Federal Senate (Brazil)

The National Congress Palace (Portuguese: Palácio do Congresso Nacional) is a building in Brasilia, Brazil that serves as the meeting place of the Brazilian national legislature, the National Congress of Brazil. It was built in 1960.

The National Congress of Brazil (Portuguese: Congresso Nacional do Brasil) is the legislative body of Brazil's federal government. Unlike the state legislative assemblies and municipal chambers, the Congress is bicameral, composed of the Federal Senate (the upper house) and the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house). The Congress meets annually in Brasília from 2 February to 22 December, with a mid-term break taking place between 17 July and 1 August.The Senate represents the 26 states and the Federal District. Each state and the Federal District has a representation of three senators, who are elected by popular ballot for a term of eight years. Every four years, renewal of either one third or two-thirds of the Senate (and of the delegations of the States and the Federal District) takes place. The Chamber of Deputies represents the people of each state, and its members are elected for a four-year term by a system of proportional representation. Seats are allotted proportionally according to each state's population, with each state eligible for a minimum of 8 seats (least populous) and a maximum of 70 seats (most populous). Unlike the Senate, the whole of the Chamber of Deputies is renewed every four years.Until recently it was common for politicians to switch parties and the proportion of congressional seats held by each party would often change. Seats belong to the parties and not to the politicians; one can only change parties and retain his or her seat in a very limited set of cases. Politicians who abandon the party for which they were elected now face the loss of their congressional seat. Each house of the Brazilian Congress elects its president and the other members of its directing board from among its members. The President of the Senate is ex officio the President of the National Congress, and in that capacity summons and presides over joint sessions, as well as over the joint services of both houses. The President of the Chamber is second in the presidential line of succession while the President of the Senate (and of Congress) is third.

The Chamber of Deputies (Portuguese: Câmara dos Deputados) is a federal legislative body and the lower house of the National Congress of Brazil. The chamber comprises 513 deputies, who are elected by proportional representation to serve four-year terms. The current President of the Chamber is the Deputy Arthur Lira (PP-AL), who was elected on 1 February 2021.

Praça dos Três Poderes (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpɾasɐ dus ˈtɾe(j)s poˈdeɾis]) or Three Powers Plaza (more idiomatically Three Branches Plaza) is a plaza in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. The name is derived from the presence of the three branches of government around the plaza: the Executive, represented by the Palácio do Planalto (presidential office); the Legislative represented by the National Congress of Brazil; and the Judiciary, represented by the Supremo Tribunal Federal (Supreme Federal Court). The plaza was designed by Lúcio Costa and Oscar Niemeyer as a place where the three powers would meet harmoniously. It is now also a tourist attraction. The plaza is home to the largest flag in the world to be flown regularly (in this case, continuously). The Brazilian flag hoisted weighs about 600 kilograms (1300 pounds) and has never been taken down (not counting monthly replacements) since the capital was inaugurated on 21 April 1960. The flag is changed monthly in the presence of Presidential Guard Battalion, Independence Dragoons, other troops and sometimes the President of Brazil. On 8 January 2023, the plaza was invaded by supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

On 8 January 2023, following the defeat of then-president Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 Brazilian general election and the inauguration of his successor Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, a mob of Bolsonaro's supporters attacked Brazil's federal government buildings in the capital, Brasília. The mob invaded and vandalized the Supreme Federal Court, the National Congress building and the Planalto Presidential Palace in the Praça dos Três Poderes, seeking to violently overthrow the democratically elected president Lula, who had been inaugurated on 1 January. Many rioters said their purpose was to spur military leaders to launch a coup d'état and disrupt the democratic transition of power.At the time of the riots, neither Lula nor Bolsonaro were in Brasília: Lula was in Araraquara, a city in the interior of São Paulo, with the mayor Edinho Silva and ministers Luiz Marinho, Jader Filho and Waldez Goés, surveying the city after heavy rains in the municipality; Bolsonaro was in Orlando, Florida, in the United States, where he had been since the last days of 2022, even before the end of his term.The attack occurred a week after Lula's inauguration and followed several weeks of unrest from Bolsonaro's supporters. It took more than five hours for the Brazilian security forces to clear all three buildings of the rioters, which happened at 21:00 BRT (UTC−03:00). The storming of the government buildings drew swift condemnation from governments around the world.In response to the attack, at 18:00 BRT, Lula announced that he had signed a decree authorising a federal state of emergency in the Federal District through the end of January 2023. The Congress was not in session at the time of the attacks, but it swiftly ratified the declaration by 10 January.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE; Portuguese: Ministério das Relações Exteriores; literally: Ministry of External Relations) conducts Brazil's foreign relations with other countries. It is commonly referred to in Brazilian media and diplomatic jargon as Itamaraty, after the palace which houses the ministry (originally in Rio de Janeiro, and currently in a second location which also bears this name in Brasília). Since 1 January 2023, the minister responsible is Mauro Vieira. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs operates the Rio Branco Institute and the Alexandre de Gusmão Foundation.

