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Glenn Greenwald Interviews Brazil's ex-President Lula From Prison Among the planet's significant political figures, no one is quite like Lula. Born into extreme poverty, illiterate until the age of 10, forced to quit school at the age of ...
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At a high-profile event in Brazil where I was recently invited to speak about The Intercept's work, organizers were so concerned about threats of violence that they required me to arrive by a small boat, rather than by land.
As we arrived, we had fireworks shot at us by supporters of right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. This continued throughout my speech, and one firework landed in the crowd of 3,000 people and lit a flag on fire.
This is only the latest physical violence targeting me in retaliation for a series of expose's published in The Intercept revealing corruption at the highest levels of the Brazilian government. Since The Intercept began this reporting, neither my husband nor I have left our house once without a team of armed security guards and an armored vehicle.
Attacks on The Intercept's journalists are escalating. We're not backing down, despite threats to our physical safety. To do so would risk our press freedoms and democratic rights.
But the growth in security, legal, and technology costs this year has been staggering. We rely on reader support to continue our reporting.
You may have read about how I was physically assaulted last month by a pro-Bolsonaro pundit at a TV studio in São Paulo while we were live on the air. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.
During the last six months of The Intercept's reporting on Bolsonaro's government, the right-wing leader has not only repeatedly and publicly threatened me with prison, but also explicitly accused me and my husband of having a sham marriage, and adopting Brazilian children as a fraud, in order, he claimed, to avoid being deported.
The threats are not just against me: The entire Intercept team in Brazil has had to take unprecedented security precautions.
Make no mistake: Members of the Bolsonaro movement target us because they know that transparency and free discourse are the primary obstacles to returning Brazil back to the dark days of military dictatorship.
We won't spare any expense to keep each of The Intercept's staff and their families safe from physical attack as we pursue the truth. But we urgently need your support.
(Article changed on December 24, 2019 at 02:59)
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