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 The presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and of the Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, signed several bilateral agreements dealing with technology, defense and diplomatic relations. One of the accords makes travel much easier between the two countries, eliminating the need for a visa for Brazilian citizens to visit Russia and also the other way around. Something Brazilians and Americans don't have.
Talking at the Itamaraty palace - the Foreign ministry's headquarters in Rio de Janeiro - Lula highlighted the Brazilian-Russian partnerships in the aerospace sector, with projects for the launching of rockets from the Alcântara Space Center in northern Brazil. He also talked about a joint venture to manufacture military equipment including combat helicopters.
The Brazilian president reminded that Russia is the largest importer of Brazilian meat, but he stressed that both countries need to broaden their trade beyond agricultural products. "We need to go beyond commodities, broadening and including in our exports products of better added value."
"Russia might supply equipment for the new hydroelectric plants in Brazil," Lula said, adding that the Russians might also participate in the construction of railroads and other infrastructure projects. Both leaders talked about the new relevance for the group made up by the world's most important emerging powers, the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), in solving the current global financial crisis.
Medvedev emphasized that Brazil is Russia's main partner in Latin America and reiterated that trade between both countries will continue growing. This year, the bilateral trade surpassed U$ 6 billion. Medvedev said he hopes to double trade with Brazil in the next few years.
During their meeting, Medvedev and Lula agreed that the first summit of the world's largest developing nations, known as BRICs, should be held in Russia next year.
The next stop in the Russian president's short Latin America tour is Venezuela, where he will meet with President Hugo Chavez. The visit to Venezuela is the first by a Russian president.
Medvedev's trip to Venezuela comes a day after Russian warships sailed into a Venezuelan port for a series of joint military exercises. Russia and Venezuela have strengthened ties as both seek to counter U.S. influence in Latin America.
The U.S. State Department has said Washington will carefully monitor the military exercises, but it dismissed the notion that they represent a challenge to U.S. influence in the region.
In Washington Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she does not think there is any question who has the most power in the hemisphere. Chavez has said the exercises are not a provocation.
The Russian leader will end his tour of the region in Cuba. He met this past week with U.S. President George Bush at a summit of Pacific Rim countries in Lima, Peru.
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Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
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One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.
Lula highlighted the Brazilian-Russian partnerships in the aerospacial sector,
There is of course no such word as aerospacial.
Yes Brazil must concentrate on aerospacial concerns. Unfortuantely Brazil is unable to build roads let alone a space program. What fantasy. As to trains, Germany or Japan, or even France would be a better source. And hydroelectric, well Haliburton. Brazil is looking to buy on the cheap an under the table deal. Russia is the most corrupt criminally infected conuntry in Europe. Birds of a feather and all that? Megalomania Inc. Chavez, Putin, Lula. God save the Queen!