Brazil Portal

Rio buildings’ collapse new sign of World Cup headache for Brazil

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:30:34 +0000

Mac Margolis – Newsweek, 01/28/2012

A pile of rocks removed from Maracana stadium sits outside the stadium during its renovation ahead of the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday Feb. 25, 2011. , Ari Versiani, AFP / Getty Images

As the five-time soccer world champions ramp up to stage the premier event of the wildly popular sport, the heavens ought to be ablaze and the oceans parting. But with the countdown racing to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, that has hardly been the case.

Almost since 2007, when Brazil won the right to host the 2014 World Cup, the country’s relations with the Switzerland-based International Football Federation (FIFA) have been fraught. Construction work on stadiums, roads, and public transportation is lagging. The country’s airports are already operating at maximum capacity (a power shortage blacked out Rio de Janeiro’s international airport this week) and plans for their overhaul depend on a complex public bidding process that experts say is designed to leave contractors in a quagmire.

Even now, five years later, Brazilian lawmakers are still questioning the ground rules for the month-long event, and in recent months government officials have quibbled with football bureaucrats over everything from cut-rate tickets for the elderly and indigenous groups—a right written into the nation’s constitution—to beer sales at stadiums, in direct opposition to a national dry-games law.

Brazilian leader under pressure on rights ahead of Cuba trip

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:11:44 +0000

Vinod Sreeharsha – McClatchy Newspapers, 01/28/2012

Dilma Rousseff arrives in Cuba on Monday on her first visit there as Brazil’s president, and she’s facing pressure to take a stronger and more public stance on human rights violations that continue under the Cuban government.

Rousseff meets with Raul Castro on Tuesday.

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez, a government critic, sought to meet Rousseff. She tried to compare herself to Brazil’s leader back when Rousseff was a young Marxist guerrilla jailed and tortured by Brazil’s military dictatorship.

Cuba trade focus as Brazil’s President Rousseff visits

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:22:49 +0000

BBC News, 01/30/2012

President Rousseff has been in office for just over a year

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is set to make her first official visit to Cuba with the emphasis on fostering business ties.

Communist-run Cuba, under a US trade embargo for 50 years, has seen some economic reforms under Raul Castro.

Ms Rousseff is due to hold talks with Mr Castro but it is not clear if she will meet former leader Fidel Castro.

American Airlines increases flights to seven major Brazilian cities

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:18:17 +0000

Mercopress, 01/30/2012

The new state-of-the-art Boeing 777-300ER will have Brazil as its first market

American Airlines announced changes to its coming spring and summer schedule that will expand the airline’s presence in Brazil. Next December, American’s route between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Sao Paulo (GRU) will be operating with the new state-of-the-art Boeing 777-300ER, making Brazil the first market for the new aircraft.

Further emphasizing American’s commitment to Latin America, the airline will increase its service between DFW and Sao Paulo beginning in June.

In 2010, American announced plans to order the Boeing 777-300ER, demonstrating a continuation of the airline’s efforts to enhance its fleet and become more fuel efficient. American is the first U.S. airline to order and take delivery of the 777-300ER. The new aircraft is designed to enhance the customer experience and includes fully lie-flat First and Business Class seats, plus seating plans that will allow American to offer a premium product in the Main Cabin and Wi-Fi capability to keep customers connected while travelling internationally.

Brazilian leader under pressure on rights ahead of Cuba trip

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:10:19 +0000

Vinod Sreeharsa – McClatchy/Miami Herald, 01/28/2012

Rousseff meets with Raul Castro on Tuesday.

Brazil nabs notorious drug lord

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:06:40 +0000

Gabriel Elizondo – Al Jazeera, 01/28/2012

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Fabianao Atanazio da Silva, one of Brazil's most wanted drug barons has been captured [procurados.org.br

One of Brazil’s most wanted and dangerous drug barons was abruptly captured late Friday while on vacation in a posh mountain town outside of Sao Paulo.

Fabianao Atanazio da Silva, known by his street name of “FB”, previously commanded a multi-million dollar drug trade from his base in Vila Cruzeiro shantytown in Rio de Janeiro.

Atanazio da Silva, 35, narrowly slipped out of police reach in November of 2010, when police special forces and the military invaded his shantytown stronghold.

Brazil opens 97 million dollar credit to Mozambique

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:02:41 +0000

The Zimbabwean, 01/29/2012

The Brazilian government is to open a credit line of 97.59 million US dollars for Mozambique to purchase agricultural machinery and equipment made in Brazil.

The credit is part of the Ministry of Agrarian Development’s “More Food Programme” and will be supported by technical assistance.

The funds will come from the Foreign Trade Board (Camex), and will take the form of concessional loans. The loans will be paid off over seventeen years with a five year grace period, and incur an interest rate of two per cent.

Mexico’s America Movil gets OK to take control of Brazil’s Net

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:59:33 +0000

EFE/LAHT, 0/29/2012

Carlos Slim. LAHT

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil said it received authorization to take control of Brazilian cable television provider Net Serviços de Comunicação.

Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency approved the transfer of control of Net, America Movil said in a filing with Mexican securities regulators.

America Movil’s Brazilian unit, Embratel, will now be able to exercise the purchase option it has for shares of Grupo Globo Comunicação e Participações, which currently controls Net.

Rio summit must yield new model: Brazil minister

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:57:14 +0000

Yana Marull – AFP, 01/27/2012

Brazil's Minister of the Environment Izabella Teixeira speaks with an AFP journalist (AFP, Christophe Simon)

The upcoming Rio summit on sustainable development must yield a new model to tackle the planet’s economic, environmental and ethical crises, according to Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira.

The so-called Rio+20 gathering “is a an exceptional opportunity in a world in which people are searching for new ideas and new processes… to implement a new development paradigm,” she said in an interview with AFP in Porto Alegre Thursday.

“The economic, ethical, cultural and environmental crisis which the planet is facing is a clear indication of the urgency of the present,” she added. “We cannot talk of sustainability if we continue having poverty, inequality, unemployment, if we don’t have a new vision for environmental assets.”

Brazil’s bikini revolution

Brazil Institute — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 03:18:26 +0000

Jenny Barchfield – AP/Huffington Post, 01/29/2012

In this photo taken Jan. 23, 2012, women stand at Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil's thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

RIO DE JANEIRO — Tall and tan and young and … chunky?

The Girl From Ipanema has put on a few pounds, and for many sunbathers on Brazil’s beaches the country’s iconic itsy-bitsy, teeny-weeny bikini just doesn’t suffice anymore.

A growing number of bikini manufacturers have woken up to Brazil’s thickening waistline and are reaching out to the ever-expanding ranks of heavy women with new plus-size lines.