowed for Brazil to start rapidly catching up to the most advanced companies when it came to cellphones, as Brazil became an ever bigger producing on cellphone chips and other components. However, there were other things happening around.

Photo of the Dalca I, one of the best cellphones of the late 90’s and early 2000’s.​

See, with all this money being thrown around some people began taking advantage of this. Namely a guy named Sérgio Montenegro, not to be confused with Marcos Montenegro, head of Brazil’s new Ministry for Anti-Corruption. Sérgio for his part, was governor of Pernambuco and he had an idea. Namely, he would create ghost companies in order to receive money and pocket the difference. He also brought to his side some other insignificant figures on the national level. Their plan would be known as the Chip Scheme, because most of the companies set up were focused around chip manufacturing. This setup would however only last one year. During this time meanwhile, they managed to receive up to 895 million Cruzeiros from the government. Marcos however began to suspect stuff when some minor market irregularities were being detected, and Dias began complaining about a possible market downturn. Upon looking closer however, he began noticing that there was trail of money that went to basically nowhere. Thus, he secretly launched Operation Icebreaker, with the aim of getting to the root of the problem. Some 5 months later, they managed to locate the source up to governor Sérgio Montenegro and busted his hole operation. The political fallout of such action however are yet to be seen.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

[1] for those who don’t remember, it’s the OTL equivalents of Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and Manaus
[2] Looks like even in an ATL, Adolf is still a douche. But essentially, this book describes how Brazil was able to become the dominant power of Latin-America. Basically, by not mixing with natives and blacks (untrue, many white-Brazilians have native and black admixture) and being descendent from the “purer” parts of Latin Europe (Northwest Iberia, settled by the Suebi and Visigoths. Northern Italy, settled by the Lombards. Ireland, Celts. Good old Germany, “pure Aryans”)
[3] In TTL this will always remain as a conspiracy theory. But as basically god, I can assure you guys they were 100% having an affair

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXIII - Last bits of a time

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

Things sometimes are much more fragile than we imagine. Be it an old product, or a whole government. However, once we find out the fragility of such things, some may either chose to try to preserver it, or bring it down. This is exactly what happened throughout the years of 1998 to 1999. During this time, rocked by the development scandles, the PTB-Conservative coalition was threatened by a newly invigorated opposition. Problems would then be further when major opposition leaders, such as Gustavo Ashur, Adriana Kirchner and Otávio Gusmão, all agreed to form a united front for liberalism. This coalition once again brought together the Social-Liberals, Progressives, National-Federalists and Greens under a single front. Gustavo Ashur was also picked as their main candidate for a future Prime Minister. All the while, the coalition would attempt to bring the government down.

The government for their part, tried to milk their economic achievements as their main strength. As by 1998, the Brazilian GDP stood at 3.870 Trillion USD, right behind Germany’s 3.902 Trillion USD. Not only that, but inflation was also under controlled, if raised to 4% per year. Unemployment was also at an alll time low since the 1960’s and in general, the Brazilian proletariat was more than content with the current status-quo. What this meant, was that if Brazil had the same composition as that of the 1950’s and 60’s, the Conservative-PTB coalition could entrench itself onto power for an indefinite amount of time. Unfortunate for them, the Brazil of 1998 was not the same as that of previous decades, as now there was a big white-color workforce, larger minorities and a new and more progressive urban elite. So, despite the unwavering loyalty of white-manual workers. It wasn’t enough to fully secure their dominance over Brazilian politics anymore.

Then, by the end of 1998, more things happened. More specifically, in that year Brazil would be shaken to their very core. For on the 20th of October of 1998, two ex-students from a Public High-School[1] in São Sebastião, by the names of Fábio Leite and Alberto Carpinteiro, pulled weapons out of their car, entered the school and started a massacre. They started their massacre by hitting the school cafeteria, where they shot people on sight, or threw handmade grenades. They would continue firing, as well as torturing some students, for another 25 minutes. After that, a unit of the city’s Armadoria entered the school and shot one of them dead, with the other one committing suicide as he laid bleeding from gunshot wounds by the police. In the end, some 17 students and 3 teachers were killed in the incident and a further 20 were wounded, with their names being transmitted for all of Brazil to see. Thus, the names of the students: José Vásques, Gilberto Randolfe, Leonardo Cavaleiro, Orlando Heiniger, Tancredo Guimarães, Rafael Matamoros, Martim Baldomar, Lívia Chio, Mariana Zorzi, Mariana França, Eloísa Hermida, Ana Maria Bazar, Regina Albano, Luana Dirksen, Maria Joana da Costa, Giovana Zorzi, Patrícia de Oliveira. Not only them, but their teachers: Geraldo Magalhães, Matilda Aragón and Clara Amanda Rodrigues. All of them entered the Brazilian subconscious, as their horrible deaths became public knowledge.

Now, Hitler looked at this situation and thought to herself, “how can I make this look in the worst way possible for me”. Firstly, instead of making consolations and such, she used the event as a way to attack the progressive elements of Brazilian society. As she referred to the attackers as “meantally deranged teenagers, that fell into disparity thanks to the hyper-progressive world we live in”. This message however displeased everyone, even her own allies. Not only that, but once Carpinteiro’s suicide note was found in his bedroom, people learned that the main motivation for this attack, was the fact his girlfriend broke up with him. Worse yet, the letter also went on to explain Leite’s extremely racist views against Asians and Africans, which makes it kinda ironic considering his ex-girlfriend was Asian. Thereby, Brazilian minorities took Hitler’s attempts at diminishing the role of race in the attack to great offense. But worst of all, was the fact that the guy was also incredibly misogynistic and as a result, Brazilian women felt threatened at how a psycho just casually killed a bunch of people (most of whom were female and 3 were targeted[2]). So, women’s-rights movements began popping in strength across the nation.

January 5th would then prove to be the greatest of all demonstrations. As up to 600,000 people marched throughout São Sebastião as a protest against Hitler’s government, and her social-conservatism. Amongst the leaders of the protests, were opposition leaders such as Adriana Kirchner, leading the LGBT wing of the parade. Not only that, but the relatives of the October 20th victims were also present, demanding accountability in regards to PM Hitler’s statements, as well as the silence of Guanabara’s Governor Alfonso Pinha. As a result of these protests, the coalition began diving themselves. With one wing, mainly focused around the PTB, wishing to make to answer the protesters calls for accountability and justice. This wing was lead by PTB member of parliament Teófilo McGauley. The other wing, loyal to Catarina Hitler and Fossati, stated that the government was in the right direction and that the protesters should shut the fuck up.

Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, they actually got worse. One the 3rd of March, a Brazilian policeman by the name of João Hypolite, a Brazilian of Haitian parents. Brutally assault a man on the streets for suspecting that he had illegal substances, which he did by the way. The man in question was a guy called Domingo Morales, an immigrant from Bolivia. In the end, he was rushed to the hospital but did not resist, dying on the 4th of March. Oh, did I forgot to mention Hypolite was hardcore Conservative voter? Yeah, the end result was as one could expect, an explosion of anti-government actives throughout the country. Seeing that the iron was hot, the opposition officialized the opposition to the Hitler government as the “Partido Popular Para o Progresso”, or P-4 as it would be popularly known. But, Hitler decided to shoot herself in the foot once more, and openly defended Hypolite, calling him a true Brazilian and defender of the nation. Something which, even if a lot of them agreed, was not the most popular position to have in the nation. Then of March 10th shit hit the fan yet again, when Guifredo Metaxas, the boyfriend of Lívia Chio, committed suicide after he couldn’t tolerate his survivors guilt, as he too was a target for the massacre, but since he was sick that day he didn’t go to class.

Basically, it demanded 3 things. 1) the Brazilian minorities, such as women and racial-minorities, were to be entitled to the same effective treatment as their white and male counterparts. 2) Police ought to serve the people, by serving the corrupt and archaic establishment, it is going against the people and must be reformed. 3) An end to Brazil’s isolationist outlook, which actively interfered in Brazil’s progress towards equality and progress.

Having the advantage need with the public, the P-4 (now the official name of the coalition, as it also served to show the 4 involved parties) pushed for a vote of no confidence in Parliament, in order to oust Catarina Hitler as PM of Brazil. Now, given that the Conservative-PTB coalition held a majority of seats in both Parliament and the Senate, it would have been impossible for the vote to go through. Unfortunately for Hitler, her policies in the last year basically alienated a lot of people, even amongst her own coalition. Thereby, a secret meeting between McGauleyist faction was held in Nova Bragança. There, they basically agreed that if Hitler were to remain in power, the next election would probably result in a catastrophic loss for them, possibly rendering them moribund for a few decades. Thereby, it would be better if they cut their loses, did some purges and waited for one or two elections to get back on track. So, once the vote was held, the McGauleyists voted for the motion and helped the P-4 throw Hitler off the reigns of government. Resulting in Gustavo Ashur to rise as the new Brazilian PM, under the Social-Liberal Party.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

[1] In Brazil, public schooling is divided into primary and secondary educations. With kids below 9th grade belonging to primary and above belonging to secondary. Both sections for their part, have separate teaching families
[2] Basically as the story goes, Leite was an abusive boyfriend, so Chio broke up with him, by en large encouraged by her two friends, Mariana França and Regina Albano. After that started dating Guifredo Metaxas, a guy who Leite hated. And this is they main why of the massacre

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXIV - Millennium Dawn -

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

With Hitler’s government taken out, Gustavo Ashur was approached by the Governor General to establish a new government. To that end, the P-4 was assembled into a coalition, with ministries being divided between members of the coalition. For Minister of the Economy, Otávio Gusmão from the NFP was a chosen. The new Ministry for Women and Minorities’ Rights was established and had Adriana Kirchner as their head, making her the first LGBT person to hold a government Ministry. Other minorities, such as Lotário Souza, the first Afro-Brazilian to hold a ministry, as well as Enrique Nuñez, a mixed-race person from Venezuela, were also added as a way to make the coalition look more progressive to the eyes of their voters and backers. This policy however wasn’t always useful, as Nuñez dilisked Souza, as the latter came from a well to do Middle-Upper Class family, with Souza also having a poor opinion on Hispanic Americans in general. But despite all that, the government was soon formed and Ashur became the head of the country for the future.

For starters, the government began their mandate by announcing a new NASB, with the aim of developing Brazil, whilst also serving as a homage to ex-PM Arnaldo O’Sullivan. This new NASB, would enshrine the P-4 agenda, as well as continuing O’Sullivan’s unfinished polices. The first of which, would be the Lei Conrado Rousseau, which would lower tariffs in the importation of industrialized products by over 50%. This would allow for foreign products to come to the Brazilian market, allowing for greater competition between Brazilian and international businesses. The proposed however was heavily opposed by the PTB and Conservatives, which still held a majority in Parliament. Thus, in order for the bill to pass the P-4 had to negotiate with the opposition. In the end, the bill was passed by a razor-thin margin, and accounted for a reduction of 25%, rather than 50%, as well as a deal for certain businesses not to be privatized (as was their goal). This compromise, would also set what would be the P-4’s style of governing until the next election. That is, having to constantly negotiate with the PTB and Conservatives in order to pass their progressive legislation.

But as 1999 came to a close, Brazil became more and more euphoric. For in that year the nation’s economy sat at 3.767 Trillion USD, quickly catching up to Germany’s 3.982 Trillion dollars and Japan’s 4.887 Trillion. Thus, when the year of 2000 came, the whole country celebrated the dawn of a new millennium. One in which, the Brazilian government would focus itself on the international order and the progress of society at large. Proof of this was the so called, “Promessas do Milênio”. In which, the government promised to get Brazil as the 2nd largest economy of the globe by the year 2010, as well as turn the country into a bastion of Social-Liberalism, by abandoning the country’s archaic and conservative mentality. The speech however, turned out more divisive than previously thought. As even PM Gustavo Ashur, he was not the one to do the speech btw, thought that it made the government coalition look way too elitist, something he himself hated.

Brazilians celebrating the 2000 New Years Eve, in the Bay of Guanabara, Province of Guanabara (2000)
​

In that same year, Brazil also had another census. In that census, Brazil achieved a population of 206.930.557 inhabitants, making it the 5th most populous country in the world, behind only: China, India, Dravidia and the United States. As far as provinces were concerned, the most populous states were Tieté at 20.489.281, Aurélia at 14.737.998 and the rapidly rising Bahia at 14.224.886. Cities were also showing new signs of growth, with Tieté City at 12.456.881, São Sebastião at 7.114.827 and Salvador at 5.221.875. Not only that but the “racial” makeup of the country also showed plenty of change, as the nation was now 91.3% white, a decline from its historical peak of 98%. Simultaneously, the country was also 0.3% Native Brazilian, 1.5% Afro-Brazilian (divided in Brazilians from Africa, Old-Stock Blacks, Hispanic Blacks and Haitian Blacks), 1.9% were Asians (of which, Japanese-Brazilians made the 50%, as the miscegenation between Japanese and white Brazilians decreased their proportion amongst Asians. Besides that, the next biggest groups were Macanese at 20%, Chinese at 15%, Koreans at 5% and others at 10%), then came Mixed-Race Brazilians at 5% (Most of whom were now of Hispanic-American origin, mainly from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela and Chile. Thought there were also significant numbers of Asian-Whites and Black-Whites in the country). All of this showed that Brazil was a rapidly changing society, as the country was no longer the homogeneously white nation it used to be. Further predictions stated that the proportions of white-Brazilians would keep falling, as was happening in other white-settler nations, due to immigration from Hispanic-America, Africa and Asian racking up.

Simultaneously as the census was being carried out, the Brazilian government also passed the Lei Martim Cunha, which aimed at reforming the police force in order to stop police brutality. Basically, they would restart Gualtério Branco’s old anti-corruption policies at the police department, but this time at a much bigger and more precise scale. Not only that, but the penal code was also reformed in order to give harsher sentences for officers that were caught “violating their duties as policemen”. Naturally, the Police Unions across the nation started protesting against such “extreme hostility” against some of the most important public servants. The government however paid little attention to this, instead, carrying out further work to de-bureaucratize Brazil. This was possible due to lingering backlash against the 20th of October massacre, which lead to the McGauleyist wing of the PTB so ting in favor of the law.

