News and reports from North, Central and South America.
International organisations to which Brazil belongs are not being paid. Rent for overseas offices is not being met and bill payments for running costs are late. Money is in short supply in Brazil. Its officials are treading the corridors of international organisations delicately and more than a little embarrassed at their growing debts. The Brazilian […]
Continue ReadingIt’s all work and no play for five-and-a-half million kids in Brazil, but improvements are continuing to be made, officials say… Brazil has 5.4 million children in the ranks of its workforce, reports the annual IBGE’s 2002 Pnad (the Brazilian Institute of Statistics’ National Household Survey). The five-million-strong magic number represents 12 per cent of […]
Continue ReadingThe number of unemployed in the US continues to swell while jobs to the Indian sub-continent are increasing. Market evolution or cruel corporate cost cutting? Chase Morrison investigates… Here in 2009, the unemployment office beckons. Inside you see not the dishevelled computer programmers and office clerks. Instead, there are men here with custom tailored suits, […]
Continue ReadingBrazilian banks are betting on a growing economy for 2004. But President Lula da Silva’s economic advisers are warning a continuous devaluation of the dollar represents a danger to the economy. An influential group of businessmen at the Council of Economic and Social Development want an exchange of around 3 reais per dollar. However, if […]
Continue ReadingBrazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva’s recent assertion that he would not interfere in Cuba’s internal affairs has infuriated relatives and friends of Cuban dissidents and human rights campaigners. Most of the Brazilian press seems convinced, however, that the all-important issue of human rights in Cuba will eventually be discussed between Lula and the […]
Continue ReadingOn the 20th anniversary of the overthrow and execution of Grenada’s leader and the US invasion that followed, Dominic Bascombe looks at how events are remembered. Twenty years ago, the tiny spice isle of Grenada became the centre of international controversy. Its Prime Minister was killed in a dramatic, bloody counter coup and within mere […]
Continue ReadingControversial plans to offer state help to Rio de Janeiro’s gays have stunned Brazil. Proposals put to Rio’s Legislative Assembly by state deputy Edino Fonseca suggest providing psychological support to would-be heterosexuals. Gay rights campaigners have reacted angrily and have pledged to stage a protest against the proposals at a debate on laws relating to […]
Continue ReadingBrazilian leftist president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, told an audience of US investors those who bet against the Brazilian Government will end up losers. Brazil’s problems are not the fault of the US or anybody else, he said. He also promised that Brazil will grow once again. In the audience of the New York […]
Continue ReadingDeath squads are operating in at least 15 Brazilian states, according to a document passed to the United Nations by the Brazilian Government this week. The document also confirms that in Rio de Janeiro, the country’s second largest city, 95 per cent of death squad-related crimes are never investigated. The admission comes as a UN […]
Continue ReadingThe news focus on Chile concerning the detainment of General Pinochet in London has until now paid no attention to the fate of the British defence journalist Jonathan Moyle, who was found hanged in his Santiago hotel room on April 1 1990. Both the sequence of events that may have led to his death and […]
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