On Sunday 15 people were murdered in Cuidad Juarez. Thirteen were teenagers. In the wake of the “high school massacre” the culprit in waiting is the president. Shortly after the tragedy families of the murdered erected a banner outside of the house of the slayings: “Until we find who is responsible, you Mr. President are […]
Much of this deal is about Brazil’s own domestic market, but it is also proof of the biofuel bonanza as both Cosan and Shell prepare for a global market in ethanol.
Last week the Venezuelan government cut off six cable TV stations, citing a failure to comply with regulations. These stations included Radio Caracas Television (RCTV), a channel known for opposing the administration of Hugo Chávez. RCTV had already lost its ability to broadcast on a public channel in 2007, but remained available to cable subscribers […]
Lula, o Filho do Brasil, the film by Fabio Barreto that was recently released in Brazil, has been controversial since its release. The biopic about President Lula da Silva has come under fire for various reasons, including the plot and the political message. While President Lula is a popular president with high approval ratings, the […]
The 2003 WSF put the movement on map, in large measure because President-Elect Lula chose to emphasize his larger than Brazil leadership making an historic speech at this unique global gathering of social movement activists before boarding a jet to Davos where he called on world leaders from the corporate world and government to combat poverty and make the institutions of global authority more accountable and democratic. Lula was the perfect interlocutor between the rice and bean rebels of the WSF and the champagne soaked elite of Davos.
She drinks tequila, smokes pot, and is worshipped by perhaps two million throughout Mexico. Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, is showing some wear from her years of hard living: instead of the angelic likening usually afforded to saints, her depiction is a hooded skeleton, often accompanied by a globe and scythe. The message of her […]
President Hugo Chávez is a fan of some books, and an opponent of others. In April of last year he made a very public presentation of Eduardo Galleano’s Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, gifting it to President Barack Obama at the Summit of the Americas. On the […]
Can Brazil find its proper role in the long term efforts to rebuild Haiti and send it along a path to peace and prosperity
Despite the odds, people are still being rescued from the rubble in Haiti. Yesterday 69-year-old Ena Zizi was extracted from the collapsed National Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. She told the AP: “I talked only to my boss, God. And I didn’t need any more humans.” Javier Vázquez, who first reached Zizi, recalls, “I felt her grab […]
The Venezuelan government finally blinked when it came to financial pressures by devaluing its currency on January 8th. The rate of the Bolivar Fuerte had been pegged at 2.15 to the dollar and is now 2.6 for essential supplies and 4.3 for luxury goods. Last week the value of the dollar on the parallel market […]
When disaster struck in Haiti this week with a massive earthquake that devastated the capital, Brazil was given an opportunity to step up to the plate and show its international leadership. In reality, Brazil has been working in Haiti for nearly five years, since June 2004. The Brazilian army heads the UN peacekeeping forces, as […]
Brazil’s Cash Assistance Program to Reduce Poverty For centuries Brazil promised prosperity amidst the constant plague of poverty and inequality. Forty years ago, the country’s military dictatorship managed to achieve the perplexing “Brazilian miracle” in economic growth, averaging 11 percent a year between 1968 to 1973, in part by concentrating income and deepening poverty to […]
Since the 1980s, the Brazilian government has offered amnesty to illegal immigrants in four different campaigns, benefiting tens of thousands of foreigners living in Brazil. The latest campaign began in July 2009 by presidential decree, and though it officially ended at the close of 2009, some cases are still pending. Until now, 41,816 foreigners received […]
Some say that Venezuelan democracy is under assault, with Hugo Chávez and his cronies consolidating power. The populace may vote, but there is strong pressure to support the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PVUV in Spanish), and a penalty for those who support the opposition (e.g. being black-listed from government jobs). On the other hand, […]
Finally after seven months of a senate hold on his ambassadorial confirmation, veteran diplomat Thomas Shannon goes to Brasilia to smooth out the rougher edges of U.S.-Brazil relations and steer these two nations toward greater cooperation on such pending issues as energy and climate change, bilateral commerce, the Iran nuclear program, the G-20 deliberations, and […]