Brazil Portal

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

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.

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.

Brazil’s three-speed economy

Brazil Institute — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:56:57 +0000

Joe Leahy – Financial Times, 01/27/2012

Brazil’s economy is at another of those multi-speed moments that it is becoming known for.

Readers will recall that in 2010, the last year in office of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, economists complained that Brazil had one foot on the brake and one on the accelerator. The foot on the brake was interest rates as the central bank ramped them up to try to keep inflation under control while the accelerator was, of course, fiscal spending as the outgoing president kept the budgetary pedal to the metal as his anointed successor, Dilma Rousseff, contested an election that year.

Now Brazil is in the strange position of having record low unemployment – 4.7 per cent in December compared with 5.2 per cent in November, even as its economy crawled along at near zero rates of growth in the third and fourth quarters.

Brazilian businessmen are the third most optimistic in the world

Brazil Institute — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:22:17 +0000

Ricardo Geromel – Forbes, 01/27/2012

Grant Thornton International Business Report Optimism ranking. (Top 10) Source: Grant Thornton

According to the International Business Report (IBR) 2012 Grant Thornton International, 74% of Brazilian businessmen are optimistic about the Brazilian economy in 2012.

The Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) is a quarterly survey of business leaders from across the globe to measure global business confidence. Launched in 1992, the report is now in its 20th year. The research is carried out primarily by telephone interview lasting about 15 minutes with the exception of Japan (postal), Philippines and Armenia (face to face), mainland China and India (mixture of face-to-face and telephone). This personal approach hopes to avoid discrepancies due to cultural differences.

In 2011, Brazil’s GDP grew around 3%, the second worst performance since 2004 and one of the lowest in Latin America. Experts predict that in 2012 GDP growth will continue modest for emerging markets standards: between 3,5% and 4%. Nonetheless, the level of optimism among Brazilian businessmen about the Brazilian economy increased 24 percentage points over the last quarter. As a result, Brazil assumed the third position in the global ranking; a huge improvement from the third quarter of 2011, when Brazil ranked 11th.