This task of de-bureaucratization continued as the government passed the Lei da Reforma de Mercado, which diminished the necessary requirements for starting a business in Brazilian soil, as well as easing the regulation on international capital’s ability to invest in Brazil. The end result was a 5 year long boom in the Brazilian economy, as foreign investors once again started funneling their money into new projects by the South American giant. This act however was disliked by both the Conservatives and PTB, as they saw this influx of unregulated international investments, as a loss of sovereignty and ran increased susceptibility to international crashes. But besides that, they also didn’t like how cheaply manufactured products of Asia began arriving at Brazilian shelves and driving out small and medium sized producers out business, specially as the Ashur government refused to give aid to those industries. Another criticism of the policy was how the Brazilian inequality indexes began rising, as the Brazilian GINI coefficient rose from 0.25 to 0.32 during the period of 2000-2006.
However, it was undeniable that even if inequality was up, the average Brazilian saw a big boost to their purchasing power, as wages rose, but monetary inflation was kept low due to the lack of a need to print money. As a result the Brazilian GDP rose from 3.767 Trillion dollars in 1999, to 4.143 in 2000, 4.549 in 2001, 4.806 in 2002, 5.214 in 2003, 5.678 in 2004 and finally 6.189 in 2005, representing the peak of the Brazilian growth before the shitshow that was the 2006-2009 period. Most important however, would be that the government was able to meet their goal of turning the country into the 2nd biggest economy by the year of 2003, as Brazil surpassed the Japanese economy of 5.001 trillion USD.

American magazine “The Economist” article about Brazil’s economical success (2004)​

Besides that, socially, the country would see the early 2000’s as the peak of Brazilian cultural production in regards to movies, music and books. Brazilian literature became widespread throughout Hispanic-America, Latin-Europe, Portuguese-Africa and East-Asia. In particular, Brazilian culture basically entrenched itself on the East-Asian mindset as an alternative for American culture, as Brazilian movies caught up in Korea and China and solidified itself in Japan, specially as Brazil’s Asian communities started sharing Brazilian customs and culture to their relatives back in the old country. In regards to video-games, Brazil also started taking off as new companies such as Trento and Bosse, created by Brazilians Marcos Trento and Teodorico Bosse, began dominating the game market throughout Brazil and then Hispanic-America.
All in all, the early 2000’s would become a highly romanticized time in the Brazilian mindset, as the country became the center of attentions due to their cultural expression and economical development, with some authors even dubbing the period the “Roaring 00s”. Though wether this can last indefinitely is another question.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXV - The 90’s Abroad -

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

While Brazil went through fights between the conservative-left and the liberal-right, the world was also going through major issues. In Africa in particular, the end of the cold-war seemed to have made regional conflicts flare up, as many weaker nations backed by one of the superpowers, now were being attacked by their much stronger neighbors. In the African west, Sokoto and the Republic of Nigeria clashed for control over the oil resources of the region. Such conflict would last some 3 years and lead to some 1 million refugees throughout the entire region. Being dubbed one of the worst humanitarian crisis in the post-WW2 world.

Similarly in the Congo Basin, the nations of Katanga and the Republic of the Congo also went to war with one another, due to worsening relations between both nations, as a result to Katanga’s increasing militarization in the Congolese border. Once the conflict began however, more and more nations began to be pulled in the squabble for control over the region. By 1995, a coalition of Katanga, Cameroon, Gabon and Uganda clashed with the Congo, Central African, Somali, Swahili alliance for a period of 4 years, in what many historians describe as an African reconstruction of the 1st World War. In the end however, after over a million dead, a peace treaty was decided, in which both the Congo and Katanga would create a demilitarized zone in their borders, as to diminish the tensions and avoid another future conflict.

Not all was bad on the African continent however, for many nations in the area were also stabilizing themselves and as a result, seeing high levels of economical growth. Such nations were dubbed the “Lions of Africa” and consisted of countries such as: Angola, Mozambique, Lüderitzland, South Africa, Somalia and Tunisia. All these nations would, thought the period of 1995-2006, grow an average of 12% per year, turning them into the world’s fastest growing economies. Lüdertizland in particular, was sort of the black sheep of the bunch, as they were still basically a German ethno-nationalist state that was pretty hostile to the other African nations. But they did enjoy very close economic relations with South America and Europe, which meant that they could sell their products overseas and still make a lot of money, specially as the country continuously attracted German immigrations and investments, as well as possessing the highest fertility rate of the developed world, at 3.3.

As for Asia, tensions were rising in the west as Iran and Saudi Arabia began to fight for influence over the Middle-East. Iran, which by now was a democratic and secular republic, opposed the spread of Saudi radicalism, which itself destabilized Iran as Shia fundamentalists grew in popularity throughout the country. Saudi Arabia for the other hand, opposed what they saw as a degenerate westernized Iran, as well as the fact they were Shia. As a result, a geopolitical realignment began occurring throughout the region during the 90’s. In which, Israel, a traditionally German ally, began approaching Iran for defense and economic purposes against growing radicalism in Hashemite Arabia and Egypt. Further helping Iran’s cause was that the secular Turkey disliked the current situation of Kurdish fundamentalists destabilizing Kurdistan. Saudi-Arabia for their part aligned itself with Egypt and Kurdistan, with Lebanon and Hashemite Arabia being neutral in the conflict, though the former favored Iran and the latter favored Saudi-Arabia.

Internationally, other nations also began interfering with the Middle-Eastern situation. Mainly Ukraine and China had a vested interested in expanding their influence in the wake of the Cold-War. Thus, they supported Saudi-Arabia, which they recognized as an “emerging underdog” just like them. Other nation’s however were less keen on supporting the factions. For instance, both the USA and Brazil were split on who to support, as despite being more ideologically similar to Iran and their allies, their financial ties to Saudi-Arabia and friends were also much more valuable. In Brazil, there was a clear divide between the parties, as the Conservative-PTB wished for greater approach meant with Iran, while the P-4 wished to maintain business ties with Saudi-Arabia, Hashemite Arabia and Egypt.

Asia in particular also had content with further polarization in the center of the continent. As in this region, the powers of Iran, Russia, China and India all veiled for influence over the Central Asian states. However, rather than ally with one another, each of the 4 powers fought the others for more control over the region. With the closest thing you had to an alliance, was that India and Iran were both more cordial to each other. However the situation could still be best described as a death match and those would bear the brunt would be the central Asians themselves. Afghanistan for instance was ruled by a Left-Wing Nationalist government, which tried to institute land reform and end most tribal-religious laws. The end result however was a Islamist rebellion throughout the country, with China supporting the Islamist rebels and India and Iran supporting the legitimate government.

So, in order to hurt China as well, India started supplying Uyghur opposition movements who opposed China. For in Uyghurs you had the nationalists, which opposed any form of approach meant with China following the Uyghur-China war, and the Socialists, who wished to build new ties with Nanking and develop the region up to modern standards.

Thus for now laid the world, which despite the euphoria and prosperity enjoyed in the west, was still marked by conflicts and tragedy around the world

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXVI - The Early 2000’s

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

With their popularity now firmly established, the P-4 decided to turn to their more controversial projects. Namely, they wished to further tax cuts on Brazilians. Mainly to companies and top earners, as to incentivize them to invest in the Brazilian economy and promote growth. Not only that, the P-4 also sought to deregulate the economy by cutting, as they called it, “unnecessary red-tape”. This came by with parliament passing the Lei Leonardo da Costa, which effectively reduced income taxes upon the top 10% of earners by 20%. This process also included flexibilizing labor laws, in a process akin to liberal parties throughout Western Europe and North America. Such process was however, contested by unionized labor, which made around 66% of all Brazilian workers. Things was however, that the P-4 managed to exploit racial divisions in Brazil in order to further their goals. Mainly by painting the overwhelmingly white and blue-collar unionized workforce, as racist and retrograde. Now, they weren’t completely untrue in the fact that an uncomfortably large number of white workers were very racists, but that’s still quite a provocative and classist generalization. Which the Conservative-PTB exploited for political purposes.

Furthermore, during the year of 2002 the government also passed further immigration reforms. Basically, the required time for applying for Brazilian citizenship, decreased from 5 years, to a mere 2 years. Not only that, but the requirements for foreigners to enter, as per the point system, were also generally lowered. The end result was brazil becoming the second largest destination for immigration in the world. Between 2002-2006 the country would receive up to 5 million immigrants. Most of whom, coming from Hispanic-America (54%), Asia (18%) and Africa (17%). This influx however only cemented the divides between working class Brazilian whites and the P-4 establishment, as they saw many get fired as employers preferred to hire the cheaper and non-unionized labor from abroad. Not only that, the P-4 were also able to use propaganda to solidify their support amongst minorities and immigrants, allowing for nearly 5 millions new voters to be all but guaranteed.

Hispanic-American immigrants arriving on Brazil (2004)​

In the however, the P-4’s combination of a booming economy, ample support from racial-minorities, women, progressives and white collar workers. Allowed for them to increase their number of seats during the 2002 election, mainly as a result of the conservatives loosing ample support. As a result, the Social-Liberals once again became the largest party, earning some 100 seats, followed by the PTB with 91, the Conservatives with 87, Progressives with 69, PNF with 45, the Greens with 33 and the rest with 5. Thus giving the P-4 some 247 seats.

Union backlash however would not stop. In 2002, worker’s in Tieté went on strike over the steel mill’s decision to fire a tenth of their workforce and substitute them for cheaper labor from Angola and Mozabique. The strike however largely failed, as the steel mill was able to bring the unions to justice over their physical attacks of strikebreakers. In the end, the 10% not only were fired but they were followed by a further 10% the next few months. The end result was that Union activity was greatly weakened, as companies now saw that they could fight back. Helping them, was the government, which passed the Lei do Direito ao Trabalho. A law that stipulated that forcing people to join a union, or blocking non-unionized labor was illegal. As a result, the unions lost even more power and were left a shell of their former selves. However, the worker’s that once voted against the Conservative-PTB during the 1998 election, now turned once again against the P-4 during the 2006 election.

One result clear result of the election to Ashur however, was that the P-4’s pro-market and immigration policies were deeply unpopular with the unionized workforce. Thus, he need to shift away focus from the economy and into more amiable sectors. Namely climate, women’s rights and police reform. For starters, he decided to slowly but surely take away the military grade equipment the police possessed. Something he did by outright buying them with the surplus money generated during the 2000’s boom. The now surplus military equipment in government hands, was however quite outdated for the Brazilian army. Instead, Ashur saw fit to sell this newly acquired surplus to the rest of the world. Namely, other Latin-American nations such as Colombia and Argentina, as well as to nations such as Saudi-Arabia, Dravidia and Korea. This venture proved profitable, and started Brazilian ascendancy as one of the world’s largest arms dealers.

Meanwhile on climate, the government expanded the “Minister for Indian Affairs”, to include more government land to be allocated for native tribes. Not only that, but the government also began expanding the funding for governmental agencies tasked with protecting the Amazon. To further this, the government, in conjunction with the Brazilian space agency, launched project “Olho da Lua”, which involved using Brazilian satellites to monitor illegal activity in the Amazon rainforest. Brazilian military bases in the region were also expanded and turned into veritable research facilities, packed with scientists, college students and foreign researchers, eager to explore the Amazon’s hidden biological treasures.

Simultaneously, the government also instituted another reform, this time on education. Namely, the government would institute mandatory cultural classes for Brazilian kids that attended public schools in a native reserve. This was done in order to teach native children about their native heritage, furthering their ability to preserve the legacy of their ancestors. The classes would however also include the non-native population of the reserves, as the government saw them as having to abide by the reservation’s rules. However this was never really a problem, as the reserves were about 66% Mestiços, 24% purely indigenous, 9% white and 1% others. These classes would include, courses on the native language of the tribe inside the reserve, as well as history lessons, lessons on architecture, folklore, etc. However above all, the classes were not based on the old memorizing system the traditional schools used. Instead, it focused on interaction between the student and the subject, as well as focusing on making the kids more interested in learning. The initiative proved successful, as well as deeply popular with native leadership. Photos also began circulating of white children in the reserves partaking in indigenous culture. Something which really increased the bond between white-Brazilians and native-Brazilians. As despite white-Brazilians’ stereotypes as racists, they actually were very cordial with Natives and to a lesser extend Asians (namely East Asians).

However the biggest impact of the Native Reserves public schooling reform, was that it influenced a much bigger project. All in all, the P-4’s leadership wanted to distance the educational system from the memory based system inherit to industrial society. Since they wanted Brazil to become a more technological nation, which valued intellectualism, they decided the system need reforming and the Ministry for Native Affairs showed them it was possible. Thus, the Minister for Education, Lotário Souza, began working in changing the Brazilian education system. However, his project would only really come to fruition in 2004. As for now, the idea was still largely on paper.

​

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXVII - Joyful Drums

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

2003 would be a turning point for Brazilian foreign policy. The old isolationist ways of the PTB-Conservatives would not dominate policy making. Instead, the P-4 sought to consolidate Brazilian global influence by flexing their armed muscle. An opportunity to do so would then come in the beginning of 2003. In that year, the African tigers would receive a huge shake as the democratically elected government of Mozambique was overthrown in a military coup. The president in question was Afonso Dhlakama, someone who was definitely not a nice guy, but instead a guy who had ample support from the P-4 due to his policies of deregulation and trade with Brazil. Thereby, Prime Minister Gustavo Ashur sought to restore the president to power, as he took refuge in South Africa, being smuggled from the country by Brazilian servicemen of IBIS.

