A recent piece in the Economist gushes over Embrapa, the public company whose ‘green revolution’ has helped turn Brazil into an agricultural powerhouse. Though it presents a one-sided view of GM crops, whose effect on health and livelihoods is a cause for deep concern, the article gives an excellent overview of Brazil’s rise as a […]
In a recent interview Manuel Zelaya, the ex-president of Honduras, singled out Brazil, and specifically Lula, for keeping him alive after being ousted in a military coup. “Brazil saved my life” said Zelaya, who now lives in exile in the Dominican Republic. “Lula, Marco Aurélio and Celso Amorim saved my life because they gave me […]
One of the most widely believed myths about the harms of marijuana is that it leads to the use of more dangerous drugs. Drug policy experts have debunked this claim and time again, but the “gateway theory” still holds a certain amount of traction, not least because of the misinformation peddled by drug war proponents. […]
Brazil’s state-controlled Banco de Brazil and its rival Bradesco have agreed to acquire stakes in BES Africa, a Banco Espirito Santo (BES) holding company that makes investments in the African continent. The joint venture is intended to expand the Brazilian banks’ international operations and benefit Brazilian businesses operating in Africa. The move follows similar steps taken […]
The bank, now a unit of Wells Fargo, leads a list of firms that have moved dirty money for Mexico’s narcotics cartels–helping a $39 billion trade that has killed more than 22,000 people since 2006. –Michael Smith, Bloomberg Markets Magazine, July7, 2010
Spain’s Telefónica announced today the successful takeover of leading Brazilian mobile operator Vivo after weeks of strained negotiations with its joint-owner Portugal Telecom (PT). The move will allow Telefónica to merge its fixed landline services with Vivo’s national mobile network and begin offering Brazilian consumers ‘triple-play’ and ‘quadruple-play’ service packages (i.e. fixed-phone, internet, television, and […]
Playing to public fear over drugs and crime is a tried and tested formula for electoral success. With the presidential race heating up, one has to wonder if José Serra’s gung ho views on drug interdiction are driven by personal conviction or political calculus. To curb imports of illicit drugs, Serra has called for Brazil […]
As I highlighted in my last post, violent crime is peaking in Brazil’s interior. A disturbing corollary to this trend is the high rate of targeted violence against indigenous communities. New data compiled by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) for a report on attacks on indigenous peoples underscores the severity of the problem. As well […]
With the possible exceptions of soccer and samba, Brazil’s global reputation is shaped more by its high rates of violent crime than anything else. Romanticized in popular films and culture, the country’s favelas are the most visible symbol of the issue. But according to the Map of Violence 2010, a new report from the São […]
Petrobras announced today the discovery of gas reserves in the Camarupin fields in the Santos Basin as well as the signing of a landmark $160 million-dollar deal with GE Oil & Gas to develop power turbines for offshore platforms. These announcements come on the heels of Tuesday’s press release by Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency (Agência Nacional […]
The biggest upset of this World Cup might not have been champion Spain’s opening defeat to Switzerland. For many the tournament’s main shocker was that South Africa didn’t plunge into a cesspool of crime and chaos, an outcome feared by many pundits who doubted the country’s ability to hold an event of such magnitude. One […]
“The course of history depends largely on the daring of those who act in terms of historically viable goals… These will depend, not on academic predictions, but on collective action guided by political wills that make work what is structurally barely possible.” Fernando Henrique Cardoso’s 1971 book Dependency and Development in Latin America (co-written with Enzo Faletto), […]
Over the weekend FP’s Josh Keating linked to a piece that quotes Lula as stating, with regards to criticism of the proposed Belo Monte dam, that no “gringo should stick their nose in where it does not belong”. Keating’s post reminded me of a recent article I came across in CIP citing a World Rainforest […]
With the backing of Brazil’s most popular president in history and support from the state’s publicity machine, Dilma Rousseff’s ongoing tie in opinion polls forces a shift in strategy. Presidential opinion polls released this week continued to show the PT’s Dilma Rousseff and the PSDB’s José Serra in a ‘technical tie’, with Jose Serra at […]
With Brazil having already clinched a spot in the World Cup round of 16 and Portugal all but assured a place as well, Friday’s game between these two soccer powers doesn’t have the significance many of us anticipated when the match was announced last year. (The fixture was one of the first of this World […]