The bush dog Speothos venaticus, a short-legged, medium-sized Neotropical canid, remains elusive despite its wide geographical range. We present the first documented occurrence of this species within Rio Doce State Park, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. This Park is a unique, well-preserved area with a diverse array of mammal species, a rarity in the fragmented Atlantic Forest. We recorded the bush dog after 7,744 camera-trap days near Lagoa dos Patos, one of the Park’s lakes. This new record is a significant range extension for the species within the Atlantic Forest of Minas Gerais state, as the nearest known record is c. 420 km to the south. The new record is the northernmost documented occurrence of the bush dog in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. This finding is a significant addition to the Park’s mammalian carnivore community, and underscores its importance as high-quality habitat for rare species such as the bush dog, and its value for scientific research and biodiversity conservation.

This article examines why, beginning in 1946, the Brazilian government under President Eurico Dutra supplied arms to Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, fuelling a regional arms race and reshaping Caribbean Basin dynamics at the onset of the Cold War. It argues that these transfers bypassed conventional diplomatic channels, reflected radical anti-communist currents within Dutra’s inner circle and undercut US non-proliferation efforts. Far from a passive ally, Brazil emerged as a pivotal, if under-recognised, actor in the continental polarisation that led to democratic collapse in Venezuela (1948), Cuba (1952) and Guatemala (1954). The article challenges assumptions of Brazil’s limited Latin American engagement and repositions Dutra’s foreign policy within broader continental strategies of ideological alignment and regional influence. Drawing on Brazilian diplomatic and press sources, as well as archival and printed materials from across Latin America, Europe and the United States, it addresses historiographical gaps around Dutra’s agency and reveals the material underpinnings of Trujillo’s aggression, contributing to a revised understanding of Brazil’s Cold War trajectory.

This paper proposes constructing a new series of Brazilian sugar imports to Portugal between 1761 and 1807. The new customs data collected provides quantities, Brazilian origin, quality and taxes of the sugar. Based on the results of the empirical research, we demonstrate and corroborate the Brazilian sugar renaissance in the second half of the eighteenth century, a period of crisis in the colony’s mining industry and in the Portuguese trade balance. The growth of the sugar economy in the colony contributed to the adjustment of Portugal’s external accounts. The new information has allowed us to verify the increase in Brazilian sugar exports, especially after the early 1770s, despite the stagnation of the Portuguese economy.

Brazil partnered with China to foster industrial and technological progress, and to increase autonomy and prestige. The outcome, however, has been de-industrialisation and increased dependency. Nevertheless, the perception persists that Brazil is rising alongside China towards a post-hegemonic, multipolar world. We argue this can be understood through the deep-rooted embedded-autonomy narrative that shapes Brazil’s approach to the world. This positions the United States as the primary obstacle to national goals and China as part of the solution. Brazil reached out in solidarity to China, expecting outsized material and ontological security gains. This outsourcing of anti-dependency played a key role in Brazil’s accommodation of China’s preferences, locking in path dependency. By seriously considering the ideas guiding Brazil’s foreign policy, we examine how the trajectory of Sino-Brazilian relations was sustained despite the apparent mismatch between goals and outcomes.

This article examines the firm-level roots of anti-system political attitudes, focusing on Jair Bolsonaro’s rise in Brazil. Using Brazil’s RAIS dataset, a comprehensive matched employer–employee longitudinal database, and exclusive data on Aliados apoios, a unique dataset of over 69,000 Bolsonaro supporters, this study provides new insights into the employment trajectories of his base. Paired with an original representative online survey of full-time workers featuring observational and experimental components, the findings show that Bolsonaro supporters faced significant declines in wages and occupational premia relative to similar workers. Experimental evidence reveals that poor job quality, workplace unfairness, and wage inequality information might fuel anti-democratic attitudes. By leveraging distinctive data and methods, this article uncovers how firm-level inequalities shape populist and anti-system sentiments, offering a novel perspective on the political consequences of economic disparity and bringing nuance to economic theories of populism.

