Exclusive: in one year, George Soros poured R$ 107 million into Brazilian NGOs
By Gazeta do Povo, translated by @tupireport
The foundation led by billionaire George Soros transferred, in just one year, the equivalent of R$ 107.2 million to organizations operating in Brazil. A survey carried out exclusively by Gazeta do Povo points out that a hundred Brazilian NGOs received funds from Soros through the Open Society Foundations, founded by him. The total reached US$ 19.9 million. The figure in reais takes into account the average exchange rate for that year.
The number is similar to that passed on in 2020, when 109 organizations received approximately US$ 22 million – equivalent to R$ 113 million, taking into account the exchange rate at the time.
The account includes only projects focused on Brazil by Brazilian (the majority) and foreign entities. The volume of Soros resources that arrived in the country tends to be even greater. This is because some entities received from the Open Society to fund projects in more than one country at the same time. These cases were not included in the list made by Gazeta do Povo. The Washington Office in Latin America, for example, received US$1.9 million to operate in the region, but it was not considered in the calculation because it is not possible to know how much of this money was actually invested in Brazil.
Although there are no indications that Soros' transfers violate any law in Brazil, the billionaire's heavy investment raises questions about a possible imbalance in the public debate in the country. Many of the entities financed by him produce reports and research that are later used to support decisions of the three powers. And some of the causes championed by Soros are clear. The decriminalization of drugs, the promotion of the LGBT agenda and the promotion of the most radical agendas of the black movement are among them.
In other words, Soros's interference, although apparently taking place within the law, helps to manufacture false consensus. And always in favor of progressive flags.
Biggest beneficiary redistributed resources
Among the Brazilian NGOs that received funds from Soros in 2021, the biggest beneficiary was Instituto Clima e Sociedade. The entity received US$ 1.5 million (a little over R$ 8 million). The NGO is led by Ana Toni, who chaired the Board of Greenpeace International and was director of the Ford Foundation in Brazil. Like the Open Society Foundations, the Ford Foundation promotes progressive causes around the world.
On its website, the Instituto Clima e Sociedade claims to support “various local agents who fight for Brazil to avoid the negative impacts of global warming.” In addition, the institute often funds other organizations in Brazil. On the list are the National Association of Attorneys of the Republic, the Chico Mendes Memorial, Pastoral Land Commission of Pará.
One of the projects funded by Instituto Clima e Sociedade is the construction of an “Eco Prophetic Network in Defense of the Amazon”. The objective of the initiative is “to build and strengthen collective communication, campaign and engagement strategies in defense of the forest using narratives of faith”. The grantee is an organization called Casa Galileia.
The Alana Institute, known for promoting progressive causes among children, also receives funds from the Instituto Clima e Sociedade. In 2022, Alana maintained a project to “analyze and highlight the public policy plan, including the climate policies of the presidential candidates for children, with the production of content on the current scenario for the population and carrying out a fact-checking work regarding issues affecting childhood.
Another recipient of Instituto Clima e Tempo resources in 2022 was the National Union of Students (UNE). The entity, which has been in the hands of the PCdoB for decades and whose president, Bruna Berlaz, campaigned for the election of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, received money to “engage young people through a conscious vote in defense of the Amazon and Education”.
Support for the “mass release” of prisoners
In third place among the biggest beneficiaries of George Soros in Brazil in 2022, with R$ 2.7 million, is INESC (Institute of Socioeconomic Studies). One of the organization's projects, the Mapa dos Afetos, guides merchants to respect "gender identity in the bathrooms in their space".
In fifth place is the GAJOP (Gabinete Assessoria Jurídica Popular Organizations). Headquartered in Recife, the entity's mission is to "Defend and promote Human Rights, focusing on Access to Justice and Security". The organization has in its portfolio a program that “strengthens the families of people deprived of their liberty to face the impacts caused by the Drug Law”, “with emphasis on the structuring elements of inequality (gender, race and class).” GAJOP is also a signatory to the National Agenda for Extrication, which requires the “suspension of any investment in the construction of new prison units.”
The list of beneficiaries of Open Society in Brazil also includes the Marielle Franco Association, the Fernando Henrique Cardoso Institute Foundation, the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, the Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism and the Quebrando o Tabu page.
Foreign influence is even greater
Many of the entities benefited by the Open Society in Brazil also receive contributions from other large foreign organizations. GAJOP, for example, is supported by the Oak Foundation and Die Sternsinger, an arm of the Catholic Church in Germany. CFEMEA receives from at least five other foreign entities, including the European Union and the Ford Foundation. Agência Mural das Periferias has already maintained recent partnerships with entities such as Unesco, Unicef, Facebook and Twitter.
The pattern suddenly changed with dozens of other NGOs.
The disproportion of forces
For Giuliano Miotto, who is president of the Instituto Liberdade e Justiça – an organization with a liberal profile –, the number of Brazilian NGOs that received funds from George Soros makes clear a disparity between the left and the right. “An organization with a proposal more to the right will hardly, or almost never, have access to funding of such a high value”, says he, who is also a lawyer and writer. Miotto claims that this disparity distorts the debate in the country. "The broad funding of these organizations allows them to have a larger number of people dedicated full-time to developing the so-called Overton window on their behalf." Overton's window is the set of ideas and values that are considered acceptable in a society.
In Miotto's opinion, businessmen who identify with the right tend to donate only to electoral campaigns. Furthermore, according to him, there is a lack of a clear vision on the part of liberal and conservative Brazilians. “The right wing in Brazil still has no idea of the importance of the work of think tanks and NGOs", he says.