LatinNews Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 10 December 2015

In the wake of the Mariana disaster, Izabella Teixeira, Brazil’s environment minister, has promised tougher regulation on mining safety. However, for President Dilma Rousseff, a former minister of mines and energy, environmental concerns have never been a priority. Given that much of Brazil’s federal congress benefits from money from mining companies, environmentalists question whether even this disaster will result in meaningful change.