Species of the genus Rauschiella are trematodes of frogs and snakes in the Americas. The taxonomy of the group is complex, and most of the 18 currently valid species are known only from the original description. Moreover, genetic data are available only for two North American species (Rauschiella tineri and Rauschiella poncedeleoni). In this context, integrative taxonomy studies are necessary for Rauschiella spp. found in South America. Herein, during a long-term herpetological and helminthological study conducted in Selvíria, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, between 2016 and 2019, 296 anurans from 17 species were necropsied. A plagiorchioid trematode found in the intestine of 7/12 Leptodactylus macrosternum, 10/106 Leptodactylus podicipinus, and 13/20 Pseudis platensis was subject to morphological and molecular characterisation. Samples of the trematodes were studied by optical and scanning electron microscopies and identified as Rauschiella proxima (Freitas, 1941), here reported in new anuran hosts and geographical area. Sequences of the nuclear gene 28S rDNA (1148 bp) were generated and subjected to phylogenetic analysis. Our isolates of R. proxima from Brazil grouped in a well-supported clade with R. poncedeleoni and R. tineri, and genetic divergences to these species were low (0.45% and 0.54%, respectively), supporting the congeneric status among them. However, the addition of a South American representative of Rauschiella and the construction of more comprehensive phylogenetic analyses, including 78 plagiorchioid species from 15 families, did not result in advances concerning the familial level of classification of this genus, which remains as incertae sedis in the superfamily Plagiorchoidea.

We investigate the impact of corruption on female leadership in Brazil using cross-sectional municipal-level data. Our findings suggest that corruption significantly reduces the proportion of working women in leadership roles. Additionally, corruption decreases female representation in leadership relative to men, though this effect is less robust. When examining sectors most vulnerable to corruption, the results remain largely consistent, but we also note that women tend to avoid these sectors entirely. Our findings suggest that corruption acts as a significant barrier to female leadership.

This article explores the theory of racial whitening’s role in the political attempt to reshape the national collective in the First Brazilian Republic (1889-1930) to explain the theory’s origins and characteristics and suggest its international relevance. It is argued that this theory—which proposed that Brazil could modernize through interracial marriage and mass European immigration—was not a Brazilian or Latin American peculiarity but was aligned with a transformist strand of previous scientific racialism. The main novelty came from wide political resonance, not intellectual newness. In addition, the article demonstrates that racial whitening oriented the First Republic to construct ambiguous, yet effective, structures of discrimination, aimed at molding the national collective. These structures seem to have anticipated the transformation of racial relations elsewhere, preceding the global shift in the justification of institutional racism from biological to cultural bases after 1945. The article then underscores the importance of understanding historical dependencies and subtle mechanisms through which racism can be perpetuated, especially in societies that claim to be racially progressive.

Deliberation is routinely considered an essential component of a jury trial, contributing to the quality of fact-finding and confidence in jury verdicts. Unlike all other countries that use juries, Brazilian jurors do not deliberate. Instead, under the Brazilian jury system’s “incommunicability rule,” they submit their votes individually, without discussing the case with one another. How jurors approach the task of individual decision making and how they view and experience this notable absence of deliberation are unknown. The aim of this article, which is part of a broader research project on jurors’ decision making in femicide trials in Brazil, is to understand these experiences and views of Brazilian jurors, especially regarding the incommunicability rule. The research used qualitative methods, including ethnographic observations of trials and semi-structured interviews of jurors. The majority of jurors voiced support for the current practice, explaining that refraining from deliberation would ensure their impartiality. However, 41 percent of the jurors said that they would have liked to deliberate with others to exchange and debate views. Interviews also shed light on how the absence of deliberation affected the decision process and jurors’ satisfaction with the overall jury experience. This research contributes to an ongoing debate in Brazil over the incommunicability rule.