The government, in conjunction with IBIS, launched a counter-coup that toppled the newly established military regime and put Afonso back on power. This move however was not well received by the Muslim population in northern Mozambique, who then revolted against Lourenço Marques[1] and started a march to remove Afonso from power. Brazil, after a vote in parliament, approved the use of military force to restore order in Mozambique. Not only that, but the government also sent Foreign Minister Cornélio Lugo in a tour around the Lusophone world in order to rile up support for the intervention. This measure proved successful, as many Portuguese-speaking nations, such as Angola, Portugal and Timor, declared their support for Brazilian intervention. Thereby, the P-4 government finally had the green light to commence Operation Lioness. Such operation, began in February of 2004, as the Brazilian special-forces were deployed in Northern Mozambique throughout key regions, in order to smoke out the fighters and other insurgents. With ample media coverage, the Brazilian government wanted to turn the Mozambiquean intervention into a propaganda stunt, to increase support in Brazil, which could then translate into further reformist legislation,

Brazilian soldiers in an arid region of Northern Mozambique (2004)​

The move however was not universally supported. The PTB-Conservative coalition heavily protested the intervention, proclaiming that the government “sent men to die, so to save a monster and make a quick profit”. Problem was, not all PTB-Conservatives were critical of the intervention. Which was why, when the coalition set up a vote to condemn P-4’s involvement in Africa, several members voted no on the motion. This faction, revolved around Teófilo McGauley and fought to turn the PTB-Conservative coallition, into a socially-liberal and economically interventionist party, that was not the greens. Such notions however wouldn’t fly to the coalition, which promptly passed the motion and denounced the war. Not taking this lightly, the McGauleyists left the coalition in droves and formed their own party, the Partido Democrático Lavorista[2], or PDL for short. Such break up further diminished the seats for the coalition, which went from a combined 178 seats, to 135, as 43 seats went to the new party, now making any attempts at forming a government in the future more unlikely. However at the same time, several new voices began to be heard throughout the coalition. Voices that proposed also proposed change, but without breaking the coalition’s core ideology. Amongst these voices were, Rodrigo Schwab, Ernesto Pérez and André Palermo

Back in Africa, Brazilian forces alongside the Mozambiquean army, managed to end formal resistance after the rebel center at Lichina, was stormed by a combined air and land offensive. However, the leaders of the movement fled into the countryside and continued resisting. Things would then turn to the worse, as the Mozambiquean army severely mistreated the local populous in order to root out any insurgent. Such tactics however only pushed the mostly Muslim population of Niassa and Cabo Delgado province to support the rebels, who now united into the Movimento Islâmico para Democracia Moçambicana, or MIDEM for short. These guerrilla tactics would only escalate throughout 2004 as their numbers swelled and the rebels began receiving covert support from Saudi-Arabia. Afterwards, MIDEM attacks also started targeting Brazilian personnel in Mozambique. For instance, in July of 2004, a van packed with explosives attempted to crash into a Brazilian base in Northern Mozambique, only to be shot down by a rocket before making contact. However, the explosion was still big enough to kill captain Nicolás Faccio and severely wounding private Matias Ferrarini. Further attacks would continue, a month later terrorists attempt to kill the military governor of Niassa province[3] while he was doing an interview to a Brazilian news team, in the end the attack failed, but a Brazilian reporter named Fernanda Merlão was deemed missing[4]. However, despite all of that, slowly but surely the rebels were being suppressed, as Brazilian intelligence and firepower could crush pockets of resistance quickly. Still, the conflict continued.

Besides that, the P-4 administration was also racking up diplomatic wins on the South American continent. Mercosul was further expanded, with the admissions of Peru and Bolivia, who would officially join in 2007 and 2009 respectively. Under any circumstances, Brazilian influence was basically reaching the whole continent, with a few stubborn holdouts in Ecuador, Guyana and Suriname. Nevertheless, Brazilian lawmakers successfully included all the big South American players into a single block. Such block, would be open to buy Brazilian products and in turn sell raw materials. However, one event would begin to change all that. Namely, that companies began realizing they could set up shot in less developed countries, pay their employers less, thus producing a cheaper product, then sell the product in Brazil for a lower price and greater profit. Not only that, but cheaper labor from Latin America and Africa was continuing to arrive en mass to Brazil, allowing for employers to sideline the more expensive native Brazilians, for cheaper labor. As a result Brazil saw a massive growth in GDP, as previously seen, however inequalities also skyrocketed.

At the same time, the government authorized a further increase to the military budget, in order to better contain the Mozambiquean crisis, as well as upgrade the Brazilian army’s equipment. Such endeavor would make use of Brazil’s new private companies, which produced everything from weaponry to high-tech products. Thereby, the Peeters tank was sidelined for a new model, the Guaraní. A model that was faster, more durable and with a better weapon. Not only that, but designers also started creating models for new small-arms and planes. Though for now, the Tank would suffice.

2004 would also become significant for pop-culture due to creation Maciel, the first ever site for communication in the world[5]. Named after its inventor Aloísio Maciel, uch innovation would spark a new communication revolution, as now communities of computer users could come together and discuss about matters of life, as well as post videos and showcase opinions. Seeing the clear potential for such Trento bought the invention for a considerable sum, latter also hiring Maciel for continuing the developed of the platform. It also did not take long for the community to begin developing fóruns for political discussion, as well as discussion about the war in Mozambique. However, the mood in these discussions was civilized - at first-. With few instances of threats or violence.

Image of a Mecil user’s personal info (2005)

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

[1] The city never gets renamed to Maputo in TTL, instead it’s often abbreviated to LoMar
[2] “Lavorar” is one of the many loanwords brought by Italian immigrants which became part of standard Brazilian Portuguese, becoming a synonym to “trabalhar”.
[3] After mostly recapturing the province, the place was put under Marshal Law and a Military Governor was installed in the place
[4] For now people think she is dead. She is not though and will make a reappearance in a very unexpected way
[5] This is basically the first social-media of TTL. Which also means that social-media will be some years behind OTL in terms of development and widespread usage

​

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXVIII - Last hours before midnight

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

The last months of 2004 and 2005 are seen by some in a quite nostalgic way. Kind of like, when things were simpler and shit had not hit the fan. However, plenty of stuff happened in that time period that could be considered “less than stellar”. For starters, Brazil experienced its 2nd big school shooting. When on the morning of the 19th November of 2004, a student at the Escola Dona Leopoldina-CI[1], named Carlos Lopez, entered his school with a loaded gun and killed 5 people, as well as himself. Lopez had Bolivian parents and as a result was constantly bullied by his schoolmates, things then took a turn for the worse once his mother died and his dad, an abusive alcoholic, abused him daily. Eventually, he lost all hope and killed his father at 7:34, then took the bus to his school where he started a shooting by 9:33, before killing himself. In the end 4 students and a teacher: Fernando Bertasi, Gabriel Müller, Rui de Vecchi, Marcela da Torre and Alberto Manfredini.

Public reaction to the shooting was morbid. After all, they had spent the last few years believing that everything was finally perfect, that their country had risen from the tragedy of 1998. Thereby, public pressure on the government to do something about the shooting became insurmountable. So much so, that threatened to collapse the reigning coalition. As a result, Ashur gathered his team and started devising a plan to combat the gun problem. Their end solution, restrict further the civilian access to firearms, as well as begin a massive anti-bullying campaign across the nation. Such task was to be accomplished by passing the Lei Leo Machado through parliament, such law increased the numbers of criteria for a citizen to purchase a weapon, as well as Levine new taxes on firearms. Accompanied by this was a campaign created by the Ministry of Culture called, “Diga não ao Bullying”, with the aim of aggressively pushing for inclusion and acceptance throughout Brazilian schools.

Anti-Bullying propaganda (2005)​

These actions however were still deemed to be not enough by more progressives members of party. For they themselves wished for a system, whereby what they labeled “social minorities” would receive compensations and services from the government, with the aim of reducing intolerance in the country, as well as furthering the cause of minorities. Such actions however were deemed too radical for the time. More specifically, the government fearing losing even further the votes of White Brazilians, who still made an overwhelming majority of the population.

In the end, the shooting also lead to another more unlikely cultural phenomena. That is the growth of the Spanish-Brazilian identity and Hispanic-Brazilian identity. Let me explain. So, Brazil was the 2nd largest recipient of immigrants from Spain, behind only Argentina, with about 1.6 million Spaniards coming to the country, with a million of those permanently settling in the country. The Spaniards, sharing much in cultural with the Portuguese, easily integrated into the Latin and Catholic Brazilian society. However, as the immigration of Hispanic-Americans into the country increased, discrimination against them also increased, as most of them were of mixed-race backgrounds. Thereby, Hispanic-American communities tended to tightly knit around their respective groups to avoid discrimination, resulting in people of Peruvian descent living overwhelmingly next to other people of Peruvian descent, with a similar pattern replicating amongst all Hispanic-American nations, Chileans and Argentinians being the sole exception. As a result, in order to distinguish themselves from the newcomers who often had Spanish surnames, Spanish-Brazilians really pushed how different they were from the rest. Thereby, a surge in Spanish culture occurred in the country, more specifically norther Spanish as most Brazilians descended from Northern Spain. In the end, leading to Spanish-Brazilians and Hispanic-Brazilians having a very difficult relationship, and Spanish-Brazilians becoming the Irish-Americans of Brazil.

Spanish-Brazilian man preparing food during a Spanish-Brazilian festival (2010)​

But while this was all happening, the Brazilian army in Northern Mozambique continued to steamroll conventional insurgent forces. Which of course, lead to an intensification of the guerrilla fightings. During this period, Brazilian casualties would continue to mount as over 121 Brazilian soldiers died between 2004-2006, with hundreds of more wounded soldiers. Not only that, but reports of Brazilian troops brutalizing the local populous soon started appearing. Thankfully, they were few and far between, as the Brazilian officers were able to enforce discipline amongst their men. However, tragedies like the raping of a 17 years old girl in Northern Mozambique by 2 Brazilian soldiers still outraged the world, it also didn’t help that the two men in particular were of Hispanic origin, which was used by racists back in Brazil to only escalate tensions with minorities. Anyhow, the campaign went relatively well and order was mostly restored in Mozambique… for now that is. As a result, the Mozambiquean government strayed even further into the Brazilian orbit, as president Alfonso basically became a puppet of the Brazilian government, so much so that a joke was created to represent the situation, “What is the capital of Mozambique?” one asks, “São Sebastião of course” another replies.

By 2005, the political situation would start to calm down and the government finally started breathing a sign of relief. Thereby, they used the opportunity to further push their agenda in regards to minorities rights, climate policies and economic reforms. In regards to the first one, the government managed, if barely, to push forward the Lei do Casamento 2005, a law that Adriana Kirchner particularly fought for. Basically, the bill allowed for homosexuals to marry, as beforehand they could only do so by a civic-union, allowing for Brazil to become the 3rd country in the world to legalize such, behind only the Netherlands and Iceland. To commemorate this occasion, Adriana Kirchner and her girlfriend, Luana Holodryga, being the first gay to couple to marry in the country. Not only that, but the Ministry of Native Affairs was expanded in power and resources, with the task of starting a huge catalog process in order to identify all tribes that live inside Brazil, as well as make negotiation with landowners to buy their property and give it back to native peoples.

Regarding Climate, the Ashur administration continued to push for green energy in the country. Allowing for Brazil to become by far the word’s largest producer of green energy, which by 2005 amounted to 85% of Brazil’s total energy production. Not only that, but Brazilian scientists also began research on something that would be the crown jewel of Brazil’s energy research, nuclear fission. This project, spearheaded by an alliance between the Federal University of Tieté, the Federal University of São Sebastião and the Brazilian Institute of Research and Technology, would have a massive budget and a lot of the countries most briliant minds, in order to fully have the power of the Sun in their hands. As a result Brazilian need for oil imports decreased drastically throughout the years. As well as due to the fact that Brazilian car manufacturers like Monte Castelo began to develop new models of electric cars made out of lithium batteries.

In regards to their economical policy however, the government, despite having a clear majority in parliament, failed to pass further economical deregulation bills of the financial and housing sectors, as the Green Party started putting their foot in regards to neo-liberalism. However, the government was able to implement more market reforms in regard to federally owned public healthcare and transport, leading to both system being woefully unprepared for any eventual crisis. Which leads to one interesting remark, despite Brazilian economics being heavily associated with the works of Gualtério Branco and the economical tripod, for now it looked like as though both sides of the isle rejected this economical school of thought, with the right being heavily interventionist in their economy and the left being heavily liberal. But this was about to change with the subsequent crisis that would envelop the Brazilian nation. For in Dravidia, a small, indivisible to the naked eye really, floated through the poverty stricken streets of Hyderabad. This little friend, hopped from body to body and destroyed the infected lungs, leading to a high mortality rate against the elderly and already sickly people. But even before being noticed, even before it started causing havoc throughout Dravidia, our little friend boarded a plane and went international. Peac for the world was over.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

[1] Short for “Cisplatina”

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXIX - World before the Pandemic

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

We have already explored how Brazil passed through the early stages of the 2000’s up until 2006, but what about the rest of the world? Well, firstly we go to understand that the trend of economical liberalization that Brazil went through was not uniquely Brazilian, nor was it a universal change. For instance, in the now reunified France, the country went through a similar route of privatization of services, as well as a decrease in government spending and a decrease in taxation. Such measures brought similar results of rapid economical growth, but in the process, social-services fell into disrepair and the economical inequalities of France rose, as the middle and upper classes had an exponential increase in their wealth. Similar policies were also carried out through much of Southern Europe, as countries like Portugal, Italy, Greece achieved similar reforms. In Italy’s case, such reforms were aggrandized as a new mark in the history of the country, as it signified that the times of the Mafia and poverty were over and that now the country would consolidate the Miracle of the Tiber River, giving Rome the “passport to the future” as they called it. Not only that, but some other European states, such as Ireland and Germany, also began their own process of neoliberal reforms, though they did begin at a later stage than their Mediterranean counterparts.

This phenomenon however was not universal across Europe, indeed, plenty of European nations continued to be dominated by left wing policies. With main bastion of leftism in Europe being Padania, Great Britain, Spain and Russia. In these nations, the unions still held sway over much of the decision making and neoliberalism simply never caught on in these places. As a result, their economies tended not to grow as fast as other nations, but their social services and wages remained very high in comparison. Such discrepancy would later prove quite useful to them in the crisis to come. But in particular, these leftward and rightward shifts brought with them a steep cultural divide, in particular, the Italian peninsula now seemed doomed forever to remain divided, as the Padanian government, dominanted by the Padanian Labor Confederation[1], only accepted unification if the south accepted labor guarantees and that the monarchy be put to a vote. The south rejected these demands and thus, the division continued. Completely opposed to the divisions south of the alps, the Republic of Spain stood more united than ever, as the dispering minorities of country finally got comfortable with their place in the Spanish nation. Such success was achieved due to very high amounts of autonomy given to every subdivision of the federation, with places such as the Basque Country having a resurgence in the use of the Basque language, which calmed down nationalistic fervor and increased cooperation between Bilbao and Madrid.

