section_path: Activities by region/Brazil
section_name: Brazil
paragraph_text: Brazil
  
  During the Brazilian military dictatorship, the organization launched MEC-USAID Agreements, responsible for transforming the Brazilian education policies closer to the USA. USAID also acted in the countries public security. Between 1960 and 1972, USAID trained cops that were involved in political repression in Brazil.
  
  Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil's largest newspaper, accused USAID of trying to influence political reform in Brazil in a way that would have purposely benefited right-wing parties. USAID spent $95,000 US in 2005 on a seminar in the Brazilian Congress to promote a reform aimed at pushing for legislation punishing party infidelity. According to USAID papers acquired by Folha under the Freedom of Information Act, the seminar was planned to coincide with the eve of talks in that country's Congress on a broad political reform. The papers read that although the "pattern of weak party discipline is found across the political spectrum, it is somewhat less true of parties on the liberal left, such as the Worker's Party." The papers also expressed a concern about the "'indigenization' of the conference so that it is not viewed as providing a U.S. perspective." The event's main sponsor was the International Republican Institute.
  
  In February 2025, Michael Benz, a former state department official, affirmed in an interview with Steve Bannon on The War Room that Bolsonaro was seen in USAID as "Tropical Trump" and "if USAID didn't exist, Bolsonaro would still be the president of Brazil". In February 3, Eduardo Bolsonaro, federal deputy and son of Jair Bolsonaro, answered Benz in his social media by, accusing USAID of financing institutions involved with fighting against fake news during the presidential elections in 2022, such as the International Center for Journalists, Sleeping Giants Brazil and Vero Institute, created by the YouTuber Felipe Neto, with the objective of "manipulating narratives and interfering with Brazilian democracy". He and Gustavo Gayer also began to collect signatures to open a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission to investigate the supposed interference. His accusations are largely considered as fake news and many of the accused institutions affirmed that they never received money from USAID. Shortly after, in a speech for the Ação Política Conservadora, president of Argentina Javier Milei alleged without evidence that USAID used millions of dollars to falsify the 2022 election.
  
  During the Brazilian military dictatorship, the organization launched MEC-USAID Agreements, responsible for transforming the Brazilian education policies closer to the USA. USAID also acted in the countries public security. Between 1960 and 1972, USAID trained cops that were involved in political repression in Brazil.
  
  Folha de S.Paulo, Brazil's largest newspaper, accused USAID of trying to influence political reform in Brazil in a way that would have purposely benefited right-wing parties. USAID spent $95,000 US in 2005 on a seminar in the Brazilian Congress to promote a reform aimed at pushing for legislation punishing party infidelity. According to USAID papers acquired by Folha under the Freedom of Information Act, the seminar was planned to coincide with the eve of talks in that country's Congress on a broad political reform. The papers read that although the "pattern of weak party discipline is found across the political spectrum, it is somewhat less true of parties on the liberal left, such as the Worker's Party." The papers also expressed a concern about the "'indigenization' of the conference so that it is not viewed as providing a U.S. perspective." The event's main sponsor was the International Republican Institute.
  
  In February 2025, Michael Benz, a former state department official, affirmed in an interview with Steve Bannon on The War Room that Bolsonaro was seen in USAID as "Tropical Trump" and "if USAID didn't exist, Bolsonaro would still be the president of Brazil". In February 3, Eduardo Bolsonaro, federal deputy and son of Jair Bolsonaro, answered Benz in his social media by, accusing USAID of financing institutions involved with fighting against fake news during the presidential elections in 2022, such as the International Center for Journalists, Sleeping Giants Brazil and Vero Institute, created by the YouTuber Felipe Neto, with the objective of "manipulating narratives and interfering with Brazilian democracy". He and Gustavo Gayer also began to collect signatures to open a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission to investigate the supposed interference. His accusations are largely considered as fake news and many of the accused institutions affirmed that they never received money from USAID. Shortly after, in a speech for the Ação Política Conservadora, president of Argentina Javier Milei alleged without evidence that USAID used millions of dollars to falsify the 2022 election.