The Global Development Power: The Brazilian Non-Proliferation Policy and Participation Strategy (1990–2020)

In September 1990, Brazilian President Fernando Collor, the first directly elected head of state after the end of the military dictatorship, travelled to Serra do Cachimbo, a national reserve at the bottom of the Brazilian Amazon and symbolically threw a spade of lime in what was supposed to be a nuclear testing site. For Brazilians, throwing a spade of lime is a metaphor for ending, once and for all, an unpleasant subject—it goes back to an ancient tradition of throwing lime on burial sites to reduce corpses’ bad smell. After that, under a democratic regime, Brazil became a key sponsor of the nuclear non-proliferation (NNP) regime, participating in most open and restricted institutions.