But moving away from Europe, we get to the land down under. Whereby, Australia experienced more left-wing domination than all democracies on earth. It all began in 1931, when after a disastrous premiership of Joseph Lyon, the country voted in Jack Lang as the new Prime Minister of Australia. His time in office could be compared to Vargas’, as he stayed a lot of time (14 uninterrupted years) and paved the way for massive industrialization and development of the nation. What followed, was that the labor party would dominate the country, staying in power for 55 out of the 65 years between 1931 and 1996, when PM Paul Keating was replaced by John Howard. Thereby, it came as a shock when the the Liberal Party, still under John Howard, managed to win multiple consecutive elections and ending once and for all the Labor golden age of Australia.

As for the United States, the early 2000’s would once again see a realignment of American politics, as the presidency of Ross Perot left the nation more divided than ever. The 2000 election would go on as one of the most contested, as it pitted Republican Hillary Clinton, against Democrat Jeb Bush and the Progressive Bernie Sanders. In the end, Bernie achieved victory and went on to continue the rule of the progressive party. His presidency however was not the most successful, as the Progressive failed to gain control of the Senate and back in congress, the party was divided between the traditional progressives of Sanders and the new progressives of Perot, now under the leadership of Jesse Ventura. The end result was a failure to pass much of the progressive agenda, as well as criticism on the Bernie administration for not doing anything in regards to Chinese expansionist desires across the Southeast of Asia, as well as Brazilian interventionism in Mozambique by 2003 and 2004[1]. Such pressures eventually led to the basically defunct Democrats finally being able to shine once again, as their candidate, ex-governor of Wisconsin Tommy Thompson, managed to claim victory in the election. However, Thompson soon came to face the same problems of the previous administration, as the Dems did not control either of the houses. Fortunately for the new administration, their party was very united and they could exploit divisions in the republicans and progressives in order to pass legislation. Such legislation, included the deregulation of the country’s real estate industry, allowing for even the poorest Americans to purchase property, allowing for good economical growth, though one that would have consequences down the line.

But as the Democrats criticized Bernie for his inaction in face of Chinese aggression, the Asian tiger was also going through political problems of their own. Namely, criticism of the de-facto one-party state of the Kuomintang. This criticism began as result of China’s failure in the Macanese crisis. Such crisis demonstrate that despite its tremendous size and rapidly growing economy, China was still not able to militarily go against a power like Brazil or the United States. As such, the Chinese youth began demanding change of what they saw as a weak government, incapable of standing up to Chinese interests. These protests however were quickly dispersed, with the secret police rapidly dealing with the ringleaders. Nevertheless, dissatisfaction eventually reached the Chinese government itself as some members of the Left-Wing, Party for Change[2], started to go against government policy. Furthermore, Kuomintang itself faced division on how to respond to such failure. Either way, Wen Jiabao, president of China, quickly shut down dissent before it could result in the collapse of his government. Unfortunately for him, a crisis was yet to unfollow. On July of 2005, the League for Chinese Democracy, an anti-government club made up mostly of college students, was raided by government policemen looking to arrest the leaders for “disturbance of the peace”. However, one of the leaders, Huai Changrui, managed to escape and got asylum in Macau. The police department, not wanting to look incompetent, got help from the Chinese secret service and murdered Huai while in Macau. Such murder, drew suspicions and conspiracies almost immediately. However, the lack of much evidence meant that for now, the murder remained a mystery[3].

Authoritarianism however is not something limited to China. In Africa, it became clear that Luderitsia[4] was also another highly authoritarian regime. Despite being basically the most developed and safest nation in all of Africa, the country was plagued with many issues. Namely, the authoritarian rule of the Conservative People’s Party. For under their leadership, they semented the country as an ethno-state, in which anyone who wasn’t German was heavily discriminated by the state, with the population itself also having highly racist feelings for their neighbors. Not only that, but the government’s policies heavily restricted Luderitsian women’s abilities to do most stuff, as the patriarchal government sought to return the land to the “good old days” of traditional gender norms, even if it meant going against the wishes of the country’s female population. This system however, was sustainable thanks to the high levels of growth and safety it provided to the average citizen, which in general meant that if the country were to enter in crisis, the system might very well have trouble staying afloat.
But anyhow as we can see, nobody really expects anything of bad to happen. So, when the events of 2006 role in, we will see how well the world reacts to true crisis

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

[1] The old Social Democratic Party lost popularity as it became associated with Danubian and later German domination. Thereby, by the 1990’s multiple trade unions came together to form a new political wing, the Padanian Labor Confederation
[2] The left-wing of the Kuomintang that broke off from the main body to form their own party due to what they saw as a failure to uphold Sun Yat-sen’s ideals. However, eventually the party became part of the state apparatus, as the Kuomintang secretly took control over the opposition parties
[3] Despite how blatantly obvious it might seem that Chinese agents murdered the guy, he was also last seen in the “Distrito Vermelho”, Macau’s poorest and most dangerous region, so him being just mugged and shot wasn’t out of the question. However, deeper analysis on the case will be made by the Macanese and Brazilians
[4] A non-German form of pronouncing the country’s name, eventually adopted by languages like Portuguese and English

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXX - Virus strikes back

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

In the year of 2006 the world would go through the one of its most challenging moments. For in this year, what was previously confined to India had begun spreading to all corners of the globe. However, such crisis would start slowly through December, then into January and February, before absolutely exploding in proporsion by March of 2006. But the actual response to the crisis in the beggining was lackluster at best. Because you see, “Indian Flu”, as it became popularly known in spite of the controversial name, was a virus like the flu. Thereby, most governments ignored the threat it posed, dismissing it as nothing more than regular flu. However, “Indian Flu” was far more infectious and deadly than previous outbreaks, as it used the modern interconnected world to its advantage, hopping from country to country and from person to person. Then, on the 15th of January, researchers in New Delhi University finally realized that the outbreak of common flu in Hyderabad and India were in fact not common flu, but in fact something even worse.

In Brazil’s case, the first contact the country had with the disease came on the 17th of January. On that day, Brazilian of Macanese descent, João Chio, while visiting his family in the city-state, caught the virus. The diesease had mostly likely just arrived to that corner of the world, brought by either infected people or infected products. Either way, Chio spent the remainder of his trip with headaches and difficulty to breath. But he thought nothing of it, instead returning to his hometown of São Sebastião, infecting many passengers on his back and later infecting his girlfriend, Sara Lyniv. But this story I just told you would remain unknown to everyone in the world. For the people of Brazil would never really know how the virus got to the country, only knowing that it arrived between the 15th and 19th of January. With this mysterious entry into the country corroborates to the rapid spread of the virus throughout São Sebastião. Soon enough however, people also brought the virus to Tieté, Nova Bragança, Curitiba, etc. Only 2 weeks after the virus outbreak, all major Brazilian cities had at least one infected individual. With the government only fully realizing the gravity of the situation by 1st of February.

Looking to other countries however and things weren’t exactly much better. In major industrialized economies, which enjoyed regular flights from all corners of the world, the disease struck first. Cities like New York, Berlin, London and Paris all were hit relatively early and with little difference in timing. Russia on the other hand saw infection firstly in the far-east of the country, with Vladivostok presenting a confirmed case a full day before either Moscow or Saint-Petersburg. For smaller and less developed countries, they were spared for a little while, but still suffered either way. But much like Brazil, it would take time for governments to actually view the virus as a threat. The first one to do so being Padania, which officially declared a virus outbreak by the 23rd of January. Such views however became the target of jokes, as everyone thought the Padanians were just exaggerating. Milan didn’t care however, instead preparing for what they saw as a global catastrophe. It wouldn’t be until the beginning of February, when nations such as Brazil, South Africa and Great Britain began acknowledging the virus that everyone began doing the same.

The Brazilian government, trying to contain the outbreak, announced a 2 week long quarantine. Such action was initially praised by school-children and university students alike. However, scientists knew this wouldn’t be enough, as the virus likely had ample time to spread throughout the country. Thereby, this measure, if nothing else, was just a test to see how much ground the infection gained. The results were bad. By the 15th of February, Brazil already had at least 80,000 confirmed cases. With more and more popping all throughout the country, with an epicenter in the densily populated Southeast. Thereby, once the 2 weeks ended and people returned to the streets, all hell broke loose and cades began growing exponentially. By the end of February 160,000 cases were confirmed and they just kept growing. It also didn’t help when people began dying from the disease, with the first confirmed death from “Indian Flu” being recorded on the 5th of February, when 79 year old, Roberto Trentino, died in the Santa Maria Hosptial in the province of Santa Cruz. But yet again, people kept living their daily lifes as if nothing was happening, with few people actually taking precautions against the epidemic.

Avenida Bartolomeu de Las Casa - Curitiba. One of the city’s busiest streets now laid empty during lockdown (2006)​

Back in São Sebastião, things were also not going smoothly. The P-4 coalition was showing massive disagreements on how to deal with the crisis. Most of the government (The Progressive Party, National Federalists and Social Liberal Party) thought that it was best not to interfere to deeply on the matter, as they worried that prolonged quarantines could severely hamper the economy. The other camp, headed by the Greens, thought this was stupid and that saving human lives came first. Such aggurments would continue all the way to July of 2006. This division in the actual would prove very costly, as no decisive action was taken. The end result, was that both numerous lives were lost and that the economy entered a recession. Thereby, the Greens began conspiring to take down the government. Such mission was to be accomplished by making a “deal with the devil” and temporalily ally with dissident elements of the P-4, as well as the PTB and Conservative parties. As the latter were constantly calling for governmental action against the pandemic. But this “emergency coalition” would only begin taking shape by June of 2006, as representatives from the 4 main groups (PTB, Conservative, Greens and Dissidents) met to discuss about a change in government. Luckily for them, the 2006 elections were right there.

Now, one important thing to know is how Brazilian elections work. Brazil, being a parliamentary monarchy, has parliamentary elections. Such elections, aren’t done in a fixed date, only that they must be done within 4 years of the last. However, due to lasting influence from republics such as the United States and France, Brazil de-facto holds heir elections every 4 years, usually in the middle of the afformentioned year. This time however, the Brazilian government tried to delay the elections until the crisis could be fixed, something they believed could be done in 1 year. The Supreme Court however disagreed with them. Stipulating instead that the elections ought to be done in September.

Such political crisis eroded plenty of support from the P-4 cause. This allowed for the “Emergency coallition” to grow bolder and more powerful. That’s, until a mole snitched the whole operation back to the P-4. As a result, the Green Party was expelled from the coalition and multiple dissidents were either expelled, or left on their own. Not only that, but now seeing their political power eroding. The P-4, now P-3, began using what little support they could muster in parliament to pass a series of populist measures, aimed at rapidly building support amongst the people for the upcoming election. Such measures, included lowering taxes on the people, limiting air-flights coming in and out of the country and supporting a “universal basic income” during the times of panic. With such a strategy swaying a lot of the masses, but also making much of the P-3 voting base alienated from their platform.

Thus, when the elections came on the 3rd of September, the results were pretty bad. The P-3 coallition, which just a week before held 214 seats, now bot only 193 seats, divided as 87, 60 and 46 respectively, held by the Social Liberals, Progressives and National-Federalists respectively. As for the opposition, the PTB and Conservatives got 93 and 89 respectively. The biggest winners of it all however, would be the Green Party as it gained 51 seats. Other smaller parties also participated but got less seats. Now, if the “Emergency Coalition” was to actually be formed, it would control some 243 seats, way above the 225 minimum. However, the greens, believing to be in a position of command, agreed to only form the coalition, if a green was to become prime minister. To be more precise they wanted to elevate Iasmin de Carvalho, a prominent member of the Green Party, to premiership. The Green Party thought they could get away with this, because they reasoned that the PTB-Conservatives would not want to go through a minority P-3 government, so they would support their candidate as a way to secure stability The PTB-Conservatives however really didn’t like her and denied the request.

What this meant? Well, if the Brazilian government couldn’t function before. Now things got even worse.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

​

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXI - Captain, crisis ahead

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

Insofar, we have discussed the political aspects of the pandemic. However, we still lack insight on the economic, military and social aspects of the year of 2006. But long story short, it was not good. Already in the beginning of the pandemic, when the government began enacting a 2 week quarantine, people were already decisively unhappy. This feeling mostly emerged from the working class, which were stuck at home, not being able to make a living, as well as not receiving any meaningful governmental aid to compensate. Which is why, once the the 2 weeks were over and workers returned to their jobs, they became the hardest hit demographic almost immediately, and despite not being the most vulnerable group, where by far the most contaminated one. But even with he workers returning to their jobs, the economy took a downturn. Said downturn would only worse as the years went by, with wages taking a similar hit due to employers trying to minimize the damage. Meanwhile, the cost of living continued to increase as transportation of goods and services became ever harder. All the while the government continued to enter into a deadlock, with no meaningful action being taken. Private attempts at finding a viable solution also failed, as most of their options would require technology not yet available at the moment[1], as well as the fact that much of the Brazilian workforce worked in manual jobs which required their presence.

However, one thing that actually pleases the Brazilian right would be that immigration sharply dropped. Mostly because of air travel restrictions and the fact people were afraid of catching the virus, so they remained in doors. Which is why the net immigration of Brazil few to just 80,000 in 2006 and 120,000 in 2007.

Thereby, in the face of worsening economic and safety conditions, workers around Brazil began striking. The Brazilian General Council of Trade Unions, disillusioned with Liberal policy making, threatened a general strike, should the government not meet the demands of the workers. That decision took the government by surprise, as previously the BGCTU stayed mostly docile in face of the P-4’s Liberal agenda, but now they seemed ready for action. Such revitalization in their spirits can be attributed with a new generation of labor and conservative politicians which rose during the pandemic, with Ernésto Pérez and Rodrigo Schwab soon becoming the new faces of the “Neo-Trabalhista” movement, which sought to return the Brazilian right[2] to a “people’s movement”, rather than the “personalist” incarnation of the Hitler administration. With that said, they also began to coordinate with new conservative politicians like Tiago Dutra to create a new and better coalition between both parties. Unfortunately for them, none of 3 were leaders of their respective moments, but that was soon to change.

By late 2006, Gilberto Fossati, was an old guy. He had been leader of the PTB ever since the 1990’s and now needed some rest. So, he formally abdicated from the position of party secretary, with intra-party elections being held mere weeks after his resignation. The PTB elections would thus be contested by 3 groups: the traditionalists under Guilherme do Vale, the “Liberal-Left[3] under Manuela Barbieri, and the “Neo-Trabalhistas” under both Pérez and Schwab. The results were close, but by a few points the “Neo-Trabalhistas” achieved victory, with both Pérez and Schwab co-ruling the party. Seeing the way the winds were blowing, Hitler, which by then was on de-jure leader of the Conservatives also resigned, paving the way for her underdog, a guy name Caio Simmonsen to rule, with Dutra now being his 2nd in command.

