World Economic Forum Honors Lula

January 29, 2010

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was honored this morning at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, with the forum’s first-ever Global Statesman award. The president was absent from the ceremony after he cancelled his European trip due to a blood-pressure spike that left him hospitalized earlier this week in Recife, Brazil. Brazilian Minister of Foreign Relations Celso Amorim received the award on the president’s behalf.

In a speech prepared by Lula and read by Mr. Amorin, the president said the, “award increases my responsibility as a leader, and my country’s responsibility as an increasingly active player on the global scene.” On the domestic front, it highlighted achievements in economic growth and poverty relief programs. On the international side, it stressed the need to tackle the global economic crisis and climate change, and called for “the need to establish a new international economic order, one that is more just and democratic.”

Early this week President Lula attended the World Social Forum (WSF), a counter-globalization event that meets annually in Brazil on the same dates as the WEF. There, in front of over 10,000 activists, the president criticized the global financial system saying it “triggered the greatest global crisis in recent history through mere irresponsibility.” In front of cheering crowds Lula declared, "I'm going to Davos just as I did in 2003 proud of what I have to say and demonstrate" and "with the mission of telling the developed world that if they had (taken their own economic advice to heart) we wouldn't have had the crisis."

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Lula Enters the Blogosphere

August 12, 2009

There is little doubt that President Barack Obama's success in the election was due in great part to his online campaigning and digital media savvy—on top of his political skill, charisma and youthful good looks, of course. President Obama has almost 2 million followers on Twitter, and his blog is read by an estimated 13 million people. These social media tools don't just keep him cool, so to say; they have allowed his administration to engage constituents and fans alike on policy issues like health care reform, even as Obama's popularity has diminished over the past month.

In Brazil, the latest newcomer to the blogosphere is none other than President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. O Blog do Presidente (The President's Blog) was launched in July, but the buzz started earlier this year, when the government announced that it was experimenting with layouts and ideas, and even considering signing up to twitter—although this hasn’t happened yet.

Lula is said to have been impressed with President Obama's and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's blogs, and with their clear and personal messages. But even before O Blog do Presidente went live, it was received with skepticism by the Brazilian press and, it was flooded with negative feedback from other bloggers.

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Daily Focus: Brazilian Floods

May 7, 2009

The death toll from floods in Brazil continued to rise on Wednesday, reaching 32 people and leaving nearly 200,000 displaced or homeless. Ten regions have been affected by several months of heavy rain, with the Atlantic coastal state of Maranhão the hardest hit. The rains have severely damaged northern Brazil’s transportation infrastructure, closing six highways, suspending transport on railways, and stopping the flow of iron ore from Vale’s Carajás mine in Serra dos Carajás (Pará) to its export port in Maranhão. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce SA, said in a statement it was working on repairs and would reopen the railway as soon as possible.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited the region on Tuesday, bringing relief supplies and meeting with local governments. Rains are expected to continue for at least two more weeks.

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Daily Focus: Brazil to Start New Oil Extraction

April 30, 2009

On Friday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will be on an oil platform off the Brazilian coast to formally kick-off the start of subsalt oil production from the Tupi field. This marks an important milestone for Brazilian extraction of deep-water oil deposits off the coast of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo states. Discovered in 2007, the Tupi oil field is estimated to have five to eight billion barrels of oil, and is part of a broader oil find in the Santos Basin that could contain between 50 and 80 billion barrels. 

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The Obama-Lulathon

March 16, 2009

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and President Barack Obama met in the Oval Office on Saturday morning.

The White House said Larry Summers, head of the White House's National Economic Council, General Jim Jones, head of the National Security Council (NSC), Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg and Dan Restrepo, the NSC’s director for Western Hemisphere affairs attended the meeting. Among those attending on the Brazilian side, Minister of Foreign Affairs Celso Amorim, Chief of Staff Dilma Rouseff and Finance Minister Guido Mantega.

On the menu: the upcoming G-20 summit, the Summit of the Americas, the global financial crisis, biofuels and, privately, the custody case of David Goldman.

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President Lula: A Social Democrat Defends Free Trade

March 12, 2009

Who’d have guessed it?

When Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva and U.S. President Barack Obama meet on March 14th, one of the top items on their agenda will be free trade—pushed by the former labor leader President Lula.  This is the same President that, when elected, roiled markets due to investor fears that he would reverse the sound macroeconomic policies of the past decade.  It is the same Lula who, in the WTO negotiations in Cancun, led a group of developing countries to demand market access concessions that led to the acrimonious collapse of the negotiations. Now that same President is preaching the need to avoid protectionism in the midst of the crisis.

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Samba and Security in Rio de Janeiro

March 2, 2009

Cariocas (Rio locals) and tourists are back to reality now that Brazil’s five-day Carnival has wrapped up for the year. And what a Carnival. The Salguiero Samba School beat out a fierce rival to win the two-day Schools Parade competition—its first title in 16 years. Among the 80,000 spectators packed into the Sambadrome stadium, President Lula da Silva, describing the parade as “marvelous,” could be seen in a white shirt and Panama hat enjoying the festivities until 5:00 a.m.

Tudo bem? Not quite. Beyond the masks and costumes, another issue continues to creep into the headlines coming out of Rio: crime. A total of 9,800 police were deployed for Carnival but armed assailants still managed to grab attention with brazen attacks on two hotels, robbing tourists of IPods, money and cameras. But as he must, the head of the tourist police, Fernando Veloso remains confident: “One or two cases won’t ruin Rio’s image. There is always a problem of some sort. But every big city has problems.” In fact, things have gotten better. In Rio de Janeiro state, the murder rate has declined from a high of 64 per 100,000 people in the mid-1990s to 39 per 100,000 people in 2007.

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