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Latin American stocks regained some of the ground lost last Friday, when new developments in the Brazilian political scandal threatened to derail markets further. Still, a key witness to the case denied the main charges against the PT Party over the weekend.
Mexican shares edged higher as earnings season kicks-off. Argentine stocks also gained despite a disappointing economic report. Brazil's benchmark Bovespa Index advanced 99.55 points, or 0.39%, while Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index rose 20.01 points, or 0.14%. Argentina's Merval Index jumped 10.09 points, or 0.69%. Brazilian issues turned higher following earlier weakness, as investors await the country's upcoming interest rate meeting on Wednesday. The central bank's weekly survey of economists showed that inflation expectations for 2005 fell to 5.67% from 5.72% last week. Also, the trade surplus for the second week of July was US$ 985 million, bringing the total so far for 2005 to US$ 22.4 billion. Regarding the latest on the political scandal, over the weekend, Marcos Valério de Souza, a key witness to the investigation, said that the governing Workers Party did not report some of the funds used in its electoral campaign. However, de Souza denied that the PT Party was involved in a bribery scheme that involved paying cash for votes in congress. In corporate headlines, VCP Paper and Pulp reported a 6% rise in its second-quarter net profits to 211 million reais from the corresponding period a year ago. EBITDA arrived at 260 million reais, down from 342 million reais last year. Also, net revenue slipped to 683 million reais from 763 million reais. Elsewhere, state-run energy firm Petrobras announced that its chief financial officer, Jose Sergio Gabrielli, was named president of the firm. Gabrielli replaced José Eduardo Dutra, who resigned last week in order to run for public office next year. Mexican shares posted modest gains, as investors wait for the region's corporate earnings season to fully get under way. Traders had a taste today with Desc's results. In earnings news, conglomerate Desc SA announced that strong results from its chemicals and food businesses helped boost its second-quarter net profit to 2.5 million pesos, reversing a loss of 146.6 million pesos last year. Sales advanced to 6.10 billion pesos from 5.93 billion pesos, while operating profit jumped to 286.6 million pesos from 253.8 million pesos a year earlier. Retailer Coppel SA was provided a US$ 35 million loan from the International Finance Corp., a unit of the World Bank, to help support the firm's expansion plans. Meanwhile, state-run oil firm Pemex said that its average crude oil output fell to 3.43 million barrels per day in June from 3.44 million b/d in May. Also, the firm exported an average of 1.80 million b/d last month, down from 1.85 million b/d in May. Argentine issues advanced on the session, amid a dearth of corporate reports or further developments between the nation and the International Monetary Fund regarding a new loan accord. On the economic front, the national statistics agency, or INDEC, said that industrial production fell 0.5% in June from May due to shortages in natural gas supplies, which periodically forced the closure of some factories. Production growth slowed to 6.4% year-over-year in June from 8.5% in May. Thomson Financial Corporate Group - www.thomsonfinancial.com
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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.