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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration is the second most corrupt in the country's recent history according to a survey from the Perseu Abramo Foundation belonging to the Workers Party which last Saturday confirmed Lula's re-election bid.
The public opinion poll released in the Foundation's Internet page shows that 71% of those interviewed mentioned the administration of former president Fernando Collor de Mello (1990/91) as the most corrupt followed by the current government of Lula da Silva who took office January 2002. Collor de Mello who actually defeated Lula in the 1989 election was impeached and removed from office by Congress following a chain of corruption scandals. His mandate was completed by vice president Itamar Franco. Lula da Silva's government is rated as the one with most corruption cases by 37% of those surveyed, followed by the administration of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995/2002) with 32%. Jose Sarney's government, from 1985/89 rated with 17% and Itamar Franco's with 10%. The Lula da Silva administration is under investigation for having paid out regular sums to Congress members to ensure a working majority, while the Workers Party was allegedly involved in skimming government programs and racketing private loans to help finance campaigns and faithful "followers" in the Legislative branch. President Lula has repeatedly said publicly that he knew nothing of the payments scheme. However 50% of those surveyed by the Foundation believe he was aware of the financing against 29% who think he's innocent. But in spite of all, President Lula is considered favorite to win the coming presidential election in October. The Perseu Abramo Foundation findings show that Lula's popularity responds to the fact that 69% of those interviewed believe "there's corruption in all (Brazilian) administrations", but 54% are convinced that the Workers Party is the one which most protects the poor and destitute. According to local analysts this can be attributed to the so called "Chinese growth syndrome", which describes the expanding purchasing power of the poor classes in Brazil. This means that although Brazil in the last three and a half years accumulated 3.5% growth, the purchasing power of the poorest 10% Brazilians actually increased 8% annually. The higher incomes are based mostly on subsidized social programs and a significant increase in the minimum salary which benefited some 60 million Brazilians living under the poverty line out of a total population of 185 million. In electoral language this means that 30 million Brazilians in the northeast receive a monthly assistance check and tend to vote in block. The survey included 2.379 adult Brazilians over the age of 16 in urban and rural areas in 153 municipalities in the country's 25 states and was taken between March 10 and 16. 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).
No doubt that you and your goverrnment have no reason at all to stop or reduce the corruption.
You came in power through corruption, many laws were voted with corruption (vote buying), billions and billions of Reais have been stolen with corruption and you get a vote of copnfidence !
Great.....truly great.
Even laws protect the corrupted people, Nothing serious can happen to you and them !
On top you are congratulated for having achieved the lowest economic growth of ALL developing nations !
The Brazilian society is
thirsty to swallow once more for another mandate such a tragedy !
As long as you and the government is corrupted, they will have the same right :
STEAL MORE, ALWAYS MORE, MORE FOR EVER !
Are records not made to be broken ?????
But you dont deserve much respect !!!!