Tom Phillips
@tomphillips.bsky.social
Latin America correspondent for the @guardian based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 🇧🇷 via London 🇬🇧, Beijing 🇨🇳 and Mexico City 🇲🇽 Say hello: tom.phillips@theguardian.com
Ferocious fight among Brazil’s supreme court erupts on eve of presidential election
Ferocious fight among Brazil’s supreme court erupts on eve of presidential election
Scandal explodes as country’s election campaign peaks, with polls suggesting dead heat between candidates
theguardian.com
No Guardian: "Lula retorna ao local de suas origens políticas para lançar campanha para um quarto mandato." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
‘He had magnetism’: Lula returns to site of political origins to launch fourth-term campaign
Brazil’s president was union chief who led metalworkers’ strikes of 1979-80 that paved the way for return of democracy
theguardian.com
‘It’s total devastation’: inside the Amazonian war against illegal gold mining - @theguardian.com goes on the ground with Brazilian forces fighting to eradicate mining that has destroyed protected areas of Indigenous land By @tomphillips.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...
‘It’s total devastation’: inside the Amazonian war against illegal gold mining
The Guardian goes on the ground with Brazilian forces fighting to eradicate mining that has destroyed protected areas of Indigenous land
theguardian.com
The Guardian spent two days touring the destruction in the Sararé Indigenous territory with government forces, the only foreign media organisation given permission to visit the embattled area, where about 200 members of the Nambiquara people live.
The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3mo ago‘It’s total devastation’: inside the Amazonian war against illegal gold mining
THE GUARDIAN: "‘It’s one of those lifetime things’: viral videos turn Rio favela rooftop into tourist hotspot"
‘It’s one of those lifetime things’: viral videos turn Rio favela rooftop into tourist hotspot
People from across the world queue for hours to get a video taken on the famous ‘Gateway to Heaven’ rooftop in the heart of Brazil’s most iconic city
theguardian.com
"In more than two dozen interviews with community leaders, lawyers, security specialists and bereaved relatives, the Guardian pieced together the story of the bloodiest day in Rio’s modern history" www.theguardian.com/world/2026/f...
Rio’s bloodiest day: the untold story of Brazil’s most deadly police raid
In interviews with community leaders, lawyers, security specialists and bereaved relatives, the Guardian pieces together how an operation targeting a criminal gang left 122 people dead last October
theguardian.com
Our @theguardian.com podcast 'Missing in the Amazon' about Bruno Pereira & Dom Phillips is one of the @economist.com's best podcasts of 2025! www.economist.com/culture/2025...
The best podcasts of 2025
They cover fake wars, true crimes and chatbot romances
economist.com
“To fulfill her promise of reuniting Venezuela’s families, she first had to follow the path of the exiles who went before her" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
‘Follow the path of exiles’: María Corina Machado’s US-aided escape from Venezuela
Nobel peace laureate’s decision to flee on people-smuggling route is highly symbolic, but will her influence wane if unable to return?
theguardian.com
For the latest Politics Weekly America, I talk to the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent @tomphillips.bsky.social asking the question: is Trump about to invade Venezuela? open.spotify.com/episode/29Yi...
“This is war”: Is Trump about to invade Venezuela?
open.spotify.com
"The last thing we want is for South America to become a war zone – and a war zone that would inevitably not just be a war between the US and Venezuela. It would end up having global involvement and this would be really unfortunate" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
US attack on Venezuela risks ‘Vietnam-style’ regional conflict, warns Lula adviser
Brazil aide says Trump’s closure of Venezuelan airspace amounts to an ‘act of war’ that could escalate
theguardian.com
Talking Venezuela, Latin America & Trump on today's Politics Weekly America podcast with @jonathanfreedland.bsky.social
Jonathan Freedland@jonathanfreedland.bsky.social · 10mo agoFor the latest Politics Weekly America, I talk to the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent @tomphillips.bsky.social asking the question: is Trump about to invade Venezuela? open.spotify.com/episode/29Yi...
“It just shows that the entire counter-drug effort of Donald Trump is a charade” www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Trump’s pardon of Honduras’s ex-president shows counter-drug effort is ‘based on lies and hypocrisy’
Why has Trump blown up alleged narco boats in the Caribbean and at the same time decided to let a big time trafficker off the hook?
theguardian.com
Exclusive: Hegseth ordered everyone killed in the first alleged drug boat strike on Sept. 2, prompting a second hit to finish off survivors in the water in a mission led by SEAL Team 6. Ordering no quarter could legally perilous www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.
