BrazzilMag

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and Finance minister, Guido Mantega, both denied that the announced concession of railroads and highways was a form of privatization. According to Dilma, the question was "absolutely false."

Monday, August 13, was the eighth day of the Penal Code 470 trial at the Brazilian Supreme Court. Known as the "big monthly allowance" ("mensalão") case, in which former high ranking government authorities and elected officials have "privileged criminal venue" ("foro privilegiado"), that is, they can be tried only before the Supreme Court.

Brazil's CNDL, the National Confederation of Store Managers, and the SPC, the Credit Protection Service report that payment delinquency was down 5.6% in July. At the same time the two organizations revealed that over the last five years indebtedness in Brazil has risen 20% annually.

The National Defense Strategy (END) plan signed by former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in 2008, should provide for the modernization of the Brazilian Armed Forces.

May 10, 2005  A grainy black and white video is made public showing a mid-level official at the Post Office receiving a wad of money. In the video he reveals that kickbacks and bribery is common practice in a corruption ring at the Post Office headed by federal deputy, Roberto Jefferson.

Brazil's Armed Forces have started a major deployment along its borders with Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia involving 9.000 troops from the three services with the purpose of testing border security against smugglers mainly of arms and drugs and organized crime, said the Ministry of Defense. 

Brazil's Supreme Court (STF) finally began to judge the case of the "mensalão" (the big monthly allowance) seven years after the Lula administration's scandal was made public. The eleven justices will decide if there was in fact a corruption scheme involving vote-buying in Congress to support the first Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration.

Seven years after a corruption scandal rattled the government of former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil's Supreme Court began on Thursday a landmark trial that could mar the wildly popular leader's legacy. Brazilians still don't know the extent of the infamous "mensalão" scandal, an alleged scheme to pay legislators a monthly retainer in exchange for their support in Congress.

The president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff and her colleague Hugo Chavez of Venezuela signed a contract for the sale of Brazilian Embraer airplanes. Venezuela will buy six aircraft at a cost of around US$ 270 million, with an option for an additional fourteen. The whole deal could be worth as much as US$ 900 million.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff travels to London this Tuesday afternoon where she will  have an intensive schedule related to the London Olympic competitions until Saturday.

According to Brazilian ambassador Roberto Azevedo, Brazil's permanent representative at the World Trade Organization (WTO), "Brazil does not want to retaliate due to the United States cotton subsidies, but may be forced to do so." 

The first industrial plant in the world capable of getting biofuels from seaweed should be built in the northeastern Brazilian state of Pernambuco towards the end of next year. according to a Brazilian official in charge of the project. 

Consumer prices in Brazil rose faster than expected in the month to mid-July on higher food costs, suggesting the central bank may have less room than previously believed to cut interest rates much further.

Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, informed that he talked with Dilma Rousseff, the Brazilian president and that she  confirmed the invitation to him to participate in an extraordinary meeting of Mercosur next July 31 in Rio do Janeiro, when Venezuela will be officially integrated into the Mercosur.

The Brazilian police have arrested 18 people accused of killing  an indigenous leader last November. Gunmen shot Nísio Gomes in Mato Grosso do Sul and took away his body, which is still missing.

Brazil had a foreign trade surplus of US$ 89 million for the week between July 9 and 13, with exports of US$ 3.929 billion and imports of US$ 3.849 billion.

Brazil is home to a 32-million-strong canine population the world's second largest after the United States. Now Brazilian dogs will have their own "love motel." 

During his lifetime, Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues (1912-1980) was an innovator in Brazil's theatrical world. He was a genre-buster who helped change his country's stage scene with plays that skewered Rio de Janeiro's society through his caustic and cynical point of view.

For the second time in its 188 years of existence, the Brazilian Senate has expelled a member. The first time this happened was in the year 2000 when senator Luiz Estevan form the Federal District was thrown out after being involved in a multi-million dollar fraud in the construction of a building - a labor court building in São Paulo.