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 The president of the World Bank, Robert B. Zoellick, stated that Latin American largest countries are better prepared now than in the past to face the world crisis, based on strong budgets and primary surpluses and the development of effective social policies.
"Having worked during the crisis of the eighties and nineties, what really stands out is how Latin America is addressing the current situation from a completely different perspective," said Mr. Zoellick after meeting with Chilean president Michelle Bachelet in Santiago.
"Obviously there's a great diversity from country to country, but several of them including the largest such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile are confronting the crisis very well positioned to address the situation," he added.
Zoellick is in Chile participating of the Latin American and Caribbean second summit of Finance Ministers to which has also been invited IMF Director General, Dominique Strauss-Kahn; Luis Alberto Moreno president of the Inter American Development Bank and Alicia Bárcena Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
According to the World Bank chief, the improved position can be attributed to strong budget and primary surplus policies, larger international reserves, expanded world trade and a flexible management of money exchange rates, as well as a "very sound attitude regarding the social network."
However this does not mean that the region or these countries will be immune to the global crisis, "but will certainly have more flexibility to face it."
"But some of the challenges which some countries will face are the difficulty of having access to international financing in support of their programs," warned Zoellick.
On Wednesday the World Bank reported that the level of financing to countries in need rose 54% to a record US$ 58.8 billion in fiscal year 2009,
"Requests for assistance from the World Bank Group rose sharply this year, and we expect this to continue well into 2010, as the pace of recovery is far from certain." said Zoellick said in a release.
In the fiscal year ended Tuesday, the bank's main lending program, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, registered a record US$ 32.9 billion in commitments. The International Development Association, which gives poorer countries interest-free loans and grants, also reported a new high of US$ 14 billion in commitments.
Meanwhile, the bank's private-sector arm, the International Finance Corp., saw a decrease in financing to US$ 15 billion - including US$ 4.5 billion mobilized from syndications and structured finance - from a high of US$ 16.2 billion in fiscal year 2008.
Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean were the biggest recipients of funds, with commitments rising 70% to a record US$ 17.1 billion in the fiscal year.
Zoellick also announced that the World Bank will expand the role of developing countries as a means of increasing its capital base in 2010. He said the bank is expecting to continue lending at a comparable rate in 2010, in which case the bank will need to expand its capital base.
"If we continue at this rate, we will need to augment capital resources," Zoellick told reporters.
The World Bank is considering measures that would increase the voting share of developing countries, Zoellick said, adding that "we are thinking about what steps can be taken to increase the role of developing countries in the World Bank."
He also said the bank is exploring ways to access capital that developing countries have invested in the bank in local currencies.
When asked about prospects for global economic recovery, Zoellick said that Latin America could play an important role.
"I hope that Latin America can add to overall global demand," he said, adding, "the world economy is stronger if you have multiple pools of growth."
Mercopress
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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.
Lula did right when he paid off the IMF loans early. I hope he knows better than to borrow again from these snakes in the grass. Brazil needs smaller government and trust in the common Brazilian to get through this crisis. Brazil cannot let other nations and quasi-banks dictate how to run its affairs.
This economic crisis is not even close to ending. If proper economic management is not followed, Communism may just be back at the doorstep. And Brazil can blame its misplaced trust in those who carry the gold as it further strips from Brazil what they desire.