Latin American Journalists Face New Opposition

Alexei Barrionuevo-The New York Times, 08/30/2009
For the family of José Sarney, Brazil’s Senate president, the daily onslaught of newspaper reports about nepotism and corruption accusations against him was too much to bear.
So Mr. Sarney’s son Fernando, who manages most of the family’s private businesses, turned to a federal judge in Brasília, winning an injunction to [...]

US bank faces allegations over Brazil

Jonathan Wheatley-Financial Times, 08/28/2009
The US Department of Justice has alleged that an employee of Brown Brothers Harriman, a US private bank, helped Brazilian clients avoid measures to detect money laundering and conceal the proceeds of crimes including fraud and tax evasion.
The DoJ made the allegation in an application to freeze about $450m in an account [...]

A Child of the Amazon Shakes Up a Nation’s Politics

Alexei Barrionuevo-The New York Times, 08/28/2009
For Marina Silva, life began in the heart of the Amazon. From the age of 11, she walked nine miles a day helping her father collect rubber from trees.These days, as an icon in the environmental movement, she has dedicated her life to protecting that same rainforest.
She worked closely with [...]

Unasur urges meeting with US over Colombia

Daniel Schweimler-The Financial Times,08/28/2009
A summit of South American leaders gathered in Argentina has called for a meeting with President Barack Obama to help solve a dispute over a planned US military build -up in Colombia. Unasur – the Union of South American Nations – also wants to see the details of the deal between Washington [...]

U.S. Biofuel Boom Running on Empty

Ann Davis and Russell Gold-The Wall Street Journal, 08/27/2009
The biofuels revolution that promised to reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil is fizzling out.
Two-thirds of U.S. biodiesel production capacity now sits unused, reports the National Biodiesel Board. Biodiesel, a crucial part of government efforts to develop alternative fuels for trucks and factories, has been hit hard [...]

A wounded force in search of a new compass

The Economist – 08/27/2009
WHEN the Workers’ Party (PT) was founded in 1980 it saw itself as a different kind of political outfit: socialist, ethical, youthful, even romantic. But little by little its role has been reduced to getting its founding and unrivalled leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a former lathe operator and trade-union leader, [...]

Untamed Creature

Fernanda Eberstadt, The New York Times — 08/19/2009
During her lifetime, Lispector, a catlike blond beauty with movie-star magnetism and an indefinably foreign accent, enjoyed an enormous succès d’estime in Brazil. Her fiction, which combines jewel-like language, deadpan humor, philosophical profundity and an almost psychotically lucid understanding of the human condition, was lauded for having introduced [...]

In Brazil, Paying Farmers to Let the Trees Stand

Elisabeth Rosenthal-The New York Times – 08/21/2009
Mato Grosso means thick forests, and the name was once apt. But today, this Brazilian state is a global epicenter of deforestation. Driven by profits derived from fertile soil, the region’s dense forests have been aggressively cleared over the past decade, and Mato Grasso is now Brazil’s leading producer [...]

Brazil Seeks More Control of Oil Beneath Its Seas

Alexei Barrionuevo-The New York Times, 08/17/2009
Faced with the world’s most important oil discovery in years, the Brazilian government is seeking to step back from more than a decade of close cooperation with foreign oil companies and more directly control the extraction itself.
The move is part of a nationalistic drive to increase the country’s benefits from [...]

Mexico should seek free trade with Brazil: Calderon

Patricia Avila and Robert Campbell-Reuters, 08/16/2009
Mexico and Brazil should negotiate a free trade agreement to boost commercial ties, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on Saturday.
Calderon, who is in Brazil for a state visit, is a staunch supporter of free trade and has argued that opening up trade is the easiest way for poor nations to [...]