Brazil is a federal republic governed under a presidential system. The president is elected by popular vote for a four-year term and is eligible for reelection to a second consecutive term.

In the 2022 race, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party (PT), who served as president from 2003 to 2011, and incumbent Jair Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) were the two leading candidates. Lula campaigned on economic concerns and social policy, while Bolsonaro’s campaign focused attention on evangelical support. Lula won 50.9 percent of the vote in an October runoff.

The highly polarized campaign was marred by disinformation, aggressive rhetoric on social networks and online messaging services, and political violence. Bolsonaro did not explicitly concede after losing the election, initially remaining silent while his supporters blocked major roads and called for new elections and military intervention. Bolsonaro unsuccessfully challenged the results in court, calling for some runoff results to be “invalidated.” Lula was sworn in on January 1, 2023, with some of Bolsonaro’s supporters still camping outside military headquarters asking for intervention. On January 8, 2023, thousands of Bolsonaro’s supporters stormed the National Congress, Supreme Court, and presidential palace in Brasília, occupying government buildings and calling on the military to keep Bolsonaro in power. Police forces responded by retaking occupied buildings, using tear gas to disperse rioters, and with mass arrests.

Legislative elections are generally free and fair. The bicameral National Congress is composed of an 81-member Senate and a 513-member Chamber of Deputies. Senators serve staggered eight-year terms, with one- to two-thirds coming up for election every four years. Members of the Chamber of Deputies serve four-year terms.

In the October 2022 elections, the PL became the largest single party in the Chamber of Deputies with 99 seats, while the PT won 69. The Centrão (“Big Center”), an array of patronage-based parties without clear ideological positions that provided legislative support to Bolsonaro, became the largest force in the Chamber of Deputies; the five parties understood to make up the Centrão won a combined 231 seats. The PL became the largest party in the Senate.

Local elections were held in October 2024 with parties in the Centrão faring well, though the PL performed relatively poorly. The elections were marred by reports of widespread harassment and political violence compared to local polls in the past.

Brazilian election laws are generally well enforced. The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) presides over cases related to violations of electoral law.

While Brazilian voters have cast ballots electronically since 1996, Bolsonaro repeatedly claimed that the country’s ballot system was vulnerable to fraud ahead of the 2022 elections, though no evidence has been found. The Defense Ministry inspected several hundred voting machines that October but found no irregularities, though its report did not explicitly declare whether potential fraud was possible.

Brazil has an unfettered multiparty system marked by vigorous competition among rival parties. The electoral framework encourages the proliferation of parties, a number of which are based in a single state. Ahead of the 2022 elections, 32 parties were registered, 23 of which won seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

Some parties display little ideological consistency. Lawmakers often switch parties, rendering electoral coalitions fragile. The executive branch must assemble diverse and often ideologically incoherent coalitions to pass legislation due to the large number of parties.

Political parties operate with little transparency and under no governance rules and often are targets of investigations into the misuse of public funds.

Opposition parties can compete and gain power through elections at both the federal and subnational levels. The PL and PT both received significant support in the 2022 elections. The Bolsonaro administration used public programs to lessen the opposition’s power to compete freely.

Powerful business interests undermine democratic accountability by facilitating or encouraging corruption among elected officials. Criminal groups have carried out attacks against political candidates and representatives, especially women and LGBT+ politicians.

Brazilian voters face high levels of political violence, which increased by 400 percent between 2018 and 2022 according to a survey conducted by two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). In November 2022, Agência Pública recorded 15 murders and 23 attempted murders over that year’s election period. By September 2024, authorities recorded 319 complaints of harassment related to the year’s local elections. In December, NGOs Justiça Global and Terra de Direitos recorded 558 incidents of political violence during those polls; 46 cases were recorded in 2016.

Militias and other criminal organizations—which may exercise significant control over campaigning and other political activity within their territories—have been blamed for a rise in violence in recent years. In August 2024, the Regional Electoral Court in Rio de Janeiro State said it would move polling stations to lessen armed actors’ influence on the local elections.

The January 2023 riots in Brasília were mainly conducted by ordinary citizens, but some security officers and officials were accused of either supporting the riots, displaying inaction as they occurred, or otherwise backing former President Bolsonaro openly. President Lula accused elements of the country’s intelligence agency, police, and military of either mounting a lax response or of complicity. In November 2024, the Federal Police indicted Bolsonaro and 36 other people for orchestrating a coup to prevent Lula from taking office, though no charges were officially filed against Bolsonaro by year’s end. In December, Walter Braga Netto—one of the indicted individuals, a former defense minister, and Bolsonaro’s running mate in 2022—was arrested for allegedly interfering in the investigation into the alleged coup.

