Brazil will continue to experience the most fragmented Congress in its history, with 25 represented parties. President Jair Bolsonaro has struggled with negotiating with lawmakers from other parties in order to reach majorities in Congress and gain approval for his pro-market and socially conservative initiatives. This scenario will be compounded by the president’s decreasing approval rates on the back of his controversial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been perceived as broadly inadequate by most of the population.

Bolsonaro is not currently affiliated with any political party (since leaving the Social Liberal Party, PSL, in December 2019), and he counts on a minority support base in the legislative. Congress, comprised of 25 different political parties, is one of the most fragmented legislatures globally. The Bolsonaro administration has had difficulty gaining congressional support to win the passage of key initiatives, namely economic reforms. The president in December 2019 announced that he will launch a new party, to be called Alliance for Brazil. Nonetheless, its creation will unlikely improve Bolsonaro’s erratic relationship with members of Congress, and the government will therefore remain dependant on case-by-case negotiations to approve most of its policies. Bolsonaro’s controversial rhetoric has faced increasing opposition from centre-to-left-wing parties, which will continue to undermine political stability. Scandals implicating members of the president’s family and his administration – such as investigations into Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro – will continue to further undermine his governability conditions. As a result, the president has become increasingly isolated politically, adopting a reduced institutional role within the country’s political panorama.

Brazil is considered a Flawed Democracy in the 2020 Democracy Index developed by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), where the country ranks 52 out of 167 countries scored.

The country ranks 84 at the 2019 Human Development Index developed by the United Nations Development Programme.

Brazil is open to foreign direct investment; there has been a shift from the left-wing governments (2003 and 2016) that favored strong state intervention in the oil and banking sectors. The Bolsonaro administration is promoting an agenda that includes easing regulations for private investors’ participation in airport, railway, highway, and port concessions and the privatization of dozens of state-owned companies, but the COVID-19 outbreak has put that on hold. Other sectors benefiting from liberalization are oil and gas, particularly via the divestment of refineries and gas distribution assets. Bolsonaro's government has also succeeded in approving a critically important pension reform to help restore Brazil's fiscal sustainability. Trade protectionism is very high.

Despite foreign investment has been consistently welcomed and consequently greater, bureaucracy, red tape and a confusing tax system remain a problem. Corruption is pervasive and can occur at all levels, but there has been an increase in investigations and media scrutiny in the last years. Expropriations or nationalisations are highly unlikely. The judicial system is generally fair, though cumbersome and overstretched by a large number of cases. Furthermore, infrastructure has been inadequate to support significant increases to growth. Poor national infrastructure adds to the cost of doing business, particularly given the limited rail network and the bottlenecks in port infrastructure. 

More recently, companies have faced significant operational challenges as a result of the social-distancing measures that have been introduced in all states as a means to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. These have mostly materialised into moderate disruptions to supply chains, and limitations of people’s movements, and will likely persist to some extent throughout 2021. 

Regarding transportation, Brazil has high rates of road accidents (22.5 road fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants per year) due to aggressive driving habits and poor maintenance of some roads. The quality of road conditions varies considerably from one area to another, but nearly 60 percent of Brazilian highways reportedly need repair. In addition, rates of petty and violent crime are high on public transportation in cities. The Rio and São Paulo metros are relatively safe but often overcrowded, leaving riders vulnerable to pickpocketing and unwanted sexual contact. Crime committed against car and bus passengers on the road remains a problem for both visitors and local residents, especially during evening travel and traffic jams. 

Overall, Brazil ranks 124 out of 190 countries scored at the 2020 Doing Business Index by the World Bank and 94 out of 198 at the 2020 Corruption Perception Index by the Transparency International Organization.

Opportunistic crime will remain the principal security risk for business personnel, though there is also a credible risk of violent crime. Chronically high crime levels, especially in the north and north-east regions, are fuelled by massive income inequalities, the easy availability of firearms, the influence of drug- and arms-trafficking gangs, and poor and inefficient policing. Most victims of crime are local people, though each year a number of foreigners are killed or injured during attempted robberies, carjackings and opportunistic, short-duration 'express' abductions.

