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The progress made in recent years in the process of South American integration is linked to progressive political projects, especially Brazil's, in the view of the head of the presidential office staff, minister Luiz Dulci, who is participating this week in the American edition of the 6th World Social Forum, in Caracas, Venezuela.
Dulci believes that, although Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva may not have had a direct influence on the election of the large number of leftist presidents who currently hold office in South America, the Brazilian president worked for 25 years on behalf of the continent's political integration and may have served as an "inspiration" to other politicians. Dulci says that he, personally, is exulting over the continent's current political configuration. "It makes us very happy that the left is advancing in South America and Latin America. It is a sign that these societies have an ever-growing level of political consciousness and that they are more and more aware of the problems and challenges they face. This unveils new horizons for our continent." According to the Minister, the existence of this state of affairs is directed linked to the progress of the integration process on the continent. "It is clear that, the more leftist heads of State there are in Latin America, the better the outlook for integration and the better the prospects for economic and social progress. That is undeniable," he affirmed. According to Dulci, the Left is internationalist by definition, whereas the right "is incapable of looking beyond itself." "The causes of social progress and justice around the world are led by the Left." Agência Brasil
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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.
Most of the high growth rates the developing countries had in the last 3 years was ONLY because the USA decided not only to lower their interets rates as never before, they accepted high budget deficits and HUGE HUGE trade surpluses.
Without these decisions, you would have remained at the 2002 level, close to bankruptcy.
Just imagine one second what will happen to the developing countries, should the USA say STOP to trade deficits.
Well, US$ 700 billions of goods produced mainly by deeloping countries would either be produced as surplus and will have to be sold at deep discounts elesewhere, OR thousands of factories will have to be closed, putting you not in a recession but in a depression worse than Argentina was 3/4 years ago !
Tthis would be like an implosion everywhere, the developing countries with the least foreign currency reserves will be hit the first and the hardest.
Brazil has only US$ 53 billion reserves. amount look big, but is very small when you compare to Asian countries. Even South Korea, much smaller in population than Brazil, has many times the foreign currency reserves that Brazil has.
What you have is a simple drop in an ocean.