The constitution guarantees equal rights without prejudice, but some groups have greater political representation than others, and there is great unevenness in exercising de facto political rights. Afro-Brazilians and women and their interests remain underrepresented in electoral politics and in government. Women held 18.1 percent of Chamber of Deputies seats as of December 2024, and female presentation in that chamber has consistently increased in the 21st century. Afro-Brazilian representation also improved in 2022. Two transgender federal deputies were elected in 2022. That December, Lula announced a cabinet that featured more racial and gender diversity.

Widespread corruption undermines the government’s ability to make and implement policy without undue influence from private or criminal interests. During the 2010s, the functioning of government was severely hampered by a rolling political crisis due to corruption scandals.

The presence of active-duty and retired military officials in the Bolsonaro administration prompted unease about the military’s influence in politics under Bolsonaro. The Defense Ministry was additionally responsible for examining a number of voting machines during the 2022 elections, though that responsibility was shifted elsewhere in late 2023. Lula’s administration reduced the participation and influence of the military in government.

Corruption and graft are endemic in Brazil, especially among elected officials. Between 2014 and 2021, an investigation known as Operation Car Wash focused on bribery, money laundering, and bid-rigging involving state oil company Petrobras and private construction companies. However, a series of investigative reports known as the Car Wash Leaks, published by the Intercept Brasil in 2019, exposed an improper relationship between Sérgio Moro—a judge who later became a Bolsonaro-era justice minister and won a Senate seat in 2022—and federal prosecutors. The Supreme Court annulled the convictions in 2021.

Criminal inquiries have targeted members of Bolsonaro’s family in recent years. In August 2023, Jair Renan Bolsonaro, the former president’s youngest son, had his devices seized by police in the course of an embezzlement investigation. In March 2024, Jair Renan and a business associate were charged with falsifying financial documents and money laundering. In July, the Federal Police accused former President Bolsonaro of attempting to illegally sell $1.2 million worth of gifts provided to the Brazilian government from counterparts, including Saudi Arabia’s government, between 2019 and 2022.

Brazil enacted the Freedom of Information Act (LAI) in 2012, but compliance varies among the country’s states and municipalities. In 2019, the Bolsonaro administration modified the LAI by decree, giving a larger group of officials the power to classify information as secret. The Bolsonaro administration often decreed 100 years of secrecy on information it considered sensitive.

The Lula administration began rescinding those instructions and stripping secrecy from some Bolsonaro-era decisions after taking office. It also created a transparency policy and formed a working group on official transparency. However, authorities are known to deny access to data requested by NGOs.

While in office, the Bolsonaro administration used a “secret budget,” an opaque system of financial grants that routed billions of reais through a rapporteur. Observers criticized the arrangement, which allowed lawmakers to receive added funding in exchange for backing the administration without transparency or oversight. In late 2022, the Supreme Court ruled the arrangement unconstitutional. Some of these grants were still implemented under Lula in 2024, though to a lesser extent than under Bolsonaro. In August 2024, the Supreme Court ordered that lawmakers’ budget amendments be suspended until transparency was guaranteed, while ordering the Federal Court of Accounts and Office of the Comptroller General to investigate transfers. Both legislative chambers appealed the ruling later that month.

The constitution guarantees freedom of expression and the country’s media environment is vibrant. However, investigative journalists, particularly those who cover corruption and crime, face threats, harassment, obstruction, and sometimes deadly violence. The legal framework provides inadequate protection for freedom of expression. Defamation is subject to criminal penalties. Journalists who criticized former President Bolsonaro faced online and offline harassment, and outlets that carried criticism faced economic pressure from his administration.

In January 2023, the federal government announced the creation of the National Observatory of Violence Against Journalists, which is meant to monitor violent incidents, refer cases to the Program for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, and perform other functions. In January 2024, the National Federation of Journalists noted a 51.9 percent decline in violent incidents against journalists from 2022 to 2023, though it also reported that journalists increasingly faced lawsuits meant to curtail their activity.

The constitution guarantees freedom of religion, and the government generally respects this right in practice. However, Afro-Brazilian religious groups face considerable discrimination. Violence against Afro-Brazilian religious groups is frequent, especially in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas. In recent years, Afro-Brazilian temples (“terreiros”) have closed after assaults or threats from evangelical drug dealers, who claim territory and seek to repress faiths other than their own.