The Itamaraty Palace (Portuguese: Palácio Itamaraty), also known as the Palace of the Arches (Palácio dos Arcos), is the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil. It is located in the national capital of Brasília. The building was designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and inaugurated on April 21, 1970. It is located to the east of the National Congress building along the Ministries Esplanade, near the Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Plaza). In Brazil, Itamaraty is generally used as a metonymy for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The name stems from that of the palace in Rio de Janeiro which was the headquarters of the ministry before the Brazilian capital and government were moved to Brasília.

The Supreme Federal Court (Portuguese: Supremo Tribunal Federal, [suˈpɾẽmu tɾibuˈnaw fedeˈɾaw], abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for constitutional issues and its rulings cannot be appealed. On cases involving exclusively non-constitutional issues, regarding federal laws, the highest court is, by rule, the Superior Court of Justice.

The Supreme Federal Court Palace is a building which serves as the seat of the Supreme Federal Court, Brazilian highest appealing court and constitutional court. It was designed by architect Oscar Niemeyer and structural project made by engineer Joaquim Cardozo.It is part of the Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Plaza), which other buildings are the Palácio do Planalto and the National Congress. The building was declared a national heritage by the National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) in 2007, year that Niemeyer turned 100.

The Palácio do Planalto (Portuguese pronunciation: [paˈlasju du plaˈnautu]) in Brasília is the official workplace of the president of Brazil. The building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer in 1958 and inaugurated on 21 April 1960. It has been the workplace of every Brazilian president since Juscelino Kubitschek. It is located at the Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Plaza), to the east of the National Congress of Brazil and across from the Supreme Federal Court. It is one of the official palaces of the Presidency, along with the Palácio da Alvorada, the official residence. Besides the president, other high ranking government officials also work from the Planalto, including the Vice-President and the Chief of Staff; the other government ministry buildings are located on the Ministries Esplanade. As the seat of government, the term Planalto is often used as a metonym for the executive branch of the federal government. The building, constructed in the modernist style, is part of the Brasília World Heritage Site, designated by UNESCO in 1987.

The Tribunal de Contas da União (Federal Court of Accounts, often referred to as TCU) is the Brazilian federal audit office. It is tasked with assisting Congress in its Constitutional incumbency to exercise external audit over the Executive Branch. Its members, called ministers, are appointed by the National Congress and the President of Brazil. The TCU employs a highly qualified body of civil servants to prevent, investigate and sanction corruption and malpractice of public funds, with national jurisdiction. The Tribunal was created in 1891, although its origins are traced back to the Royal Treasury (Erário Régio), established in 1808 by King John VI. It is, therefore, one of the world's earlier institutions charged with national government accountability. Today, the TCU cooperates with the Comptroller-General of the Union (CGU), which centralizes federal executive internal audit. The Tribunal's work is scrutinized by the Public Ministry. In 1959 it hosted III INCOSAI, the third triennial convention of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions.The work executed by the TCU in 2011 produced savings of 14 billion reais (US$7.44 billion) to the Brazilian taxpayer. For each real spent by the court to avert corruption and wasteful spending, 10.5 reais were saved.

The National Council of Justice (CNJ) is an administrative and oversight organ of the Brazilian Judiciary created by constitutional amendment in 2004 as a part of judicial reform. Among its responsibilities are ensuring that the judicial system remains autonomous, conducting disciplinary proceedings against members of the Judiciary, and compiling and publishing statistics on the Brazilian court system. The Council has nationwide jurisdiction over all courts except the Supreme Federal Court, but makes no rulings on cases and does not review judgements of other courts. Its fifteen members are chosen by the Supreme Federal Court for two-year terms.