News stories by Fabiola Ortiz, page 6

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 24 (IPS) - Sexual violence against women is alarmingly under-reported and invisible in Brazil where, for example, there are no accurate, comparable data on rape in the country's 27 states.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 20 (IPS) - Yves Norodom, a 21-year-old refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo living in Brazil, is one of 45.2 million displaced people around the world – the largest number in 20 years.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 30 (IPS) - Brazil, and especially the city of Rio de Janeiro, is experiencing a boom in bus rapid transit (BRT), a public transport system that now has an internationally-recognised quality standard.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 23 (IPS) - There is a "deficit of justice" in Brazil, where the police themselves sometimes join the ranks of organised crime, in the form of militias, according to Amnesty International.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 20 (IPS) - In contravention of international law, in Brazil trafficking in human beings remains invisible and unpunished, which encourages the practice of trafficking for sexual exploitation, forced labour, illegal adoption and the trade in human organs, according to experts.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 17 (IPS) - As Brazil prepares to host several sporting mega-events, human rights abuses and authoritarian interventions by the authorities are going on behind the scenes, favouring major urbanisation projects and stadium remodelling, a study says.

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 10 (IPS) - Tuchinha was once a drug lord in Rio de Janeiro's Mangueira favela. But today he is helping youngsters turn their lives around and leave behind crime, prison and the likelihood of an early death.

MARABÁ, Brazil, May 02 (IPS) - A fresh outbreak of violence between large landowners and landless peasants is looming in the Amazonian state of Pará, in northern Brazil.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 23 (IPS) - The challenge for Venezuela is to strengthen democracy, and for its new president, Nicolás Maduro, it is to overcome a potential recall referendum and to further the interests of his political supporters, Marcelo Serpa, of the Latin American Association of Election Campaign Researchers (ALICE), told IPS.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 18 (IPS) - Representatives of social movements and communities affected by Brazilian mining company Vale's operations have bought shares in the company, to make their voices heard.