Brazil

• Wednesday, April 4th 2018 - 08:21 UTC

  Supreme Tribunal vote on Lula's political future will divide Brazil: calls for calm to avoid social disorder

  

  Brazil's top court could rule as soon as this Wednesday whether former President Lula da Silva can stay out of prison while appealing a corruption conviction, a decision that could radically alter October's presidential election in Latin America's largest nation.

• Tuesday, April 3rd 2018 - 18:56 UTC

  The Kirchners' most trusted official caught in the Odebrecht corruption web

  

  An Argentine judge has charged ex president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner former planning minister in a case involving Brazilian company Odebrecht. Argentina's official Judicial Information Center says that Julio De Vido was charged Tuesday with carrying out incompatible deals while in public office.

• Tuesday, April 3rd 2018 - 09:20 UTC

  Cunha, the driving force of Rousseff's impeachment sentenced to 15 years

  

  Brazilian court has sentenced the former speaker of the country’s lower house, Eduardo Cunha to more than 15 years in prison for corruption. The ex Worker’s Party member is the highest profile political conviction yet in the ‘operation car wash’ scandal.

• Tuesday, April 3rd 2018 - 09:06 UTC

  Temer reshuffles cabinet ahead of 7 October general elections

  

  More than one-third of the ministers in Temer’s cabinet are expected to resign this week to campaign in the 7 October general elections. The most outstanding figure of the lot is Finance minister Henrique Meirelles who is tipped to become the ruling PMDB presidential candidate, following his success in putting the Brazilian economy back on a growth track.

• Tuesday, April 3rd 2018 - 08:48 UTC

  Brazil subsidized loans for the 2018/19 agriculture program will reach US$ 58bn

  

  Brazil's Agriculture Ministry plans to increase funds available to finance the farm sector, an official announced, noting that a decline in inflation has allowed the government to boost funding in a country that is the world’s largest exporter of staples like soybeans and coffee.

• Tuesday, April 3rd 2018 - 08:43 UTC

  Brazil's unemployment stubbornly remains above 12%

  

  Despite official announcements that Brazil's recession was turning into a mild recovery, the unemployment rate rose to 12.6% in the quarter ended in February, reaching the highest level since mid-2017 and surpassing market expectations of a 12.5% rate, according to the national statistics office.

• Monday, April 2nd 2018 - 08:57 UTC

  Rousseff and Lula furious with Netflix series “The Mechanism” on corruption

  

  Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has accused Netflix of political bias and character assassination in its series based on the massive Car Wash corruption investigation that rocked Brazil’s political establishment. Since its debut last week, the series called “The Mechanism” has enthralled Brazilians with its dramatization of the political scandal that contributed to Rousseff’s downfall and impeachment in 2016.

• Monday, April 2nd 2018 - 06:01 UTC

  Brazil Finance minister Meirelles expected to announce this week his presidential bid

  

  Brazil's Finance Minister, Henrique Meirelles, will step down from the government this week and join the ranks of the ruling Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, senior government officials said. The news of Meirelles' move was broken by the government's chief of staff, Eliseu Padilha.

• Sunday, April 1st 2018 - 19:12 UTC

  Trump doesn't care about Latin America, Lula tells Correa

  

  Former Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, better or simply known as Lula, said Donald Trump “doesn't care about Latin America in the least and added that ”Bush and Condoleezza Rice pursued a much more democratic policy towards Brazil than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.” In his view, Obama could give magnificent speeches, but never actually delivered.

• Saturday, March 31st 2018 - 21:33 UTC

  Members of Temer's entourage arrested in bribe probe

  

  Three people linked to Brazi's President Michel Temer were arrested Thursday in the investigation of a decree the head of state allegedly signed to benefit a port company in exchange for bribes.