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Americas & the Caribbean

Bolsonaro poses with the symbol of the Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE in the Portuguese acronym) of the Military Police of the State of Rio de Janeiro in August 2020. It might be one of those strange coincidences that happen in Brazil, but the BOPE symbol bears a gruesome resemblance to the emblem of the paramilitary death squad Scuderie Detetive Le Cocq, formed in 1965 in Rio de Janeiro. BOPE was established in 1978. Also coincidentally, one of the paramilitaries who assassinated councilwoman Marielle Franco, former BOPE officer Ronnie Lessa, was officialy registered in Scuderie Detetive Le Cocq ranks. Lessa and Bolsonaro lived in the same condominium in Rio de Janeiro, and his daughter dated one of the president’s sons. Source: Palácio do Planalto/Author: Marcos Correa.
28 June 2021

Protests outside the White House following the death of George Floyd. Photo by Geoff Livingston, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
12 May 2021

The authors of a new government report claim that the debate on legalisation needs to be neutral. From a semiotic point of view, though, a picture of a person covering their face in signal of distress while rejecting a bag containing what seems to be cocaine powder in a primer with arguments against the legalisation of cannabis does not look neutral. Source: Ministry of Citizenship.
28 April 2021

Courtesy of the Yes on 110 campaign.
27 April 2021

Emblem of the United Nations. Source: Wikipedia
6 April 2021

Mexico, Mexico City, September 12, 2020, there is a march in front of the old city hall that requires the regulation of cannabis in Mexico, for the cultivation and free recreational consumption. Source: Alfredo Hernandez Rios
30 March 2021

Heavily-armed policemen conducting an operation in the Favela da Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro, in 2017. Source: Wikimedia Commons; author: Fernando Frasão/Agência Brasil.
22 February 2021

Peruvian farmers admire a newly planted coca field. Thomas Grisaffi, Author provided
9 February 2021

Jair Bolsonaro visits the Special Police Operations Battalion in Rio de Janeiro, August 2020. Source: Wikimedia Commons
27 January 2021
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