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 For the Brazilian president the only reason the US embargo against Cuba continues to this day is due to American wilfulness and stubbornness. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expressed his opinion after the closing of the Latin American and Caribbean Summit, which took place in the beach resort of Costa do Sauípe, in the northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia.
"I cannot understand the continuation of the Cuba blockade but for stubbornness. I don't want because I don't want and end of story," the Brazilian leader said.
President Raul Castro, in his first trip overseas, since taking the Cuban leadership post, was one of the heads of state participating in the encounter.
Cuba was formally admitted to the Rio Group during the summit even though Havana's entry had already been approved last November 13, during a meeting of Latin American ministers in Mexico. Cuba does not belong to any regional multilateral organism since being forced out of the OAS (Organization of American States) by Washington in the 1960s.
As for the new president of the United States, Barack Obama, Lula asked for people to wait with a good dose of prudence and diplomacy until the president-elect has some time to define his policies. But the Brazilian leader is betting on serious changes: "I hope that there will be change for the better in the American policy towards Latin America and the Caribbean."
Lula told reporters he hopes Obama will see Venezuela with different eyes and will reestablish relations with Havana.
"I hope Obama," he said, "takes the decision of resuming diplomatic relations with Cuba. There isn't any explanation anymore be it political or sociological. No analyst or psychologist in the world would be able to understand why is there still a Cuba blockade. Would it be revenge?"
Lula also reminded the 33 leaders present at the summit that the same Left that was engaged in armed struggle in the 1960s and 1970s is now in power in a majority of countries in the region, and they did it through democratic, free elections.
The president later said that Brazilian businessmen cannot use the economic crisis as an excuse to give the pink slip to workers, adding: "The businessmen's role now is to work fast with the government to avoid that the crisis reaches society."
Lula believes that Brazilians, despite all the doom talks, will have a good Christmas: "All you need is to look at the numbers of the retail commerce. We will eat an extra little chicken."
He stated that hopefully starting in January and February the number of job offers will increase. He also believes that the crisis offers opportunities to Brazil: "I am convinced that this crisis is an unprecedented opportunity for Brazil to make a stand and show that it knows its own way." He used the Brazilian expression to say that Brazil is "dono do seu nariz" (its own nose's boss).
Once again the Brazilian leader picked on the US for the actions it's taking to solve the financial crisis: "We are putting money to stimulate production. The only thing I know they are doing is putting money to save banks."
Swapping
Raul Castro has proposed releasing Cuban political prisoners in exchange for five Cubans jailed in the US on espionage charges.
The Cuban leader spoke in Brazilian capital Brasília after meeting with president Lula. He told reporters he wants the release of the men, known as the "Cuban Five," who were convicted of spying in 2001 and sentenced in a Miami federal court to long terms.
The American State Department rejected the idea, saying the two situations are independent of one another. A spokesperson said the five imprisoned Cubans had been tried and sentenced for crimes in the US, whereas the Cuban prisoners were jailed simply for peacefully protesting.
Castro also repeated his government's willingness to discuss the long-standing US embargo against Cuba with U.S. President-elect Barack Obama.
Obama has said he would be willing to speak with Cuba's leaders but that he would maintain the nearly 50-year-old trade embargo as leverage to push for democratic change on the island.
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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. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
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. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
- One of the World Highest Crime Rate
- One of the World Worst Social and Wealth Inequality
- Corruption and Impunity Prevail
- The World Highest Poverty Rate....when measured against GDP per capita
- The Lowest Economic Growth rate of the BRIC & Mercosur
- 5 % of paved roads, the World Lowest By Far....when measured on GDP per capita
- One of the Lowest Economic Growth Rate of South America.... since Lula was elected
- One of the Lowest Economic Growth Rate of ALL emerging nations on earth...since Lula was elected
- The World Highest Interests Rates....after inflation
And guess what......Robbing Hook is proud of his Noooooose !
FACT :
Even a Monkey as President could not have been as bad as Robbing Hook !
Failed Miserably as per ALL relevant and proven stats.
GRADE ? Close to Z !
Similar to the overall Brazilian education system when rated by Brazilians : 46th out of 50 !
It is not a nose that Brazil needs...but simple Common Sense !