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Latin American stocks advanced, with Brazilian shares getting a boost from robust local retail sales figures, while Mexico's bolsa found strength in stronger-than-expected U.S. retail sales data.
Brazil's Bovespa Index jumped 512.93 points, or 1.42%. Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index climbed 139.38 points, or 0.78%, while Argentina's Merval Index dipped 3.33 points, or 0.20%. Brazilian stocks rallied, as investors were cheered by upbeat local retail sales data. The Brazilian Census Bureau, or IBGE, reported that retail sales volume rose a seasonally adjusted 1.19% in December from November, in line with expectations of 0.50% to 2.50%. Retail sales climbed 4.28% in December from a year earlier. According to IBGE, December sales "represented the best results for retailers in the second half of 2005." In other developments, a public opinion poll released today by the Sensus polling organization showed Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva favored to win reelection in October. The poll showed that Lula would get 40.2% of the vote, while his biggest opponent, Social Democrat José Serra, would get 28.6% of the vote, and former Rio de Janeiro governor Anthony Garotinho would be in third place with 10.5% of the vote. Both Lula and Serra are regarded as market-friendly candidates. Four years ago, polls putting Lula ahead in the presidential race gave the financial market the jitters. On the corporate front, paper and pulp producer Klabin Celulose e Papel S.A. posted fourth-quarter net profits of 26.1 million reais, down sharply from 89.2 million reais a year earlier, due largely to the impact of the real's appreciation against the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, budget airline Gol said it added flights between Argentina and Paraguay. That is the airline's sixth South American destination outside of Brazil. Mexican shares finally turned higher, after bargain hunters moved in following recent weakness. Tomorrow, investors will be looking for fourth-quarter and full-year 2005 gross domestic product data. Investors also looked to strength in the U.S. markets today, as retail sales were stronger than expected in January. The majority of Mexican exports are sent to the northern neighbor. Topping earnings headlines, fixed-line phone company Telmex posted lower fourth-quarter results due to declines in voice services and higher financial costs. Telmex's sales slipped to 41.33 billion pesos from 42.46 billion pesos a year earlier. Net profit fell to 7.78 billion pesos from 10.77 billion pesos last year, while EBITDA declined 1.8% to 18.33 billion pesos. Telmex plans to invest US$ 2.1 billion in 2006, the same amount invested in 2005. Argentine shares moved lower for the fourth-straight session, while volume levels improved somewhat, as options contracts are set to expire later this week. Investors are still awaiting Argentina's earnings season to kick into high gear. Last night, Banco Frances reported that it swung to a fourth- quarter net profit, reversing a year-earlier loss. 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.