Education policy was politicized under Bolsonaro, with his administration placing persistent pressure on academia and scientific organizations, especially by reducing funds and by mobilizing supporters to harass teachers and researchers. The Lula administration moved to reinstate public education and scientific research funding and has refrained from placing pressure on academics.

People are generally able to express personal views in public without fear of institutional surveillance or retaliation. However, recent electoral periods have been affected by the fear of political violence. Violent homophobic rhetoric contributes to a sense of fear among many that open discussion of LGBT+ rights and issues could be met with harassment or attack.

Social media intimidation and harassment by troll groups has proven to be a serious problem in Brazil. Bolsonaro allies, including family members, have faced investigations over their involvement in disinformation campaigns but continued to spread disinformation after Bolsonaro left office.

In October 2022, the TSE gave its then-chief, Supreme Court Justice Moraes, the unilateral authority to order the removal of online content that did not comply with previous TSE rulings as part of an antidisinformation effort. Bolsonaro supporters and legal experts criticized the move, fearing that it could allow for censorship. Moraes cited the proliferation of false information and hate speech when initially proposing the move to the TSE. In August 2024, Moraes ordered X to be blocked nationwide after its owner, Elon Musk, ignored a court order to name a new in-country legal representative. Brazilian internet users were prohibited from using virtual private networks to access X, risking a daily fine of up to 50,000 reais ($8,900). The order was reversed in October, after X complied and paid a fine.

While freedom of assembly is generally respected, police or other security agents sometimes use excessive force against demonstrations.

Some police personnel appeared unresponsive or friendly to pro-Bolsonaro protesters during the January 2023 riots in Brasília. Lula criticized some elements of the police and the military for their response.

NGOs operate freely in a variety of fields. However, activists working on land rights and environmental protection issues have faced harassment, threats, and violence in recent years, along with verbal hostility from former President Bolsonaro and officials in his administration. In a September 2024 report, Global Witness noted that 25 environmental activists were killed in Brazil in 2023.

In June 2022, British journalist Dominic “Dom” Phillips and activist Bruno Araújo Pereira, who were documenting the exploitation of the Amazon rainforest, went missing in Amazonas State; their bodies were discovered that month, when a fisherman confessed to killing them and directed authorities to their remains. In November 2024, the Federal Police completed its investigation into their deaths, saying that nine people had been involved in the murders and one was charged with orchestrating them. Brazilian press outlets reported that Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, who allegedly leads an illegal fishing enterprise and was detained over an unrelated matter in 2022, was the charged individual. Another three individuals had been charged for their involvement before the investigation closed.

Industrial labor unions are well organized, and although they are politically connected, Brazilian unions tend to be freer from political party control than their counterparts in other Latin American countries. However, controversial labor reforms enacted in 2017 diminished the strength and role of unions in collective bargaining with businesses.

The judiciary, though largely independent in many parts of the country, is overburdened, inefficient, and often subject to intimidation and other external influences, especially in rural areas. Corruption allegations against judges are not uncommon. Despite these shortcomings, the country’s constitution has resulted in an active judiciary that often rules in favor of citizens over the state.

The Supreme Court serves as an autonomous counterweight to the executive. Tensions between the court and the executive were high during the 2022 election, with Bolsonaro frequently issuing threats against the court. The court remained independent, issuing several decisions against Bolsonaro. In 2023, the Supreme Court issued the first conviction related to the Brasília riots, convicting a man of charges including attempting a coup and handing that defendant a 17-year prison sentence. In November 2024, the Supreme Court reported that 265 people had been convicted in relation to the riots while 476 people who were not directly involved in storming government buildings had received lesser punishments.

Also in 2023, the TSE barred Bolsonaro from office until 2030, saying that he abused his power when telling foreign ambassadors that the country’s electronic voting system was untrustworthy in 2022.

The judiciary generally upholds the right to a fair trial. However, federal, state, and appellate courts are severely backlogged. Access to justice varies greatly due to income inequality, and the state struggles to provide legal counsel for defendants and prisoners who cannot afford an attorney. Under a 2017 law, members of the armed forces and military police accused of certain serious crimes against civilians can be tried in military, rather than civilian, courts. In the vast majority of homicides committed by police, there is no due process.

Brazil saw 22.8 intentional violent deaths per 100,000 inhabitants in 2023 according to the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, which was most recently released by the Brazilian Public Security Forum (FBSP) in July 2024. According to the report, 46,328 such deaths were recorded in 2023.

