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 It's all set: Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will meet US President Barack Obama this coming March, in Washington. Obama, invited Lula for the meeting during a phone call initiated by the American president, this Monday, January 26. Lula was already scheduled to be in New York in March for a seminary on biofuels where he will meet foreign investors.
Lula reciprocated inviting Obama to visit Brazil. The US leader accepted and although no date was set up, Obama said that he might visit Brasília during the summer, American summer, that is. The two leaders talked for about 25 minutes.
According to Marcelo Baumbach, Lula's spokesman, the Brazilian president during his chat with Obama talked among other things about US relations with Latin America and Africa, the G20 (group of the world's 20 largest economies). biofuels, climatic changes and world peace.
Obama, on the other hand, talked about his desire to establish a partnership with Brazil. Lula didn't mention, however, a subject he has often said he would like to see the new president tackle: the US embargo to Cuba, which Lula opposes.
The Brazilian leader mentioned during the phone conversation stretches of Obama's speech about the need to look after the poor. "Obama assured that he wishes to work in concert with president Lula in order to reinforce peace and stability in the continent and strengthen the economic relations between both countries," said Baumbach.
"President Obama informed that he has already briefed his economic team so they may coordinate with Brazil in order to conciliate positions for the next G20 summit. Regarding biofuels, he recognized that the work with Brazil has been very important for the United States, which has a lot to benefit from a cooperation with Brazil," added the spokesperson.
Obama showed also interest in advancing the Doha Round negotiations arguing about the importance of the world trade in order to face the current international economic crisis.
Brazil's Foreign minister, Celso Amorim, and the US secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, were expected to talk on Monday by phone to discuss details of president Lula's visit as well as the meeting's agenda.
At the end of the conversation both president seemed very comfortable with each other. Obama asked Lula to call him simply Barack. To which the Brazilian leader asked to be called Lula.
Lula told Obama that he had seen the inauguration ceremony in Washington and had noticed that there were some black people and some poor. He said that he understood that because Brazil is the world's second largest black country.
The American president then commented, according to a presidential aide who listened to the conversation: "I know. If I went to Brazil everyone would think that I am Brazilian, that is until I tried to speak Portuguese."
Lula also told Obama that his election will change the image that Latin America and the world have about the US. "Your election transcends the United States," he asserted.
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As you know, I am not a big fan of TV nor "novelas" 
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.
From what I understand, this Teleconference was a success as both the leaders established a personal rapport between them. No thorny issues including the U.S. Cuban relations were discussed and left to be dealt with at later stages.The new POTUS is sure to be aware that Lula ,enjoying an 80% popularity among his people and being a good friend of other South American leaders like Chavez, Morales, Kirchner, etc; , is a formidable ally whose friendship should be cultivated at the earliest stage. So Obama´s decision to call Lula was a very smart diplomatic move and I am sure he found our President to be a charismatic statesman. Let´s hope that in the coming years these two leaders will work together to bridge the gap between "North and South".