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Geraldo Alckmin, governor of São Paulo state, was named this week presidential candidate for Brazil's main opposition party PSDB, ending months of internal wrangling between Alckmin and his rival for the candidacy, José Serra, mayor of São Paulo city.
The fight for the PSDB candidacy has left the presidential dispute waiting for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who, although he will not officially decide whether to run for re-election until June, has been in full campaign mode since the beginning of the year. Elections for president, governors and legislators will take place in October. Lula da Silva's popularity fell steadily last year after the leftwing PT, of which he was founding president, was accused of using illegal campaign finance and buying the support of its coalition partners in Congress. But he regained the lead in opinion polls this year as the scandal faded from view and voters concentrated instead on the economic stability that, in spite of disappointing rates of overall growth, has increased the spending power of Brazilians. Alckmin announced his candidacy at a hastily-convened press conference in São Paulo, after Serra's office said he would no longer contend the candidacy. Although Serra has consistently outperformed Alckmin in opinion polls, he was reluctant to resign as mayor - a precondition for his candidacy and something he promised not to do when elected in 2004 - without the undivided support of the party. Alckmin, formerly regarded by many as a grey candidate with little appeal beyond the São Paulo business community, has shown surprising determination in recent weeks. He is seen as being more market-oriented than Serra, whom many regard as an interventionist. "It is with humility, enthusiasm, energy and determination that we will begin a great journey, not against any person or against any party, but to construct a grand national program for growth," said Alckmin. "Brazil no longer tolerates this wave of corruption that has raged the country, a country without a project and rachitic growth," he emphasized. If elected Alckmin would be likely to maintain the tight anti-inflationary monetary policies inherited by Lula da Silva from his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, also of the PSDB. Alckmin is a catholic doctor, founder of the PSDB in 1998 next to former president Fernando Cardoso. He was deputy governor of Sao Paulo between 1995 and 2001. In 2002 he was elected governor with a landslide 58% vote. Many regard his track record during five years as governor of São Paulo as evidence that he would move ahead quickly with structural reforms, especially of public pensions and payroll, needed to reduce the government's budget deficit and release money for investment in infrastructure and other drivers of growth. But he has also been the target of the press and cartoons because of his managerial insipid style and lack of charisma and political aggressiveness. He's referred to as a "light chayote ice cream", or "chuchu ice cream" (sorverte de chuchu), an insipid almost tasteless tropical fruit, although rich in fiber and vitamins. "My government is going to be chayote ice cream; the same "chuchu" as in Sao Paulo when I received a record support of twelve million votes", retorted with humor the main Brazilian opposition presidential candidate. Mercopress - www.mercopress.com
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The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
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).
Brazil missed the opportunity of a booming economy during Lula's mandate !
Brazil had the lowest economic growth rate of ALL developing nations, wether on a 1 or 3 years period !
Simply on the queue of the queue !
In reality Brazil had a growth rate just slighty exceeding....Hati !
Yesssssss !
But Hati is not considered a developing country !
Lula and his Ministers have been true JUNKIES.
Lamentable, a shame but also a sham for all the corruptions Luila promoted to gain and then maintain his power !