washingtonpost.com
“The unexpectedly lethargic response to Jair Bolsonaro’s incarceration has caused some to wonder if his grip over the Brazilian right has been shattered” www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
‘Foam that’s washed away’: support dissolves as Bolsonaro starts 27-year jail term
Brazil shows little sign of feared rightwing rebellion, with only a few die-hards protesting outside prison
theguardian.com
Bolsonaro says he took a soldering iron to his ankle tag out of “curiosity”
Karla Gamba@karlagamba.bsky.social · 11mo agoNo momento da troca da tornozeleira eletrônica, Jair Bolsonaro foi questionado sobre pq ela estava tão danificada. Ele responde que, por “curiosidade”, usava o ferro de solda desde a tarde 👇🏾
“Moraes said Bolsonaro’s electronic ankle monitor had been tampered with at 12.08am on Saturday. That suggested “the convict had planned to break the ankle monitor in order to ensure the success of his escape, aided by the confusion caused by the protest”
Brazilian police arrest Bolsonaro amid suspicions he was about to flee
Politician reportedly taken from his villa into custody at a federal police base about 7 miles from presidential palace
theguardian.com
“Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be put in a dungeon. Nobody wants Bolsonaro to be put in solitary confinement or for him to have to sleep on the floor. We want him to receive dignified treatment – but dignified treatment in prison,” said @reimont.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Jailhouse shock: Brazil coup monger Bolsonaro finally faces life behind bars
The former president’s far-right supporters have discovered a new interest in prison conditions as incarceration looms
theguardian.com
Over the moon that our Bruno and Dom podcast Missing in the Amazon has been nominated for a Rose D’Or! 🙏🏽
On the eve of Chile's presidential election today, we followed the footsteps of the far-right favorite, José Antonio Kast, to its most northerly village, in the Andes www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
‘We need an iron fist’: the Trump-inspired favourite to win Chile’s election
José Antonio Kast, 59, is appealing to voters with a hard-right pitch on crime and immigration
theguardian.com
3/ José Antonio Kast is polling second behind Jara, and is the likely winner of a runoff. He has campaigned on vilifying migrants, calling immigration an invasion, and proposing deportations and building barriers on the border. @tomphillips.bsky.social reports: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
‘We need an iron fist’: the Trump-inspired favourite to win Chile’s election
José Antonio Kast, 59, is appealing to voters with a hard-right pitch on crime and immigration
theguardian.com
“An iron fist! That’s what we need! Like a Bukele!”: the ultra-conservative politician José Antonio Kast closes in on the presidency in Chile with a Trumpian pitch on crime & immigration www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
‘We need an iron fist’: the Trump-inspired favourite to win Chile’s election
José Antonio Kast, 59, is appealing to voters with a hard-right pitch on crime and immigration
theguardian.com
In 1988, on the eve of Just Cause, the US indicted Noriega for drug smuggling – just as they have w/ Maduro who recently had a $50m bounty put on his head. “So they’ve established a convenient pretext if they choose to pursue a military route”
US military buildup off Venezuela coast stirs echoes of 1989 Panama invasion
Some see anti-Noriega operation as model for deposing Maduro but others say US-orchestrated military coup is more likely option
theguardian.com
“It’s so sad to see what’s happening in our communities. It’s terrible what the people who live there are going through … Those who live in war zones will understand this pain, this despair and this revolt.”
Thousands join protests in Rio favela after deadliest ever police raid
Demonstrators demand inquiry after operation on Tuesday in which at least 121 people were killed
theguardian.com
“In 30 years working in the favelas this is the greatest act of savagery, the biggest massacre I have seen” Horrifying report from @tomphillips.bsky.social on Rio’s deadliest-ever police raid www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
‘This was a slaughter, not an operation’: the favela reeling from Rio’s deadliest police raid
Residents of Vila Cruzeiro gather bodies after more than 130 were killed in pre-dawn assault
theguardian.com
Between 4.15am and 9am, when government body collectors finally arrived, the Guardian witnessed pick up trucks delivering dozens of corpses to a square in Vila Cruzeiro named after Saint Luke the Evangelist. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
‘This was a slaughter, not an operation’: the favela reeling from Rio’s deadliest police raid
Residents of Vila Cruzeiro gather bodies after more than 130 were killed in pre-dawn assault
theguardian.com
"This doesn’t solve the problem,” said Rene Silva, from @vozdascomunidades.com.br “Rio’s crime problem needs to be combated in other places – not just in the favelas" www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...
Brazil: at least 64 reported killed in Rio’s worst day of violence amid police favela raids
Governor says city ‘at war’ after gunfights between troops and Red Command drug traffickers who reportedly used weaponised drones
theguardian.com
“He’s not Joe Biden,” Lula’s friend and biographer, Fernando Morais, tells me. “He’s someone who has astounding physical energy, not to mention the energy of his soul”
Brazilian president will seek fourth term at age 80: ‘I’ve got as much energy as when I was 30’
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who first ran for elected office in 1982, announced he will run again in next year’s election
theguardian.com
A Venezuela mission would not be the first in Latin America & the Caribbean conducted by the Night Stalkers, whose pilots specialise in infiltrating and exfiltrating special forces troops – called “customers” – from hostile places, nearly always at night.
US ‘Night Stalkers’ seen in Caribbean as fears of regime change rise in Venezuela
Elite helicopter unit’s part in military deployment comes as Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Nicolás Maduro
theguardian.com
