Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Letters from Latin America with Leo Boix: February 21, 2024
The human cost of Brazilian racism, the massacre of peasants in Columbia, and transgender transformations of language: reviews of a novel by Brazilian author Jeferson Tenorio and poetry by Brazilian Eliana Hernandez-Pachon and Venezuelan Isadoro Saturno

ALTHOUGH over half of Brazil's population (approximately 56 per cent) identifies as black, which is the largest population of African descent outside of Africa, less than 20 per cent of all members of Congress in Brazil are black. 

Shockingly, black Brazilians make up 75 per cent of murder victims and those killed by police. 

Unfortunately, under the leadership of right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro from 2019-2022, the situation worsened. Police killings of black Brazilians rose to 5,804 in 2019, which is almost six times more than the number of police killings in the United States.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
message
Book Review / 6 November 2025
6 November 2025

HENRY BELL welcomes a fine demonstration of the need to love the words themselves in the communication of political messages

boix
Letters from Latin America / 23 September 2025
23 September 2025

A ghost story by Mexican Ave Barrera, a Surrealist poetry collection by Peruvian Cesar Moro, and a manifesto-poem on women’s labour and capitalist havoc by Peruvian Valeria Roman Marroquin

COMPASSION: Author Banu Mushtaq, right, and translator Deepa Bhasthi with the International Booker Prize statuettes last Tuesday
Books / 27 May 2025
27 May 2025

Heart Lamp by the Indian writer Banu Mushtaq and winner of the 2025 International Booker prize is a powerful collection of stories inspired by the real suffering of women, writes HELEN VASSALLO

boix
Letters from Latin America / 20 May 2025
20 May 2025

LEO BOIX introduces a bold novel by Mapuche writer Daniela Catrileo, a raw memoir from Cuban-Russian author Anna Lidia Vega Serova, and powerful poetry by Mexican Juana Adcock