Latin America’s biggest heavyweight and its worst basket case are tied together by politics and trade. But as life gets harder for both, their bonds are starting to fray.
Early this month, the Federal Court rejected Channel Seven’s appeal against an Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) ruling that its program about the Suruwaha Indians was inaccurate and…
The world quietly celebrated Human Rights Day (December 10) earlier this month. That week, two big, interrelated human rights events occurred. The first was the well-publicised revelations that America’s…
As the world digests the findings of a report on the way the US has treated detainees suspected of terrorism, Brazil has owned up to similar abuses of its own citizens. The Brazilian Truth Commission has…
“Affirmative action won’t be around for much longer, ” said one of our professors twenty years ago, advising against writing a dissertation on this topic. The United States Supreme Court’s Schuette decision…
All eyes are on Brazil following the re-election of Dilma Rousseff as president after an eventful campaign in which the strongly pro-environment candidate Marina Silva was squarely defeated. Now, the country’s…
Dilma Rousseff has narrowly won re-election to the presidency of Brazil, capturing 51.6% to her rival’s 48.4% in a second-round run-off election. Now, as her second term begins, she faces the challenge…
The final run-off of the Brazilian presidential elections, to be held this weekend, represent a decisive moment for Latin America’s largest nation. No matter who wins, will the newly elected government…
The Brazilian presidential election of 2014 has so far thrown up more surprises and plot twists than a telenovela. In the first round ballot on October 5 the left of centre incumbent, Dilma Rousseff of…
The Russian ban on the imports of some agricultural products from the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway has sparked much debate over the likely impact on American and European farmers…
Brazil has a serious drug problem. The country lies beside the largest coca plantations in the world in Peru and Colombia. A sizeable part of the cocaine used in Europe moves through its vast territory…
In Brazil’s 2010 presidential election, Marina Silva won 19% of the first-round vote. What was unusual about this result? She was the Green Party candidate and 19% was an almost unprecedented vote for…
Marcelo Ridenti, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp)
The most positive aspect of the Brazilian election is not just that the two front-runners are are women, but that gender issues are not the major focus of this campaign in the media. Still, the likely…
After a long and spectacular campaign, the world’s fourth-largest democracy will take one of two very different paths – but even in the very last stages of the campaign, it’s impossible to confidently…
Brazil’s Atlantic forest – Mata Atlântica – is one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots, rivalling even the Amazon. Running on and off for several thousand kilometres along the coast, the forest…