The police force remains mired in corruption, and serious police abuses, including extrajudicial killings, continued in 2024. Police officers are rarely prosecuted for abuses, and those charged are almost never convicted. The FBSP counted 6,393 deaths caused by police in 2023 in its Brazilian Public Security Yearbook. Some 82.7 percent of the victims whose race was known were Black. Police in the states of Amapá, Bahia, and Sergipe had some of the highest lethality rates in the country. Conditions in overcrowded prisons are life-threatening, characterized by disease, inadequate food, and deadly gang-related violence. Violence is more likely to affect poor, Black prisoners.

In its July 2024 report, the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) counted 411 incidents of violence against Indigenous people in 2023, including 208 murders and 35 attempted murders.

While Brazilian society is largely tolerant, some populations are not able to fully exercise their human rights in practice.

Just over half of the population identifies as Black or of mixed race. Afro-Brazilians suffer from high rates of poverty and illiteracy, and almost 80 percent of Brazilians living in extreme poverty are Black or mixed-race. Victims of violence in Brazil are predominantly young, Black, and poor. The FBSP also counted 1,467 femicides in 2023, a 0.8 percent increase from 2022; 63.3 percent of femicide victims were Black. There were 83,988 cases of rape in 2023, a 91.5 percent increase from 2011.

In 2019, despite intense pressure from some religious and political leaders, the Supreme Court ruled LGBT+ people are protected under a criminal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of “race, color, ethnicity, religion, and national origin.” However, Brazil has one of the world’s highest-recorded levels of anti-LGBT+ violence. According to a May 2024 report by the Observatory of LGBTI+ Deaths and Violence in Brazil, 184 LGBT+ people were murdered in 2023 while another 18 died by suicide.

Many Indigenous communities—who comprise about 1 percent of the population—suffer from poverty and lack adequate sanitation and education services. The Indigenous population faces considerable discrimination, and their lands were subject to increased pressure under Bolsonaro, encouraged by his rhetoric and support for easing environmental laws.

Brazilians enjoy freedom to travel within and outside of the country, and to make decisions about their places of residence and employment, though access to high-quality education across all levels remains a challenge.

Gang violence, militias, and police violence in parts of Brazil, especially favelas, have impeded free movement and access to education. According to a report by Fogo Cruzado, which tracks gun violence in parts of Brazil, there were 1,346 gun-related incidents in the first six months of 2024 in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan area, though that represents a 24 percent fall from the first half of 2023.

Movement within the state of Bahia and especially in the state capital of Salvador has been affected by violent clashes between organized criminal groups between each other and with police.

While property rights are generally enforced, laws granting Indigenous populations exclusive use of certain lands are not always upheld, sometimes leading to violent conflicts. In a report on rural conflict released in April 2024, the Pastoral Land Commission said that it registered 2,203 conflicts in 2023, the highest number since its surveys began in 1985. It also recorded 31 killings in 2023, a 34 percent decrease from 2022. In its July 2024 report, which covered the events of 2023, CIMI counted 276 cases of illegal exploitation or property damage against Indigenous people.

Requirements for starting new businesses are often onerous, but authorities have taken steps to ease the process. Corruption and organized crime can pose obstacles to private business activity.

The government generally does not restrict social freedoms. Same-sex marriage became legal in 2013. Gender-based violence remains widespread, though legislation has been introduced to combat it. A 2006 law sought to address high rates of impunity for domestic violence. Law 14.188 amended the penal code to criminalize simple bodily harm due to gender and criminalize psychological violence against women.

Abortion is legal only in the case of rape, a threat to the mother’s life, or a rare and usually fatal brain deformity in the fetus. However, women and young girls are denied their legal right to abortion due to discretionary acts from the bureaucracy and judicial system. The sale of misoprostol, a drug that induce an abortion, is illegal in Brazil, though the drug is sold on the black market. As many as one million Brazilians seek abortions through clandestine means annually, including by traveling abroad. In November 2024, a Chamber of Deputies committee supported a proposed constitutional amendment that would fully ban abortion.

Slavery-like working conditions pose a significant problem in rural and urban zones. A 2012 constitutional amendment allows the government to confiscate all property of landholders found to be using slave labor. The federal government maintains a list of employers who subject workers to slavery-like conditions.

State spending to address inequality was obstructed when a 20-year budgetary spending cap was enacted in 2016, though the Bolsonaro administration increased aid payments for part of 2022. In 2023, Brazil saw its lowest levels of poverty and extreme poverty since 2012. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics reported in December 2024 that the percentage of people living in poverty fell from 31.6 in 2022 to 27.3 in 2023.