In a private correspondence to Professor Green, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira wrote: “You more than deserve this recognition. Brazil owes you a debt.” 

Green first became involved in international solidarity with Brazil and the defense of human rights in that country in 1973 when he worked with the Washington, D.C.-based organization, Committee against Repression in Brazil to denounce the dictatorship’s use of torture against political opponents. He lived in Brazil between 1976 and 1981 where he was a founder of the LGBT+ movement and involved in activities against dictatorship. He later published an award-winning book about international solidarity with Brazil entitled, We Cannot Remain Silent: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States (Duke University Press, 2010), which was also published in Portuguese as Apesar de vocês: a oposição à ditatura militar nos Estados Unidos (Companhia da Letras, 2009). Brazilian filmmaker Evanize Sydrow is currently completing a documentary based on the book.

In 2016, Green joined hundreds of Brazilians and scholars of Brazil living in the United States to protest the parliamentary coup d’état that led to the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff. He subsequently organized the U.S. Network for Democracy in Brazil after the 2018 election of far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency. In 2020, Green founded the Washington Brazil Office (WBO), a progressive think tank and advocacy organization that seeks to educate U.S. policy and opinion makers about the threats to human rights and democracy in Brazil. During the 2022 Brazilian presidential elections, the WBO was credited with mobilizing U.S. members of Congress to speak loudly and clearly against any attempts by the Brazilian armed forces to overturn the election results. Political analysts consider that this effort, along with a consistent pro-democracy policy of President Biden aided in dividing the Brazilian military during the attempt by former President Bolsonaro to organize a coup d’état after he lost the 2022 electoral race, which included an invasion of the Brazilian Congress, the Supreme Court and the office of the Presidency.