Robeyoncé Lima is a lawyer, transvestite, black woman and born in the outskirts of Recife, Pernambuco. Robeyoncé is a State Co-Assemblyperson in the Juntas collective mandate, and her work is marked by the defense of the rights of black people and the confrontation of oppression against the LGBTQIA+ community. Today she is vice-president of the Truth Commission on Black Slavery, by OAB-PE (Pernambuco's BAR Association).
We are proud that our work has had such positive results. We are also relieved that Bolsonaro was defeated on October 30, and his supporters were unable to carry out a successful coup.
When we officially launched the WBO on January 31, we had three main goals:
• To build a close relationship with the 42 organizations from Brazilian civil society that had affiliated with the WBO;
• To defend the election process in Brazil and work against a possible coup d’état;
• To establish a think tank that focused on progressive change in Brazil.
In order to achieve these objectives, we coordinated the visit of representatives from 19 Brazilian civil society organizations to Washington, D.C. in July. There, they held 20 meetings with Senators, House members, the State Department, the Organization of American States, and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to express their concern about the need to guarantee a fair electoral process in Brazil.
We also worked with allies in the U.S. Congress who issued three letters affirming their confidence in the Brazilian electoral system and calling on the Biden administration to immediately recognize the election results.
In addition, we supported the effort initiated by Sen. Bernie Sanders in which the Senate unanimously passed a resolution calling for respecting the Brazilian election results and severing U.S. aid should the Brazilian armed forces attempt to interfere in the process.
This year, we have been able to expand our staff and support a non-residential group of Research Fellows who contributed to the WBO Election Bulletin and other activities. The Brazil Unfiltered podcast has reached a wide English-language audience, and Diálogos pela Democracia has been an important vehicle for an international discussion of key issues facing Brazil.
However, in order to sustain our work, we need your on-going support. Please consider giving a tax-deductible contribution to the Washington Brazil Office, which will allow us to expand our activities in defense of democracy in the coming year as the new government faces many new challenges.
A contribution of $100, $500, or $1,000 to the Washington Brazil Office can really make a difference. For more information and to donate, click on the button bellow.
We thank you for your continuous support and involvement with the USNDB! Be sure to follow us on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube for more updates on our work and to access our past webinars, campaigns, statements and more.
Take care,
Roni Wine
The U.S. Network for Democracy in Brazil
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Email usndb@democracybrazil.org to contact us!
