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Latin American stocks advanced, with Brazilian shares gaining on continued investor enthusiasm over Brazil's improved credit rating, while the end of a nation-wide mining strike lent support to Mexican issues.
Brazil's Bovespa Index rose 113.91 points, or 0.29%. Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index added 86.92 points, or 0.46%, while Argentina's Merval Index jumped 28.34 points, or 1.58%. Brazilian stocks rose, resuming a recent run-up on Tuesday's news that Standard & Poor's raised Brazil's long-term sovereign credit rating to BB from BB-, citing "the continued and marked improvement in Brazil's external debt indicators." The upgrade reinforced investors' faith in Brazil's solid economic fundamentals against a backdrop of declining interest rates. The central bank is seen lowering rates by up to three-quarters of a percentage point at its meeting next week amid indications of tame inflation. However, the Bovespa's gains may have been limited by signs of higher global interest rates, as the European Central Bank hiked rates today and indicated more tightening ahead, while disappointing inflation data fueled concerns that Japan will soon raise interest rates. Higher interest rates in developed economies tend to draw investment flows away from emerging markets like Brazil. In political developments, a local newspaper reported today that Finance Minister Antonio Palocci could leave his post to coordinate the electoral campaign of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Palocci had served as Lula's campaign coordinator in the 2002 election. He said it is Lula's decision whether he would be most useful as campaign manager or Finance Minister in the months leading up to the October election. On the corporate front, oil giant Petrobras was in focus after local media reported that Rio de Janeiro state ended an income tax exemption that will cost Petrobras about US$ 24 million in extra costs a month. Petrobras will reportedly lobby the state for a reversal of its decision and may pursue a legal action. Mexico's winning streak continued today, despite lackluster trading in the U.S. markets, following a revenue warning from chip titan Intel. An end to a nationwide strike brought relief to mining-related firms, including Grupo Mexico. Mexican miners and steel workers started returning to work today, following a two-day nationwide strike. The Labor Ministry had declared the strikes illegal. Many of the local mines hurt by the strike said that losses would reach the millions. On the corporate front, an Indonesian official said today that Cemex still intends to sell its existing 25.5% stake in state-owned Semen Gresik. Argentine shares continued to rally today, with the Merval Index reaching a second-consecutive all-time record high, breaking through the 1,800 point level. Steel pipemaker Tenaris continued to power higher on the day. On the economic front, the national statistics agency Indec announced that the consumer price index rose 0.4% in February from January and was up 11.5% from a year ago. In corporate reports, Spanish-Argentine firm Repsol YPF SA's chairman said the firm had no interest in selling its Argentine YPF assets, contrary to local newspaper speculation. 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.