With colorful and scandalous flourishes, in a nation where the bizarre is often normal, Brazil’s Carnaval kicked off throughout the country on February 12th. The celebration is especially exotic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second largest city, where the samba dancers’ elaborate talents draw mi[...]
Archive for the ‘Brazil’ Category
The Dark Side of Brazil’s Olympic Dreams: The 2016 Olympic Host Battles Poverty, Violent Crime, and Police Brutality
Brazil’s Growing Pains
By now the emergence of Brazil as a major power not only in the Western Hemisphere, but also on the world stage, is an undisputed fact. The country, until recently mentioned outside its borders for seldom more than in reference to the Girl from Ipanema, is now on everybody’s lips. Brazil is possib[...]
China Eyes Venezuelan and Brazilian Oil
• The burgeoning Chinese/Brazilian relationship • Why is China going after Latin America’s distant commodities? • Should the U.S. be alarmed by China’s poaching in its own “backyard”? As China’s economy soared during the 1980’s, its consumption of foreign oil rose as [...]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Does Latin America
• Argentina squeezed in at the last minute • Why Guatemala? • Brazil phase is rough • Secretary of State Clinton and her Assistant Secretary, on this try, do not seem to perceive that it is a changed world in terms of inter-American relations and that traditional concepts of pan-Americanism [...]
The Yanomami: Malaria, Genocide and Policy Prospects
• A Black Mark for Brazil • The situation couldn’t be more urgent The Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon have been decimated in the last 20 years by an incursion of prospect-miners (garimpeiros) who brought diseases (especially malaria) and other maladies to their hitherto relatively isolated co[...]
FARQaeda* (FARC + Al Qaeda): A Real Threat or a Matter of Circumstantial Evidence?
Over the past several months, a number of reports have circulated that address the subject of drug trafficking ties between South American narcotics trafficking interests and terrorist organizations, principally Al Qaeda and its smaller affiliates now known to be based in Northern Africa. These ass[...]
¿Cambio? The Obama Administration in Latin America: A Disappointing Year in Retrospective
In a memorandum written as Barack Obama assumed office in January 2009, COHA’s Research Fellows Guy Hursthouse and Tomás Ayuso considered the widespread Latin American expectations of a dramatic shift in approach from Washington under the new president, and outlined an agenda for change. This[...]
Peacekeeping and Military Operations by Latin American Militaries: Between Being a Good Samaritan and Servicing the National Interest
A December 14, 2009 report by the Spanish security-news agency Infodefensa.com states that Colombia is now prepared to dispatch a battalion of its Special Forces and air force personnel to Afghanistan. The Colombian involvement is being sponsored by Spain in order to aid Coalition forces now engaged[...]
Haiti pode elevar status do Brasil na agenda de Obama
January 20, 2010 Estadoa Da BBC Brasil em Washington – O trabalho de reconstrução do Haiti, arrasado por um terremoto, pode representar uma oportunidade para o Brasil assumir um papel mais importante em sua relação com os Estados Unidos, afirmam analistas. “A Casa Branca respeita o[...]
Brazil’s Haitian Cross
After a promising beginning that included, among other accomplishments, being the second country in the Americas to achieve independence and the first and only to do so after a slave revolt, Haiti’s prospects soured so precipitously that by the end of the millennium it was being dubbed the failed [...]
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