This was all great and but, what about the economical downturn? Well, in terms of GDP the Brazilian economy sunk some 3.8%, which might not seem a lot, but considering the past few years were nothing but overwhelming growth, thus might as well be the end of the world. But the biggest problem of it all was inflation. Not monetary inflation mind you, the Brazilian currency only devalued by 2.5% by January of 2007, but rather inflation of goods. Goods like food and gas all grew in price, with imported products like rice having an increase in value of 25%. Trade between the Mercosul was also severely hampered as other Latin American nations also experienced the pandemic themselves. Thereby, items like copper exploded in prices. However, this increase in prices was, ironically, extremely helpful for the nation’s cattle industry. Because Brazilian meat, imported by much of sub-Saharan Africa and southern Europe, rose in prices. But of course, this rise in profits only really benefited the small portion of the population that either owned cattle farms, or worked in cattle farms. However, every rise in prices pale in comparison with the disaster that was the growth of property prices. Because, Brazil prided itself in having affordable housing prices for a developed economy. But now, the price of a home would grow by 33% in 2006 alone, leading to multiple families being unable to pay rent and thereby being evicted.

Another major consequence of 2006, was the Brazilian withdrawn from Mozambique. Basically, once the virus reached Africa, Brazilian troops began catching the virus in the thousands. Thereby, the Brazilian ministry of war, argued that their mission in Mozambique was accomplished and that they should withdraw. After all, Mozambique could take care of the few remaining insurgent hideouts. Righ!? Anyhow, the Brazilian government approved this decision and began rotating out Brazilian personnel in the country, leaving only a few instructors to continue the modernization and training of the Mozambiquean armed forces. Similarly, Brazilian sailors in their multiple fleets across the world, had to follow a strict code of discipline and social distancing, in other to avoid spreading the virus even further. Such precautions by admiralty did initially hold back the infection, but by the end of 2006, it began spreading. This was confirmed when the captain of the RNB-Cristina, a modern frigate, made a public announcements of the conditions that his ship, and the Brazilian navy in general, were enduring. However, since soldiers couldn’t really speak out against the military like that, he was sent court martial and sentenced to prison time. But in doing son, the government alienated the rank and file soldiery, which agreed with the captain’s decision, as well as much of the opposition and populous.

Nevertheless, despite all these issues, the Brazilian scientific community was already working on a vaccine. Such research was mostly based on the Federal University of Aurélia and was led by a Brazilian doctor by the name of Giovani Byrne, which coordinated a team of both nationals and foreigners to create a cure. Unfortunately for them, such a cure would only really come into fruition by late January of 2007. But until then, the doctors tried to test as much of the population as they could. A task made increasingly harder, due to the fact people were staying more at home, and when at home they tended to have babies, resulting in a mini baby boom from 2006 until 2008.

But, with so much shit hitting the fan. The government decided it was finally time to take more extreme measures, finally agreeing to cancel schools starting in April and increasing wages for workers which couldn’t work from home. But even if they begrudgingly accepted to attend the nation’s desires, it was too little, too late. By 2007 the opposition would be ready to challenge the P-3’s dominance over politics.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

[1] Computers are not developed enough yet to allow for the same kind of stay-at-home work we saw in OTL
[2] Remeber, here in TTL’s Brazil, right = economically interventionist
[3] Basically the closest thing the PTB has to a western new left after the PDL left

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXII - Everything is not under control

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

As 2006 ended and 2007 began, the pandemic followed suit. But the year also began in a positive note, because the Brazilian vaccine was also finished. But to say the vaccine was a rushed project would be an understatement. Thereby, a series of new trials were to begin, making the cure only really available for distribution by late February and early March. Still it was better than nothing, specially now that, after nearly a year of lockdown, school kids were beginning to go back to having regular classes. Problem was, basically missing a full year’s worth of education tends to have problems, specially for kids who were about to enter college. Thereby, the minority government had to make some adjustments by basically asking the universities to please lower their standards. Unsurprisingly, the universities were none too happy to do this, with few complying. Again, this was used by opposition parties to delegitimize the ruling P-3 coalition even further. However, rather than aim at dethroning them now, the new leadership of the PTB and Conservatives, hoped to bleed the P-3 dry until 2010 when they would smash them in ballot box.

However, despite everything, the first half of 2007 was pretty uneventful. Sure, the economy was still shrinking and the disease ran rampant, but that’s nothing new under the Sun for most Brazilians. The real deal however began by the second half. In July of 2007, militants from MIDEM once again made headiness as they successfully took Pemba, capital of the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. The attack was carried out when Mozambican troops left the city to deal with reported insurgent activity in the countryside, which allowed for the rebels to rapidly subdue the remaining soldiers stationed there. Attempts to recapture the city then resulted in failure, as the returning Mozambican troops were caught in ambush, where many deserted the armed forces. This success, coupled with further movements up north, allowed for MIDEM to successfully overrun much of Cabo Delgado, as well as start a siege of Niassa’s capital of Lichinga. The Mozambican government, now desperate, called for help in São Sebastião. To their dismay however, Ashur gave some pretty lackluster assurances of military support, which would surely eventually materialize. Until then however, the Mozambicans were to keep fighting the insurgents.

Adding to already horrible news, the American economy also started a second crisis. Remember when I said the real estate industry was deregulated? Well, banks wanted to get in on the action and started carelessly giving loans to everybody, even those they were sure wouldn’t be able to pay them back anytime soon. Then the pandemic started, people began loosing their jobs, the economy went into recession, etc. But what this meant, was that those people that took loans couldn’t possibly repay them back, even if they wanted to. As a result, multiple banks began to crash, as people feared the banks would crash and began retrieving their money from the deposits, which people more anxious, which made them start retrieving their money, rinse and repeat. This bank crash however would not stay in the American economy for long though. Instead, it made headways into every economy of the globe, bringing as much damage with it as the pandemic. In the end, the global economy fell by more 5% in the year of 2007, with nations such as Brazil experiencing a 7% downturn. Basically making a bad situation, even worse.

But, at least said economic disaster only really hit Brazil by the time most of the population was already immunized from the “Indian Flu”. So not all was lost, thought the P-3 administration. Yet, as workers began to return to their jobs, seeing their wages fall even further, all the while property prices were skyrocketing, they began to strike even further than previously. The spring of 2007, also known as the “Spring of Discontent”, would see some of the largest strikes in Brazilian history since the Great Depression. Signalizing to everyone that Ashur couldn’t govern anymore. Thereby, Gustavo Ashur renounced his position as Prime Minister. Now, it was up to parliament to decide who to call upon to lead the nation. Worse yet, Queen Cristina was having some severe health issues as she too caught the virus, her age not helping her at all. Thereby, on December of 2007, Queen Crisitina of Portugal, Brazil and other Lusophonic nations, abdicated in favor of her son[1], Marco Aurélio. Now, Marco Aurélio, as his name prophesied, was a pretty renowned scholar, who had a degree in physics, mathematics and did wrote about philosophy on his free time. However, he didn't exactly have a highly public life, people knew little about him and he liked it that way. So, once he took the throne, there was a lot of tension about wether he could live up to her mother’s legacy. But that is something only time can tell.

Brazilian workers striking during the “Spring of Discontent” (2007)​

Anyhow, after some time debating amongst themselves, the P-3 and the Greens found a compromise candidate to rise as Prime Minister. This is not to say that both sides were back together, only that they realized fighting amongst themselves like that was stupid. So, they put in power a guy named Amadeu Somoza. Now, don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know him, because really nobody did. Somoza was a veteran in parliament, having been a member of the National Federal Party ever since the mid 80’s and thus was quite old. But he was always on the sides, never really making a name for himself. It didn’t help that he himself was not looking for glory, instead hoping to have an inconsequential political career and then retire. Unfortunately for him, he was also in the middle between the P-3 and the greens, thereby making him the perfect compromise candidate. Now, he could very well refuse, but he thpught to himself it was better to have some 3 stressful years and save the country, than retire now and see it burn down on the front rows. So, he accepted and was inaugurated as the newest Brazilian Prime Minister.

Photo of PM Amadeu Somoza (2007)​

Back to the strikes. The General Council of the Trade Unions once again called for concessions, mostly regarding the cutting of wages by up to 20% in some places. This time however the government wasn’t really interested in budging, mostly because the businesses couldn’t support a return to pre-pandemic wages with current profits. The GCTD’s answer was that the government should make the difference. However, afraid of straining finances too much, the government offered to restore wages only up to 90%. But the unions wouldn’t budge either, allowing for a tense stand off between the unions and the government. Somoza got so desperate he begged to the PTB and the Conservatives to help him fix the crisis. The PTB and the Conservatives then got together and found out they had plenty to gain by single-handedly stopping the striking workers. So, they agreed. In the end, Schwab and Pérez themselves came to negotiate with the union leaders. Their proposal was as follows: they would accept the 90% pay restoration, as well as stop striking and in return, once the PTB and the Conservatives came back to power, their salaries would rise to 110% of pre-pandemic levels. This tactic was shamelesly political campaigning, but it worked. Soon enough, the union leaders accepted the proposal and the workers got back to work, now the right-wing stood closer to power.

But with all said and done, the government once again began eyeing the Lusophone nation of Mozambique. Which is why, by the end of December the government announced a 2nd expedition to contain the insurgents of northern Mozambique. But again, said decision was plenty unpopular with the workers, as the government had previously denied their requests on the grounds that it would be too expensive, but spending huge sums of money to blow up some farmers in Africa was apparently fine. Either way, Somoza had hoped that such action would bring about a patriotic fervor amongst Brazilians and distract them from the damaged economy and flu epidemic. In the end the expedition was led by Brazilian general Martinho Nomura, but due to logistical problems the mission would be delayed until January, when it was officially launched under the nickname of “Operation Vasco da Gama”. Results were then immediately apparent, as the arrival of Brazilian troops made MIDEM fighters try to capture Lichinga once and for, only to fail and be forced to abandon the siege due to heavy loses. Either way, Nomura was determined to have operations truly begin by February and bring this uprising down once and for all.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

[1] The Queen was actually supposed to abdicated in 2005, but since the pandemic started later than I expected I had her abdicate by 2007.

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXIII - The dust settles

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

A crisis cannot exist in a vacuum. The mere word ‘crisis’ already indicates something that turned really bad, really fast. However, if a crisis lasts indefinitely it becomes the new status-quo, thereby not being a crisis anymore. As such, we hold as a truth that all crisis must eventually come to an end. The “Indian Flu” crisis, thereby, would also come to an end. However, such end was not drastic, nor sudden. Instead, things just slowly came back to normal. As vaccination campaigns eventually immunized most of the population, as well as a natural build up of immunity, the virus slowly but surely ceased to become a problem. As after its peak in August of 2006, the numbers of dead and infected continued to fall. This, combined with the fact that most Brazilians, at least for a while, maintained behaviors designed to combat the virus, such as regularly wearing masks, thoroughly washing their hands, isolating themselves in case of a disease, etc. As a result, by the end of 2007 the pandemic was officially over in Brazil and things could start to walk in the right direction… and just kidding, PM Somoza just had a national scandal.

What happened you might ask? Well, after the “Spring of Discontent” and the stressful negotiations with the unions. PM Somoza found some interesting ways to relax himself, and by that I mean he used marijuana, a substance that was illegal on the federal level. The end result of such scandal was that Somoza was forced to resign on the 7th of March of 2008. So much so for a perfect compromise candidate. Anyhow, the scandal and resugnaiton of Somoza caught the P-3/Green leadership with their pants down as they rushed to pick a suitable replace. Unfortunately for them, few people in the nation were as effective in reuniting the P-3 and Greens as Somoza was. Thereby, their effective replacement for the poor bastard, Lucas Czarniak, yet another obscure veteran politician, this time from the National Federals, didn’t do a very good job. Now don’t get me wrong, Czarniak is one of the most underrated Brazilian PMs, mostly because he managed to rule through a minority government whilst at he same time keeping the stability and even passing some reforms. But by en large, during his tenure the economy barely improved, something that contradicted the large boom some economies went through in the aftermath of the pandemic. However, to Czarniak, keeping the economy stable was always the plan, whilst actually seeing immediate results was only a luxury. A luxury which he sadly would lack, as the Brazilian growth rate reached 3.3% in 2008, 3.9% in 2009 and 3.5% in 2010. Which allowed for the Brazilian economy to jump from 5.756 Trillion USD by January 1st 2007, to 5.946 by the same day but in 2008, then 6.178 and finally 6.394. By this time, Brazil continued to be the world’s 2nd largest economy, though it began facing competition from the resurgent Germany and the new rising powers of Russia and China.

But while the Brazilian political and economical scenario didn’t seem like the best, the Brazilian cultural industry said otherwise. Because as soon as the pandemic receded, the Brazilian cinematic industry began cranking multiple high quality films, many of which achieved top 50 box office revenues. During this time however, there was also a shift in the tonality and genres of these movies, for they were no longer dominate by Sertanistas, or Action movies. Instead, horror, comedy and even fantasy, captured the Brazilian mind. Examples of movies from these genres include, 3 Dias, Nem que a vaca tussa and Grande Jornada. The first one covers a zombie virus outbreak in the city of Tieté, as the main cast, a group of 4 survivors, must survive for 3 days in the zombie infested city until the military can counterattack, saving them and other survivors in the process. The second one is a comedy movie satirizing the amount of horrible things that occurred in 2006, represented as such by a rural community that suddenly has to deal with a cow that coughs and talks, which in turn leads to reality itself to slowly deteriorate as a result. The last one is a 6 seasons long animated series inspired by the literary works of Tolkiens and Romanticist literature, in which it covers the adventures of a party of 6 individuals, not all of them human, as they traverse through a war-torn continent in order to defeat a cult aiming to bring an ancient demon back to life.

