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Latin American stocks dropped, with Brazilian shares posting the biggest losses on continued worries about the impact of rising oil prices on the inflation and interest-rate outlooks at home and abroad.
Brazil's Bovespa Index sank 573.54 points, or 1.49%. Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index fell 83.20 points, or 0.43%, while Argentina's Merval Index declined 13.63 points, or 0.74%. Brazilian stocks dropped, extending the previous day's sell-off amid continued concerns about rising U.S. interest rates and oil prices. Oil prices have posted sizable gains in recent sessions on strong global demand and concerns about potential supply disruptions due to uprisings in Nigeria and a standoff between the U.S. and Iran over its nuclear program. Moreover investors fear that rising global energy costs will fuel inflation, forcing the U.S. Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates and potentially impeding the Brazilian central banks move to loosen its monetary policy. On the political front, the Sensus group released a poll today showing Brazilian President Lula with 37.5% of voter preferences, against only 20.6% for Social Democratic Party rival Geraldo Alckmin and 15% for possible Brazilian Democratic Movement candidate Anthony Garotinho. President Lula's lead over his opponents was weaker than in a February Sensus poll, but his level of approval rose slightly. Elsewhere, Brazil's largest telecom company, Telemar, was in focus amid mounting speculation that Portugal Telecom will make an offer for a stake in the company. Shares of paper and pulp company Votorantim were active after a major investment bank upgraded the stock to overweight, saying "pulp and paper markets look to remain tighter for longer than we previously anticipated." In economic news, industrial employment in Sao Paulo state rose 0.29%, or by a net 6,038 jobs, in March from February. Mexican shares moved lower in pre-holiday trading and on low volume, as local markets will be closed Thursday and Friday ahead of the Easter holiday. Meanwhile, U.S. weakness was also a factor, as continued strength in crude oil prices and concerns regarding Iran and Nigeria pressured the market. Meanwhile, a major investment bank raised its price target on homebuilder Ara to 59.2 pesos from 56 pesos, as the firm's planned dividend is expected to "boost profitability ratios." Ara shares jumped higher on the day. Within the steel group, Notimex, the government news agency, announced that strikers at Mittal Steel's plant in the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas agreed to return to work today. The local chapter of the National Mining and Metal Workers Union decided to end the walkout when the firm recognized Napoleon Gomez Urrutia as national leader of the union. Meanwhile, copper miner Grupo Mexico declared force majeure earlier this Tuesday, April 11, on select deliveries due to the strike at its La Caridad copper mine. Home construction firm Geo announced that it expects to post first-quarter net profit gains of between 23.1% and 23.4%, compared to the year-earlier period, with revenue growth surpassing 20%. Turning to telecom news, Telmex and America Movil asked for approval from Venezuela to bid for the remaining shares of CANTV. Before a decision can be made, CNV, Venezuela's securities regulator, will review the proposal, while telecom regulator Conatel anti-monopoly and unit Precompetencia must give a favorable ruling. Argentine shares witnessed some profit-taking today, after the key Merval Index reached a fresh record high yesterday. Similar to Mexico, pre-holiday trading also played a role. 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.
Lula's accomplishments are mighty;
1. Crime and violence is worse then ever.
2. Adjusting cost of living, the buying power of the average person today is far less then before
3. Slogans such as zero fome are nothing more then flattulance for a problem which really is not a problem, unless you have delusions of grandeur to be the next Ghandi, Nasser, Tito and Castro rolled into one.
4. A tourist campaign that prides it self in withc hunting and moralism in order to satisfy the UN and the NGO interlopers!!!
Parabens, Well Done!