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Latin American stocks were mixed, with Brazilian shares dipping amid concerns about rising U.S. Treasury yields and uncertainty about the local first-quarter earnings season.
Meanwhile, Mexican issues extended recent gains on continued earnings optimism and signs of economic strength north of the border. Brazil's Bovespa Index shed 13.23 points, or 0.03%, while Mexico's benchmark Bolsa Index added 161.90 points, or 0.80%, and Argentina's Merval Index fell 4.17 points, or 0.21%. Brazilian stocks slumped, as U.S. Treasury yields rose amid positive housing and consumer confidence data that signaled strength in the world's biggest economy. Higher U.S. Treasury yields tend to divert investment flows away from emerging markets like Brazil. Shares may have also been pressured by uncertainty about Brazil's first- quarter earnings season, which will kick into high gear in early May. Today's quarterly reports were largely positive, however. Budget airline Gol reported a first-quarter net profit of 160.7 million reais, up sharply from 112.5 million reais a year earlier, as results were helped by a surge in flights and tickets sales. Net operating profit rose to 863.0 million reais from 589.2 million reais. Meanwhile, pay TV and Internet provider Net Serviços de Comunicação SA posted a first-quarter net profit of 7.2 million reais in the first quarter, reversing a year-earlier net loss of 5.2 million reais. Net revenue jumped 20% to 438.8 million reais, while EBITDA edged up 2.1% to 116.4 million reais. Paper and pulp producer Klabin Celulose e Papel SA said its first-quarter net profit rose 27% to 162.7 million reais from 128.2 million reais a year ago, helped by rising sales volume and a government rebate of local welfare taxes worth 83.3 million reais. Net revenues dipped 4% to 645.2 million reais, hurt by a continued appreciation of the real against the U.S. dollar during the period. In other corporate news, private bank Itaú was in focus after confirming that it is interested in a "possible acquisition of banking properties in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America." The confirmation was in a filing with securities regulators and followed news reports saying the company may be interested in buying BankBoston assets in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. Elsewhere, Mexican issues continued to power higher today, witnessing a fifth-consecutive record high, despite weakness in U.S. markets. Investors are optimistic ahead of earnings season, which is set to begin locally later this week. In economic news, the Finance Ministry recorded a US$ 183 million trade deficit in March, as imports rose 20.7% from a year ago to US$ 21.14 billion, while exports jumped 20.9% to US$ 20.96 billion. Economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a US$ 381 million trade surplus, on average, for last month. Argentina turned lower on the day. On the economic front, the Ministry of Labor said the employment index rose 0.7% in March from the prior month, and surged 9% from a year ago. In corporate news, IMPSAT Fiber Networks said that the firm is currently exploring a range of strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value, including a sale of the firm. Thomson Financial - www.thomsonfinancial.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).