Besides that, the Czarniak administration also continued the re-intensification Brazilian involvement in the Mozambique conflict. By the March of 2008, a further 20,000 Brazilian personnel were deployed to fight the insurgents. What followed was a lightning campaign that destroyed MIDEM conventional power and dislodged them from the provincial capitals. However, this situation was way too much like when Brazil first showed up and there was fear that once Brazil pulled out, MIDEM would once again recaptured portions of Northern Mozambique. Thereby, parliament passes, if barely, a new bill that would allow for an intense training and arming of the Mozambican military in counter-insurgent operations. Not only that, but Brazil realized, if a bit late, that Alfonso had outlived its usefulness. Thereby, when elections were held in Mozambique, despite the ongoing conflict, the opposition parties, led by the Partido Socialista Moçambicano under Gerardo Campos[1], won a majority of seats in parliament and were able to depose Dhlakama. How was this possible if Dhlakama was rigging the elections? Well simple, Brazil simply rigged it even more. Anyhow, with a new change in government also came a change in how Lourenço Marques would deal with the insurgents, as Campos reassured the rights of Muslims in the country and started a new populist platform that was highly popular with the people. Such policies were however not popular with the Czarniak administration. But given that it was either a friendly left-wing government or constant insurgency, they chose the former.

Similarly as Brazilian arms were being exported in Africa, the end of the pandemic also meant that illegal immigration and drug trafficking once again reignited in the Brazilian frontiers. Said reigniting, forced the Brazilian military and police to reform in order to combat the new threat. With said reforms being heavily championed by the Minister of Defense Alberto Reis. And thankfully for him, the military was reformed under the Lei Mario Fernandes. Which created the Amazon Military District, a special army division that was responsible for monitoring, patrolling and exerting Brazilian law on the northern frontier. Later that same year, the Lei Mario Fernandes II created the Western Military District, which had the same duties and responsibilities as the Amazon Military District, but instead of acting in the north, the WMD, as the name clearly implied, acted on the western frontier between Brazil and Bolivia. But at first these districts couldn’t reach their full potential, due to a lack of funds as most of the defense funds were headed towards the Mozambique conflict, leaving the men in north and west with few resources. However, even in the face of such difficult odds, specifically how they were supposed to patrol some of the longest landborders in the world, the Military Districts actually punched above their weight when push came to shove.

Either way, besides victories on the battlefield, the Czarniak administration was also able to pass some legislation which by all account shouldn't have been able to pass. For instance, Brazil took a look on how Portugal dealt with their drug problems by legalizing and heavily regulating the drug businesses. As such, Czarniak cooperated with the right to pass the Lei da Reforma das Drogas. Which as one would suspect, reformed the Brazilian penal code and legalized most forms of drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine. But of course, such legislation was insanely controversial, passing in the house by only 5 votes and actually tipping in senate, with the Prime Minister coming in to break the tie[2]. The passing of this act was highly celebrated by socially-progressive elements of Brazilian society, especially former PM Somoza, which was now free of previous drug related charges. But Somoza’s escape from the judicial system did catch the attention of Brazil’s right-wing, with some news outlet accusing Czarniak of corruption, as the law was “clearly” passed with the intent of helping Somoza clean his political record.

However, even if such act was passed through the legislative, the people didn’t really like it, as many Brazilians, especially working class ones, actively despised drug users and wished for a tougher stance on crime. As such, even if Brazil entered a new age of drug enforcement, many officer around the country had a hard time accepting the changes and continued to carry on their duties as usual. As a result, cases of police brutality once again re-emerged and caught the nation’s interest. However, these cases would only really blow up in notoriety by 2009, as by the end of 2008, the law itself was what the people were discussing. As such, 2008 ended with a Brazil that was slowly but surely regaining its balance on a post-pandemic world.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

[1] This guy is a fictional Mozambican politician of this TL, being born as the child of a white Mozambican with roots in Brazil and a Mozambican native woman
[2] Besides being head of government, one of the functions of the PM is being able to break a Senate tie by casting a vote himself

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXIV - Latin American diplomacy

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

The end of the dastardly crisis and the slow recuperation of most global economies meant that unfinished business needed to be solved. Namely, the admission of certain South American states in the MerCoSul block. For starters, Bolivia and Colombian were added to the club after the agreed measures were adopted by the respective regimes. Seeing this, political pressure mounted in Peru and Ecuador for them to join the union, as many of their member states presented rapidly growing economies and a combined bargaining power far superior than what they possessed individually. Not only that, but in the Caribbean, seeing the success of their aquatic neighbor in Haiti, both Puerto Rico and Cuba decided to apply for membership as both nations adopted a bi-continental policy of placating both Brazilian and American interests. Speaking of which, was not all too pleased of having two nations which typically sat in their sphere of influence being dragged away. But countering this came Brazil, offering trade concessions for Washington as well as confirming trade relations in regards to American high-tech products, which would now enter the MerCoSul market in droves and force the Brazilian industry to compete with them.

Anyhow, after all was said and done, Czarniak now moved for his next big project in regard to Latin American unity. Namely, he wished to create a “Latin American parliament” whereby policy proposals and cooperation between the members of MerCoSul could be more efficiently executed. However, the proposal found startch opposition amongst the newer members of the block, worried about unchecked Brazilian influence over their nations. Which is why, the parliament was also a non mandatory body, meaning that joining it was not a necessity for member states. In fact, Brazil also extended the proposal for observing nations to be able to have a voice in the parliament, though not having the ability to vote in matters regarding the MerCoSul. The proposal was then pushed forward on April of 2009, with the nations of Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Haiti all agreeing to participate. Though with the creation of the parliament, yet another issue presented itself. The issue being that Brazil alone possessed a bigger population than all these countries combined. Meaning that some were afraid the body would just be a rubber stamp for Brazilian policy. In order to compromise, Czarniak proposed that the seats be distributed 50% for brazil and 50% for the other members. And if another nation decided to join, the seats would be readjusted accordingly. Yet some still didn’t really 100% trust São Sebastião, but even with their concerns the deal was far too good to turn down, meaning that by the end of April the accord was signed and he parliament was created. However, back in Brazil, not everyone was happy with Czarniak’s proposal, specially the PTB-Conservatives, which viewed this deal as Czarniak purposefully sabotaging Brazilian interests just for quick political gain (not that they themselves wouldn’t do that. But mindlessly criticizing the government is just one of those benefits the opposition has)

MerCoSul Parliament in 2010. With this specific session discussing about import tariffs on electronic chips​

The rest of 2009 would be relatively uneventful, that is, besides two very bad incidents. The first one happened by July of 2009. In that particular month, 5 Brazilians, 4 of which were Indians of the Yanomami tribe, appeared dead near the town of São Valentim do Rio Branco[1], their bodies washed ashore by the Rio Branco. Upon close inspection of the victims, it was discovered that one of them was the notable native-rights activist, Marcelo Zanetti Voigt, as well as his wife, Iara Voigt[2] and 3 other members of the tribe. Such occurrence shocked the nation and it was up to the armed forces in the Amazon Military District to investigate the occurrence. That same month, a Brazilian squad discovered illegal mining operations inside Yanomami territory. The soldiers, after receiving some reinforcements, stormed the place and arrested everyone there. After some confessions, it was discovered that this operation was funded by two infamous Brazilian drug-traffickers, Geraldo Campos and Lotário Castagnari. With the five discovered bodies apparently having been witnesses to the whole ordeal, but who were unfortunately discovered in their investigation.

Said scandal promptly infuriated the public. Because, Brazil was supposed to be a first world nation, with one of the lowest murder rates in the world. Yet a bunch of thugs could just illegally mine in Brazilian soil and kill Brazilian citizens like that? To much of the population something like that was unacceptable and retribution was demanded. Problem was however that most military hardware was in Mozambique aiding the Brazilian and Mozambican forces hunt down the rebels. A fact that the Brazilian opposition readily exploited for their own political gain, decrying the Czarniak government of not caring about Brazilian internal affairs. But in the end, with his backs turned against the wall, Czarniak got a bill passed through parliament that would double the budget allocated for the protection of the Amazon, as well as increase the number of personnel in patrol throughout the Brazilian north. Unfortunately for little Lucas, this decision did not please the fiscally conservative sects of the population one bit, as they viewed it as a waste of money. Not that they didn’t)t want to protect Brazilian natives and the Amazon, but more that rather than better managing their funds and diverting funds from the Mozambican conflict, the government just unilaterally decided to put a new tax burden on the population. Thus, allowing for Lucas Czarniak to be on an even worse position despite his critical victories for Latin American integration.

Yet another strange event occurred just a few months after the Yanomami crisis. In October of 2009, a Brazilian patrol unit in Northern Mozambique found an interesting occurrence in the town of Meluco, of the Meluco District in the province of Cabo Delgado. Before their eyes they found none other than the missing journalist, Fernanda Merlão. Five years had passed since her disappearance and she looked visibly older, but there was no mistaking it, the pictures matched very well, her green eyes and dark blond hair made it clear. However, when the soldiers went to see if it really was her, she introduce de herself as ‘Fátima Manhique’. Not only that, but she had a small child with her and was pregnant. Understandably having no idea of what was going on and doubting it was really her, the soldiers called in for the search committee to come and take a look. Their results however were shocking, yes it was indeed her. But when questioned, she said she didn’t remember her name, nor from where she was and who were her parents. Thereby, it became evident that after the blast back in 2005, she lost her memories and settled in this town in Mozambique. The case then suddenly became a sensation and people began talking about her return. However, a moral dilemma soon emerged, Merlão had no parents back in Brazil, as she was raised by her grandparents and both of them had died. Not only that, but she had an actual life in Mozambique, she was married and had kids. So instead of taking her back, it was decided letting her remain was for the best. However, this didn’t stop some Brazilian psychologist from studying her extensively, naming a syndrome after hers thereby named the ‘Merlão Syndrome’ and getting themselves a Nobel Prize for this. So yay, I guess.

In the end, 2009 proved to be a crazy year, but one better than the previous ones. The Brazilian economy kept growing at a steady rate and inflation once again went down. Despite his misgivings in the Yanomami Incident, Lucas Czarniak’s position was quite so bad and chances for the upcoming 2010 parliamentary election were look bright. All he had to do was sit back and try not to partake in anything that could ruin his reputation.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

[1] OTL town of Bela Cruz - RO
[2] She was a member of the tribe but left for Tieté, married the guy, then came back to fight for Yanomami rights

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXV - Post Pandemic World Order

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

With the worst of the pandemic having withered away by 2007, the world once again put its attention to the same petty matters of always. Namely, the United States once again became a focal point as the 2008 presidential election arose. This time, the Progressive party pitched New York billionaire, Donald Trump and his populist ideas, against Paul Ryan of the Republican Party and Joe Biden of the Democratic Party. And although being an outsider to politics, Trump fiery rhetoric and plain populism, won over much of the working-class, even in region typically considered Republican or Democratic, such as Kentucky, Oregon and New York. In the end, Trump won over the American presidency. However, such victory was not all well received back in Europe, as Trump repeatedly talked about how Europe needed to step up their investment into the Toronto Accords, as well as counter the revanchist powers of Ukraine and Hungary.

However, back in Europe the situation was not quite so certain. After the end of the Cold-War, a succession of German governments allowed for Germany to reform close ties with much of Western Europe. With both the New Hansa and the European Economic Community trading heavily with one another. Such integration, made plenty of Europeans feel safer in their new position, now not needing American weapons to keep themselves from being steam-rolled by Berlin. Furthermore, in the East of Europe, nations that had previously been shackled by Germany now found themselves worried about a reaurgency of German dominance over the region. Thus, nations like Poland, Belarus, the Baltic States and Romania, began to form closer and closer ties with Russia, a nation that throughout the Cold War had remained neutral, and whose economic development started rivaling that of Germany. Thereby, Europe began dividing itself into 4 great blocks. Those in Western Europe and Central Europe, France, Italy and Germany comes to mind, that wished for a removal of American influence and a greater cooperation between diapering European nations. Those of Eastern Europe that wished to stray away from Berlin and find safety with Moscow. Those revanchist nations that were bitter with the new world order and wished to expand their influence at the expense of their neighbors, such as Hungary andUkraine. And lastly, those of Europe that welcomed a American influence and protection from what they saw as German domination, such as Great Britain, Padania, Spain, Portugal and Yugoslavia.

But while Europeans were dividing themselves, the continent remained peaceful and prosperous. The same however could not be said about the Middle-East. In the ensuing decades and the formalization of relations between the Iranian Republic and the State of Israel, their enemies in Arabia and Mesopotamia were preparing to make their moves. Namely, Saudi Arabia began funneling funds for rebel forces in Yemen as a means of installing a friendly puppet regime in southern Arab state. Such movement didn’t go by unnoticed by Tehran, which began immediately supporting the Yemen regime against the rebels. But not only were both nations across the Gulf competing against one another in military terms, but also economical and social. This came about mostly because of the enormous revenues Saudi-Arabia garnered as a result of their oil empire, which could then fund huge mega-projects throughout the nation. Iran by constraste, had spent the past decades trying to limit their reliance on oil products. Instead, investing money into other industries, such as construction, metallurgy and chemistry. Lastly, there was also an ideological battle, for the Saudis preached traditional Islamic values as the best way to rule, while the Iranians had spent the Cold-War adopting Western ideals of liberalism and rights, creating as a result the most tolerant and liberal middle eastern society, maybe only behind Turkey.

And if you thought this situation looks bad in Europe and the Middle East, Africans can do worse. For example, in the year of 2009 Congo and Katanga formally attacked each other for control of uraniu mines in the border regions, as well as to to solve border disputes in their favor. Such conflict would become known as the “Congo War”, later being dubbed the “African World War” as more and more Africa nations began joining in the conflict. But not all was bad in the old continent, plenty of nations were doing relatively fine. South Africa in particular managed to leave the pandemic without much trouble, in fact, the pandemic solidified South Africa as the foremost economy on the continent, as their rivals in Egypt had steep economical problems as a result of the crisis and Ludeitsia didn’t have the population to surpass South African industrial might. But speaking of Luderitisia, the post pandemic elections would see the end of the Cosnervative People’s Party ousted from government by a vote of no confidence. Instead, allowing for he rise of the Liberal Party, under the leadership of Rudolf von Münster[1], as Prime Minister of Luderitisia, as he promised to flexibilize social norms, increase the autonomy for women and grant further rights for the LGBT community. However, in order to form a majority he needed to compromise and continue their predecessors’ immigration restrictions, as well as limit the economical liberalizations he planned.

