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Latin American stocks were mixed, with Brazilian stocks pulling back, as investors opted to cash in some of last week's strong market gains. A flurry of mixed corporate news and caution ahead of this week's key economic data also helped to direct trading. Meanwhile, Mexican shares extended the previous week's run-up.
Brazil's Bovespa Index dropped 137.69 points, or 0.39%. Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index rose 262.05 points, or 1.40%, while Argentina's Merval Index added 4.83 points, 0.30%. Brazilian stocks dipped, as investors took some profits following last week's impressive gains on expectations for solid economic growth, tame inflation and further declines in interest rates in 2006. Shares were also pressured by investor caution ahead of key economic data due out later this week, including industrial output tomorrow and inflation figures on Thursday. The data may help to shape the outcome of the Brazilian central bank's next monetary policy meeting on January 18. The bank is currently expected to cut interest rates by at least 50 basis points at that meeting. In corporate news, Petrobras said it achieved record refinery output in 2005 for a second-straight year. Last year, the company processed an average 1.758 million barrels of oil per day, up from a daily average of 1.728 million barrels in 2004. Steel maker CSN was in focus after a major investment bank upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral," citing stronger fundamentals in the domestic steel industry and improved output in the company's iron ore mining operations. Meanwhile, budget airline Gol was downgraded by an investment bank to "peer perform" from "outperform" in a valuation call. Grocer CBD said its board unanimously approved the appointment of former Banco do Brasil president Cássio Casseb as the company's new president. Elsewhere, Mexican shares surged, extending last week's strong gains on optimism about the local economy and hopes the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon end its interest-rate hiking cycle. On the corporate front, airport operator Asur said that passenger traffic in December dropped 28.4% from a year earlier, as several of its airports continued to feel the impact of Hurricane Wilma, which hit the Caribbean coast in October. Cement giant Cemex was downgraded by an investment bank to "peer perform" from "outperform." The bank said positive news is likely already priced into the company's shares, which are up sharply from last year. Meanwhile, another investment bank reinstated coverage of tortilla and flour maker Gruma with a "buy" rating, saying the company's market segment has more room to grow. In other developments, the Mexican stock exchange said airline holding company Cintra SA, airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste SA, steel firm Industrias CH SA, homebuilder Sare Holding SA and building company Carso Infraestructura y Construccion will join the benchmark IPC index in February. The reconfiguration will leave out of the IPC index entertainment firm Corporacion Interamericana de Entretenimiento, bottler Grupo Continental, conglomerates Desc SA and Grupo Imsa SA, and cement maker Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua SA. Argentine issues edged higher, adding to last week's gains. Trading volume was light, amid a dearth of market news, as the Southern Hemisphere summer holiday season gets underway. Banco Macro Bansud was in focus after the company filed a registration statement Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to list American Depositary Receipts. The move was part of a plan announced in late August to list 75 million new Class B shares on overseas and local markets. Thomson Financial - 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.