The world’s most powerful woman will start coming into her own next weekend. Stocky and forceful at 63, this former leader of the resistance to a Western-backed military dictatorship (which tortured her) is preparing to take her place as President...

It’s early afternoon in Ipuca, a rural shantytown in one of the most deprived corners of Rio de Janeiro state, and Lucileide Alves Costa, a 25-year-old mother of two, is receiving a visit from members of the Pastoral da Crianca, an outreach group...

Dilma Rousseff formally assumed the presidential candidacy of Brazil’s governing Workers Party, or PT, promising to continue the work of the Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva administration, but “with the heart and soul of a Brazilian woman.” In her...

Last year, in Brazil, sales of automobiles, light commercial vehicles, trucks and buses totaled 3.14 million units, representing growth of 11.35% over 2008, according to data disclosed by the National Federation of Motor Vehicle Distributors...

Well, it’s official. The city of Rio de Janeiro will probably hire Rudy Giuliani to tell them how to clean up our town for the Olympics. Let me tell you why this is a bad idea. Rudy’s good at tooting his own horn and, to hear the man talk,...

The latest scandal hit this month, featuring video that showed Federal District Governor Jose Arruda and his allies stuffing money into pockets, bags and even socks. But though high-level scandals occasionally provide a lurid peek into greed and...

There were rose petals and rice on the ground in front of the civil registry in Buenos Aires. But in the end they weren’t for Alex Freyre and Jose Maria Di Bello, the gay couple hoping to achieve Latin America’s first same-sex marriage. On...

Two fire-red birds swooped screeching through the forest, flared their yellow and blue wings and alighted on the upright trunk of a dead palm tree. In the green shadows, the scarlet macaws were dazzling; they might as well have been shot from...

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...

The growing number of police killings of suspected criminals in Rio de Janeiro’s war on drugs is linked to bonuses now paid to “brave” police officers, according to a just-released independent study. The group that conducted the...