Lastly, but not least, there was Southeast Asia. Namely, that China was beginning to assert further influence in the region. Now, China been hit the hardest by the pandemic in term of total numbers. However, new and energetic leadership within the Kuomintang allowed for China to quickly lick her wounds and begin their dreams of ascending to super-power status. In order to to this, China began using the Chinese diaspora as a means to influence politics in Southeast Asia, namely in Malaysia and in the recently reunified Indonesia, as both nations presented large Chinese populations, Malaysia having a tiny Chinese majority in fact, which tended to support parties favorable to Chinese encroachment. These plans came into fruition then the Party for Change won the Malaysian general elections of 2010 and began opening talks with China for military and financial purposes, allowing for the construction of military bases and an increase in Chinese tourism to the peninsular nation. Such action however didn’t go unnoticed and many nations in the Pacific already took steps to prevent Chinese influence on their nations. As a result, a conference was called in Manila to form a defensive pact against Chinese aggression, with countries such as Japan, Korea,Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia and the United States participating. Of course, this decision sparked outrage in China, which viewed the Americans talking about their imperialism as hypocrites and sinophobes. But for now, there was nothing Nanking could do.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

[1] He is a fictional character

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXVI - Put the Clown shoes on

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

Although remembered today as less than a stellar moment, back then, the Czarniak administration actually had a quite solid approval rate. Sure, it wasn’t the same as when the P-4 were fully united and committed, and sure, the Prime Ministers selected by the coalition had a tendency to blow away their reputation with endless scandals. However, this time the P-3 thought they had the man for the job, as the budget was being balanced and important diplomatic victories were won across Latin America and Africa. But then things started getting heated once again. Because, only 2 months into the year of 2010, Czarniak had a scandal about cheating on his wife with his much younger secretary. Stuff like this is proof that the only difference between reality and fiction, is that fiction needs to make sense. Because, time and time again, the Liberal-Left constantly shot itself on the foot with scandal after scandal. And now that an election year had arrived, things got much tenser, as the PTB and Conservatives now formally re-introduced themselves as the National Labor Coalition, had their propaganda machine working around the clock to support their campaign efforts.

Czarniak meanwhile didn’t do much to help, as he spend up to a month in a legal battle with his wife, as she asked for a divorce. Truly, things weren’t looking very good for the coalition. So, they needed a solution and quick. Something they found by looking to the past. More specifically, they looked at the 2006 elections and how they were able to barely scratch a victory by increasing spending during the election cycle. But remember how last time the Economically-Liberal elements of Brazilian society didn’t like that one bit? Well, now they hated it even more, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of voter not voting during the election of 2010. This naturally favored the NLC, as they managed to mobilize the working class to their cause, mostly because the liberalizing policies under the P-3/Greens were highly unpopular with the people. Thereby, even by July of 2010, a victory for the NLC was expected by most people. The only question remaining being, by how much would Pérez and Schwab win? Speaking of which, Pérez was also chosen as the leader of the NLC coalition, with Schwab becoming general-secretary of the PTB and Tiago Druta becoming general-secretary for the Conservative Party. Now, a new Triumvirate emerged. This time however, they were much more ideologically united and had far more in common than the previous trios that ruled Brazil. As such, the NLC’s election campaign was also impeccable, as the alliance mobilized much of their more fanatical supporters to spread their good word throughout the country.

But changing subject for a second, the year of 2010 would also bring a new census for Brazil. Now, Brazil had a population of 232.796.876 souls, allowimg for them to continue being the 5th most populous country in the world. But as far as the provincial census were concerned, Brazil went through a demographical upset. In which, the Brazilian southern and central-western provinces were the ones to have the largest natural growth, a title previously reserved to the Northern and Northeastern provinces respectively. Furthermore, the actual top 5 most populous provinces finally change, as Guanabara was surpassed as the 4th most populous province. Now, Tieté, Aurélia, Bahia, Cisplatina and Guanabara were the most populous provinces, with a sum of 22.537.982, 16.197.060, 16.074.121, 15.288.431 and 14.998.003, respectively. As for the largest cities in Brazil, the ranking didn’t change at all, Tieté, São Sebastião, Salvador, Nova Bragança and Montereal, all remained undefeated in their places. However, one thing that did change from one census to another was the racial makeup of Brazil. According to the newest census data, White Brazilian remained by far the largest group, at around 88,5%, or about 206.025.235 people, the next largest group were mixed-race Brazilian, which made around 7% or 16.295.781, then these were followed by Asian-Brazilians, Afro-Brazilians and Native Brazilians, which made around 2,3%, 1,8% and 0,4% respectively, or some 5.354.328, 4.190.344 and 931.188. All in all, the census showed that the Brazilian nation continued to grow into the future.

All said and done, the actual political campaigns would begin by September, so we still have some time to check what was happening throughout the country. Namely, Brazilian tech companies were beginning to make major breakthroughs in the cellphone industry. These advancements were also spearheaded by Dalca, an already established giant that begin to ponder around the concept of a “smartphone”, which could be accessible via a touchscreen rather than a small keyboard. The project however ran into some difficulties early on, which delayed the release of Dalca Novo by some 2 years. Thankfully, they were not the only ones making innovations in the field, as Brazilian companies such as Cobrel and Mupor also started innovative in the electronic areas, specially with concepts such as high-definition footage and search engines, a concept which at the time was quite revolutionary. Another important aspect of 2010, was that while the Brazilian economy wasn’t growing as fast as it should, the Brazilian car industry had never been in such a better state. Now, Brazil wasn’t a very car centric society, as urban planning and transportation during the Aliança Popular era of the 30’s until the 70’s heavily favored public transport and high density housing. However, Brazilian automobiles found markets outside of the home country ready for action. Unfortunately for them, they had a relatively hard time competing with established car manufacturers outside of Latin America. But thankfully for them, during the post-pandemic era, Brazilian car exports to Africa and Southern Europe skyrocketed. So that by the year of 2010, Brazil was the world’s 3rd largest car manufacturer, with a whopping 7,5 million units being assembled and only being beaten by Japan and the United States, but ahead of Germany, Russia and China. Long story short, over 10 billion dollars in automobiles were being generated, and the Brazilian economy smiles.

Gilberto Dalca, then CEO of Dalca, presenting to the world the Dalca Novo and revolusoning cellphones (2012)​

Besides the economical aspects of 2010, there quite a lot of important reforms passed during this year. Despite having a minority government and being surrounded by scandals, Lucas Czarniak got parliament and the senate to agree to 2 new pieces of legislation. The first was the Lei da Reforma Educacional, which called for a reform of the school curriculum in order for schools to be less focused on repetitive tasks and more focused on teaching kids aspects about living adult lives and finding jobs. Thereby, new subjects such as ethics, politics, taxes and vocational exams were added to the curriculum. But that’s not all, the bill also called for an expansion of extracurricular activities in Brazilian public school to include broader topics in sports, arts, literature, culture, etc. The other bill that got passed, this time by a much smaller margin, was a Judicial Reform bill, the Lei da Corte Nova. The main problem of this law however, is that, since it would affect the judiciary, the judiciary itself, aka the Supreme Court, needed to approve it. Now, the bill called for an end to lifetime judicial positions. Instead, now judges could only serve 7 years and after those 7 years, he would need to issue a new permit to continue his position asa judge. If the new permit was rejected the judge needed to step down, if not, he could continue, technically still for life if he could just convince a higher court to continuously aprove it. It was thought that this reform would decrease corruption in the judiciary and speed up trials. In the end, the only major compromise the bill had to do was allow for the Suprem Court to continue serving for life.

But now back in the campaign trail, the 2010 showdown was about to start. On one side, there was P-3 with confidence and apply from the Green Party, and on the other side there was the NLC. Who would win this battle and… pfffff, enough suspense we all know it was the NLC. Because really, it was quite obvious from the beginning, as the alliance maintained cohesion and focus against a fatigued opponent. In the end, the NLC absolutely swept the floor with the other parties, winning some 56% of all the 460 seats in parliament. In the end the new makeup of parliament was as follows. The PTB reclaimed their position as Brazil’s largest party, with some 30% of all seats, some 138, then came the Conservatives with 120 seats. In total, the NLC had some 258 seats. Then, the P-3 had 74, 51 and 28 seats, held by the SLP, Progressives and NFL respectively. Then, came the greens with 41 seats and other parties with 9. In summary, the Brazilian right, with skill and a metric fuck ton of luck, managed to win a ginormous victory. One that would, at a minimum for the next 4 years, secure them absolute control over Brazilian policy making.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXVII - Old back in charge

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

Now that the National Labor Coalition was in charge a lot was going to change. First matter of business was taking down Lucas Czarniak and putting Ernésto Pérez in charge. But the changes Pérez proposed wouldn’t be as radical and wouldn’t come as quickly. Because you see, one of the biggest fears there was, specially for the international markets, was that the NLC would bring in back the hyper-protectionist policies of the Aliança Popular era. However, the NLC leadership recognized that the world they inherited was vastly different than the one Hermenexildo or even Hitler inherited. Thereby, they understood that they would have to make some concessions regarding the social and economic policies passed in the past decades. Namely, they chose to revive the old proposals of Gualtério Branco and Alfonso Henriques, with a little bit of old PTB economic policies. The result of which was an economy that was capitalistic, but that had very high levels of government intervention, as the government held a monopoly over several “strategic” sectors of the economy. Allowing for the NLC not crash the economy before even taking power.

This however didn’t meant that no revolutionary changes were to come. Rodrigo Schwab, leader of the PTB, already had discussed with Pérez about some changes. Firstly, they needed to meet their populist proposals during the winter of discontent by raising the wage’s for workers to 110% of pre-pandemic levels. Said raises gave quite a hit to the treasury, but nothing that sent the budget to the red, yet. Another piece of legislation passed by December of 2010, was a bill concerning rent for apartments and homes. Basically, the bill established that landlords couldn’t raise the rent for their tenants over 3% the value of inflation in any given year. The landlords however pushed back, instead simply refusing to rent their property to anyone. Thus, barely two months in a the government already faced a crisis. A crisis that if dealt properly, could secure NLC dominance for the next ten years, but if mismanaged could collapse the coalition before 2014 even arrived. So, the government cracked this knuckles and went in for a fight. A fight they started by passing year another bill through parliament. This bill was called Lei de Proteção e Cuidado das Propriedades and it stipulated that refusing to rent a property directly violated previous laws regarding environmental protection, as previous laws dictated that the government could seize property if said property was uninhabited and generated no comercial value. The landlords however argued that their properties did indeed generate value even without tenants living in there. In the end, this matter was taken to the Supreme Court in the case Radecki x Brazil. Now, considering 1/2 the judges were appointed either by the P-4 or the SLP, the odds for Pérez weren’t looking so good. But by some divine luck, some judges defected to the government’s side, resulting in a 2/3 vote in favor of the Brazilian government. What followed next would be the government’s attempt at enforcing the law throughout the country. Some landlords still resisted, but little by little resistance eventually withered away. Resulting in a big win for Pérez and friends.

After all was said and done, Pérez looked to fight the lasting effects the pandemic had on Brazilian society. Namely, that traditional businesses such as heavy industry were deeply affected by the pandemic and were slowly but steadily leaving the country in favor of cheaper nations. Now, Pérez was definitely not a big fan of this. But considering the situation he was in, all he could do was bite his tong and bide his time. During said time however, his approval rate among the workers started shrinking, specially as the opposition media began bashing him for his inaction. Thus, feeling the need to do something to save his approval rating, Pérez managed to get yet another piece of legislation passed through parliament. This time it was a protectionist tariff. Well, sort off. This bill, called the Lei Landolfo Baumann, established that products produced directly in Brazil and therefore receivers of the “Made in Brazil” mark, would get small tax breaks. This action was pushed as a way to “kickstart Brazil’s economy” and increase the competitiveness of Brazilian goods. However, those who were paying close attention could tell this was an attempt by Pérez to save face in front of the proletariat. But most amazing of it all was that it worked, as the PM’s approval rate amongst the worker’s rose from some 60% to 72%.

After yet another mentally draining confrontation however, the Pérez administration would be granted one of their best gifts they could’ve ever receive. Remember how back in the 80’s and 90’s Brazilian scientists were working on better ways to produce energy? Such research led to a greater emphasis on solar, wind and nuclear energy production all throughout the country. But the ‘crème de la crème’ was yet to come. And it finally came in February of 2011, when Brazilian scientists finally found the solution for the creation of Nuclear Fusion Energy. Previously, nuclear energy functioned by hitting atoms of uranium very hard until they split off, with the energy resulting from said split, heating up water and moving an engine. Now, instead of hitting one another and breaking, atoms would fuse and create heavier materials, which by en large generated a lot more energy. But that’s not all, their research also led to the discovery of Thorium as a more abundant and more manageable fuel source than uranium. Allowing for the new generation of nuclear reactors to absolute dwarf their predecessors in terms of efficient, energy generation and safety. This realization absolutely amazed the NLC leadership, as they already began collecting the funds needed for the construction of this new powerhouse.

However, not everyone in the country was very happy with the prospect of creating a reactor that had the power of multiple suns close to their homes. Thereby, as Soon as the government announced their intents to build such a massive reactor, people all across the country began protesting this measure. Now, it’s erroneous to say that the opposition was behind said protests. However, it was undeniable that much of the protestors also opposed the NLC government and thought that if the NLC was behind it, then it could mean no good stuff. Said protests then once again forced Pérez to bend the limits of his patience and try not kill them all. However, throughout the months of March and April, the protests never really amounted to much. That’s until the 17th of June, when a whopping 250,000 marched throughout the streets of São Sebastião demanding that the project be taken down. After this, many in the NLC began pressuring Pérez to call off the project. However, thanks to intervention by Schwab, Pérez found strength to continue with the project. Pérez then instructed the Energy Minister, Dilma O’Hara, to create a comprehensive plan on how to implement a nuclear fusion reactor. Finally, the matter was taken to parliament for an official vote, where it passed with 58% of the votes. The project beginning construction by September of 2011.