The main threat comes from drug-trafficking organizations, and organized crime, particularly gangs operating in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, which have national reach. They control drug and weapons smuggling; their readiness to engage police in armed confrontations poses the risk of collateral death or injury for visitors. Brazil is a transit country and a major consumer of drugs. Remote and sparsely populated frontiers facilitate illegal gold mining, contraband, weapons smuggling, and drug trafficking. The border with Paraguay is one of the main hotspots. Police brutality and corruption remain serious obstacles to tackling crime and violence. Militias, many containing rogue police officers, also resort to extortion in low-income neighborhoods.

Regarding social stability, public- and private-sector labor unions strongly oppose the austerity policies promoted by the Jair Bolsonaro government, inaugurated in January 2019. These include freezing of civil servants’ salaries and administrative reforms at the regional level, as well as privatization of the electricity sector, airports, and seaports. Austerity measures geared towards containing Brazil's unsustainable fiscal deficit have resulted in cuts to public expenditure in health and education. The thousands of job losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to result in the escalation of industrial action in 2021. Truck drivers’ strikes over fuel prices are becoming common. Demands for land redistribution will continue to be drivers of occupations in rural areas. Nonetheless, it is important to mention that security risk is generally lower in rural areas, but activism by the radical Landless Workers' Movement (MST) continues. The MST does not generally target foreigners, but its tactic of invading and occupying land owned by foreign companies that are perceived to be harming local workers or the environment is likely to continue.

There are no known terrorist groups in Brazil; however, organized crime poses significant threats to state security, particularly police personnel. The heavily armed gangs, which control slum areas in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and other major capitals, in addition to attacking police stations also conduct arson attacks against buses as well as commercial property as retaliation against police raids. The increase in gang criminality in Rio de Janeiro and more recently in the state of Ceará has forced the federal government to order temporary military interventions. The gangs’ footprint also extends to transnational drug trafficking along the border with Paraguay, Peru, and Bolivia as well as Colombia.

Brazil’s relations with neighbors are friendly; however, it has prioritized the deployment of the military and police along its borders to curb drug trafficking, gun running, as well as illegal mining and logging. There is good co-operation between neighboring countries to counter transnational threats; it has reached security agreements with Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, and Peru. More recently, deployment has been stepped up on the border with Venezuela to contain refugee inflows. Outside the Americas, Brazil has struck agreements with West African states to curb shared threats, such as smuggling of drugs and sea piracy. It has also contributed to UN peacekeeping operations; the latest, in Haiti, ended in September 2017.

Overall, Brazil ranks 126 out of 163 within the 2020 Global Peace Index by the Institute for Economics and Peace.

A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required for travelers arriving from Angola or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A single dose of YF vaccine is sufficient to confer sustained life-long immunity against the disease; it should be taken ten days in advance to be fully effective.

Brazil ranks 22 out of 195 within the 2019 Global Health Security Index, a project of the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHU), developed with The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).

Given the vast size of the Brazilian territory, the climate varies throughout the county. Generally speaking, the months of December, January, and February are the hottest months (between 30°C and 40°C) with high levels of humidity and brief but frequent rain showers, particularly in the southeast (Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro). Winters in this region are mild and nights are often cool, particularly in Sao Paulo.

In the north of the country (Amazonia), the climate is tropical - hot and humid - with a rainy season (January to May) and a relatively dry season (June to October). In the Northeast Region, the climate is temperate throughout the year (22°C to 28°C) with frequent rain showers from December to March. Inland climates are hot and very dry. The southern coast (Porto Alegre) enjoys a Mediterranean climate (hot summers, mild to cool winters). The highlands experience a cold winter with occasional snowfall.

Much of the country is vulnerable to torrential rains and consequent flooding and landslides, including Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The rainy season in the south and southeast of the country runs from November until March, and from April to July in the northeast.