Anti-Nuclear protesters in Curitiba (2011)​

Then, in order to relax from all the stress in just the first 6 months of his premiership, Pérez decided to increase spending in the public transport sector. Mostly as he wanted to expand Brazilian high-speed rail networks, which at the time were a mess of 4 clusters around the south, southeast, northeast and north, with little interconnection between theses clusters of rail. Not only that, the center of the country had a distinctive lack of high-speed rail, despite being more populous than the North of the country, the only exception being the province of Maracaju which had great conectivo with the South and Southeast. So, in July, parliament passed through the Lei do Trânsito Férreo, which dedicated some 10 billion Cruzados to the construction of new rail-lines, which connected the biggest centers of the Center of the country to ore populous regions in the coast. However, due to issues in logistics, construction would only begin by October. In the meanwhile, Brazilian high-speed rail lines would also receive a bonus as a new kind of train entered the scene. This new version could reach speeds of up to 400 km/h and cross from Tieté to São Sebastião in a little over 2 hours, as frequent stops along the two metropolis slow down the train. All in all, the Brazilian rail system had just been drastically improved in a very short timeframe, allowing for Pérez’s approval to rise even further.

What comes next however would a be a different beast all in its own. Remember how I said that the American real estate market was getting inflated throughout the 2000’s? Well, this inflation was generated by the increased amounts of home purchases happening all across the USA. These purchases were mostly done by poorer people who took loans from banks to finance their houses, even if in many cases they couldn’t pay back. These decisions were filled by the optimism that the early 2000’s brought in terms of economic growth. However, once the pandemic hit, reality came ridding not far back. Many banks began demanding payments which their borrowers couldn’t return. Then, people began to take their money out of the banks as they feared a crash, which led to more people doing the same.in the end, many banks broke and many people were left in piles of debt. The aftershock however was felt in the US economy, which itself reverberated around the world, as the US still possessed the largest economy in the globe. But, it didn’t take long for the economic woes to reach Brazil itself. And while many people were wondering how should Brazil ride through the new crisis, many took it as an opportunity. The NLC long resented their compromise with the liberals in order to not crash the economy. Now that the economical order was once again in shambles and they were in charge, the NLC planed for some major changes.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXVIII - The road to success

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

Brazil for much of its history has been an ever rising power. First, Brazil cemented itself as the foremost Latin American power. Then, Brazil, together with the United States, split the Americas into two spheres of influence in order to solidify their dominance. And finally, Brazil, in the wake of the 2nd Great War, put itself forth as a global power, above even the old colonial empires of Britain and France. However, Brazil never really ascended to the top, instead being relegated as a third wheel in the game between Washington and Berlin. Not only that, but by the late stages of the Cold-War, Brazil’s position was actively threatened by the emergence of new economic powers such as Russia and Japan. But despite all of that, comes the 21st century, Brazil now once again stands as the world’s second largest economy, as well as one of the world’s main military powers. Even so, the arrival of the Indian Flu and the new American crash really hit the Brazilian economy. Fortunately for Brazil, the nation wasn’t ready to call quits. In fact, this crisis, as seen by many in the government, brought forth further opportunities for the economical and political expansion of the Brazilian sphere.

With the crash of the American economy and the subsequent failure of multiple banks, many companies around the world also started failing, mostly as a result of the interconnection between world economies following the end of the Cold War. Thus, it didn’t take long for multiple big names in Brazilian industry to begin asking for help from the government. Seizing this opportunity, the government began offering financial support for some key pillars of Brazilian industry, but in exchange the government would be able to buy plenty of shares in these companies, as well as gain guarantees that much of the heavy industry wouldn’t be leaving the country for cheaper nations. Now, I don’t need to tell you that this measure was extremely controversial , especially amongst the opposition. However, given that much of parliament was in NLC’s hands, the P-3 had no chance of succeeding. Thereby, an appeal was made to the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the government buying shares in a company. But to the P-3’s dismay, the court eventually sided with Pérez and his economical nationalist agenda. Now emboldened with the SC’s ruling, the Perez administration began using their newly acquired shares, as well as dominance over the Brazilian parliament to pursue an ‘anti-business’ agenda. Because, basically, the NLC viewed the banks and other financial institutions as being too reckless with other people’s money. To counter this, the government passed the Lei Limpeza do Templo, in homage to the biblical event of Jesus expelling the merchants from the Temple, which resulted in the banks financial independence being slightly stripped by the government. In the end, many of the more radical members of the coalition felt that the law didn’t go far enough, but for now it was a good start, according to the NLC.

Next, the Pérez administration also sought to slightly change the Brazilian economy. Namely, the government opted to increase investment to Brazil’s high-tech industry, as they predicted that, no matter how much they stimulated the local heavy industry, there would always face threats from industry in cheap 3rd world nations. Thereby, an edge in technology was needed if the Brazilian economy was to maintain their position as the 2nd largest. Most notably, ever since the end of the pandemic, computer technology began rapidly improving in all fields. Thereby, the government began handing tax breaks and other incentives for Computer manufactures to increase production and innovation. Most crucial of it all however, would be the Brazilian manufacturing chips for electronic devices, as Brazilian companies began actually surpassing foreign designs in quality and prices. In the end, the most important of all the companies for this develop was the recently created Eletrônicos Fusaro, created by Brazilian inventor, Frederico Fusaro, which soon began making new models like the “Charged-coupled device”. But not only was Brazil developing technologically, but there soon was widespread adoption of new technologies, especially by the government, which soon allowed for more efficient bureaucracy and more accurate accounts. Not only that, but Brazil soon began experimenting with another field, robotics. As previously, that field had been dominated by Japanese companies, but now that many of them were financially shaken by the American crash and the stagnation of Japan, Brazilian companies began venturing into the wide areas of knowledge in robotics.

But not only was Brazil securing itself through technological development and economic reforms. To truly be able to assert themselves in the pillar of the great nations of the 21st century, Brazil also needed to expand their influence abroad. However, unlike the P-3, the NLC had little interest in shows of force and the use of military might. Instead, Brazil was to expand culturally and commercially to other corners of the globe. Because, previously, this Brazilian sphere of influence had been limited to South America and the Lusophone world. But now, the Pérez administration, as well as other private groups, began making headway into more of sub Saharan Africa, southern Europe and Southeast Asia. Namely, the arranging of trade deals and mutual investments between said nations. As such, Brazilian exports and imports began diversifying more and more, as nations that sought to modernize and were usually antagonistic to American influence, began instead buying Brazilian technology and using Brazilian loans. Safe to say, many lawmakers in Washington were none too happy. But considering the current economic fallout the US was going through, there was little they could do. Not only that, but Brazil was also an important American trade partner and more often than not was willing to support Washington in its foreign ventures and diplomatic clashes, though they did prefer to stay neutral. Either way, for now the eagle wouldn’t mind the Jaguar, though one nation that did mind was China. Because, especially after the Macau incident, became ever weary of Brazilian expansion. But now that Brazil was developing ties with Southeast Asian states like Malaysia and Vietnam, China had enough and began hatching counter measures.

However, said measures would ‘t come into fruition until the next year. But as the year of 2012 still raged on, Pérez had more to do. Most important of which were some legislations regarding worker’s rights he longed to pass but couldn’t. Until now that is. Now, Pérez managed to get a new bill approved through Congress the Lei do 14°, which created a new bonus salary for workers, similarly to the 13th, but instead of being given by the end of the year, the 14th would be paid in the end of June. Not only that, but the Brazilian parliament also passed through Lei da Reforma Sindical, which game more power to Trade Unions when negotiating with employers. Lastly but not least, the government also got the Lei Guilherme Leite passed. Said law, tightened Brazilian immigration requirements, as well as allocated more funding for the deportation of immigrants. All of these laws were passed between July of 2012 and Dece,her of 2012. And let me tell you, a lot of people were pissed about it. Liberals were pissed of further government meddling in the economy, while progressives were furious about the new immigrations laws. Hispanic people residing in Brazil in particular were very angry with the new restrictions, as many of them had families back in their countries they would like to bring to Brazil. That is why, during months of December and January, large scale protests gripped the streets of major Brazilian cities. However, given that the government was finally secured and the most turbulent parts of the early Pérez administration were behind him, Pérez paid no attention whatsoever to the protests. It also didn’t help that media coverage was quite low and the protesters message was largely ignored. In the end, Pérez rested easy, for his vision for Brazil was about to come into fruition.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​

 

[CobraFumante]

Chapter CXXXIX - Times closer to home

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
​

The 90’s and early 2000’s were times marked by optimism and the hope of development. However, with the pandemic wrecking the world economy and the American crash soon following, the opposite effect soon followed. The 2010’s were marked by the growth of pessimism amongst the youth, as well as the escalation of some conflicts across the world. Even so, times during the 2010’s weren’t bad. In fact, standards of living rose across the globe in spite of all the crisis that preceded the times. In Brazil, this negativity also impacted the country’s culture and thought throughout the decade. Though, if in comparison with other developed economies, the Brazilian situation was actually quite good and this total feeling of depression never reall sunk like in place such as the US, Canada, Germany, Japan and Great Britain. The whys and hows of such are still largely up for debate, though what is known is that the 2010’s up to this day, were marked by actually competent governments that rarely caused political scandal and that, even if lacklusterly, contribute to an increase in Brazil’s prosperity and development throughout the contemporary era.

For starters, the year of 2013 would be marked by a remarkable stabilization of inflation in spite of increasing government spending. This is mostly attribute to the growth of Brazilian exports to Asia, Africa, Europe and LaTam in face of a decrease of Chinese, American and Japanese competition. Still, the inflationary rate of 2013 did sit at around 4%, which was remarkably higher than previous averages during the P-4/3 administrations. Still, the money being spent by the government was directly aiding in the Brazilian economical recovery. For instance, the economical growth of Brazil in 2011 was marked at 4.3%, while in 2012, thanks to the crash, it had decreased to 1.9%, which was still far better than the rest of the world which saw a decrease in economical growth, while in 2013 the economy grew by 4.9%, the largest amongst the developed economies. This translated into a GDP of 6.669 Trillion USD by 2011, 6.796 in 2012 and 7.129 trillion USD by 2013. By contrast the US economy stood at around 16 trillion USD by 2013, while China surpassed Russia and Germany with a GDP of 6.223 trillion USD, with Germany having a GDP of 5.793 Trillion and Russia in 5th with 4.982 Trillion. But turning away from economic matters, and into work matters, Brazilian provinces dominated by NLC started experimenting with the idea of a 6 hour workday, resulting in about 30 hours of work per week. This experiment was most prominent in the province of Araucaria, later expanding to other Brazilian province such as Paraguai, Paraná and Goiás. Such reforms were however not unique to Brazil as Argentina’s left-wing government also made such endeavors to reform their workweek.

Another reform implemented by the Pérez administration during this time would be the Lei de Reforma do Censo. This new law increased the complexity of the Brazilian census as it added stuff like socio-economic classes, as well as allowing for people to choose sexual orientation. Not only that, but the time for a census was decreased from 10 years, to 5 years. The task of conducting the census would also now be the responsibility of the Department of the Interior and a new bigger budget would be allocated for the expanded census. With the frost modern census being held in 2015.

But speaking of international matters, Brazil would be once again dragged to an international shit show, in Ceylon, to be more precise. Firstly it’s best for us to explain the situation in Ceylon. For starters, Ceylon had acquired independence from Portugal back in the 70’s due to the Pacto de Salvador. But despite having a sloth transition from colony to independent nation, the task of state management was anything but smooth. For starters, much like most Portuguese colonies, Ceylon had been thoroughly Lusified, well, the southern portion of the nation that is. In the southern portion of the island, specially in the country’s capital of Colombo, the Portuguese language dominated as the lingua-franca, Christianity was also very widespread, with places such as the capital having a Christian majority, the Ceylonese elites also being heavily mixed between Portuguese settlers, mostly soldiers and administrators that had spent their careers on the island and decided to retire there, and local ceylonese nobility. However, such Portuguese influence was not universal, with places in the north maintaining their language, in this case mostly Tamil, and their religion, in this case mostly Hinduism. As such, many extremist movements began arising in the north of Ceylon aiming for further political autonomy, or, in some cases, total independence. The most numerous and powerful of these groups being the Tamil Tigers, which hoped to create a Tamil state encompassing Northern Ceylon and parts of Southeastern India.

Their operations would be heavily suppressed by the Ceylonese state, which by all accounts was a highly despotic one, as it was ruled by a de-facto one-party state under the leadership of the Grand Unity Party. However, the Ceylonese state was also supported, or at least had the sympathies, of both Brazil and Portugal, which put the Tamil Tigers in a difficult spot. However, once the pandemic hit and the American crash hit, the GUP fell amidst a see of discontent amongst the country’s youth and unemployed. In their place, rose the Alliance for Progress, the biggest opposition party. Amidst this chaos and confusion, the Tamil Tigers grew in strength and in 2013 they made their move, beginning a rebellion in northern Ceylon against Colombo. To further their chances of success, the Tamil Tigers also kidnapped many high ranking members of the provincial governments, as well as began attacking foreign nationals of nations that supported the Ceylonese government, namely Portugal and Brazil. In one particular incident, Tamil Tiger cells operating in Colombo tried to kidnapped the Brazilian diplomat for Ceylon, Reginaldo Pessoa, only to thwarted in their attempts by the Ceylonese police. Taking advantage of this event, the Ceylonese government begged São Sebastião to send military aid to them. Unfortunately for them, the NLC was none too keen on moving into another foreign mess, specially after they campaigned hard against the intervention in Mozambique. However, due to popular outrage against the attack, the Pérez administration approved the selling of military equipment, the sending of advisors to help train the Ceylonese military, as well as sending a small amount of peace-keepers which would not, under any circumstances, fight the insurgents. This proved to be the best choice, as it didn’t angler their supporters to much, while also satisfying the war-hawks in parliament.

Photo of Tamil Tiger rebels (2013)​

But as Pérez dealt with a crisis, another one reared its ugly head. Remember how back in 2005 a Chinese dissident by the name of Huai Changrui was secretly murdered while in Macau? Well, as I said previously, the case went unsolved for a long time, until now that is. In 2013, a team of criminologists in Macau, lead by a man named César Lao, acquired new evidence came to light about how Huai was murdered by an unknown assailant in 2005. Further investigation were conducted by private investigator Sérgio Guerreiro, a Brazilian detective that worked in Macau, concluded that the most likely culprit was the Chinese intelligence community, the conclusion later becoming hard facts as documents detailing the assassination plan were found. In the end, the confirmation of the student’s assassination sent shockwaves across the world. In China in particular, government opposition began gaining steam as their incompetent became apparent. Because, and this is a Brazilian tip, if you’re going to assassinate someone for your own political gains, at least be discreet about it.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————​