Brazil

• Wednesday, March 30th 2016 - 08:32 UTC

  Brazil Finance minister disregards calls from Lula for tax breaks and more credit

  

  Brazilian Finance Minister Nelson Barbosa said on Tuesday it is not the time for more tax breaks, disagreeing publicly with former president Lula da Silva's call for fiscal stimulus to revive a moribund economy.

• Wednesday, March 30th 2016 - 06:28 UTC

  Dilma main ally abandons government pushing her closer to impeachment

  

  A anticipated Brazil's largest party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, PMDB, announced on Tuesday it was leaving President Dilma Rousseff's governing coalition and pulling its members from her government, a departure that raises the odds she could be impeached in a matter of months.

• Tuesday, March 29th 2016 - 08:38 UTC

  Brazil's Bar Association filed an impeachment request against Rousseff for obstruction of justice

  

  The Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) filed a request on Monday to impeach President Dilma Rousseff for obstructing justice, fiscal accounting tricks and granting international soccer body FIFA tax-exempt status during the 2014 World Cup.

• Sunday, March 27th 2016 - 05:07 UTC

  Rousseff “D Day”: on Tuesday main coalition ally decides if it continues support

  

  The government of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, her mentor Lula da Silva and their Workers Party fear very much that next Tuesday could become “D Day”, since its main ally the PMDB, and with the largest representation in Congress, will be holding an extraordinary meeting of the national directory to decide whether to continue or step down from the ruling convention.

• Saturday, March 26th 2016 - 07:33 UTC

  Rousseff blasts the opposition for their “fascist methods” in trying to illegally remove her from office

  

  Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff condemned the “fascist methods” of opponents seeking her ouster and said the country's current political crisis would leave a “scar” if not resolved democratically. In an interview with several foreign media groups, Rousseff said she was being pressured to resign because her rivals wanted “to avoid the difficulty of removing -- unduly, illegally and criminally -- a legitimately elected president from power”.

• Saturday, March 26th 2016 - 07:15 UTC

  Mercosur prepares to celebrate 25th anniversary hoping it can be 'reborn' under Argentine leadership

  

  On Saturday 26 March the Asuncion Treaty, which gave birth to Mercosur, the Common Market of the South, will be 25, and even with celebration plans the mood of its members is not enthusiastic following years of “too much ideology” and “too little trade and business”, distant from the original idea and purpose.

• Saturday, March 26th 2016 - 07:03 UTC

  Mercosur and Unasur can't agree on a statement of support for Dilma Rousseff

  

  The attempt by Uruguay to draft a strong Mercosur and Unasur resolution in support of embattled Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff has foundered. Argentina is only prepared to express support for Brazil's institutions while Chile and Paraguay have balked at the idea of personalizing the issue in Rousseff and her Workers Party.

• Friday, March 25th 2016 - 05:26 UTC

  Unemployment in Brazil reaches 9.5%, the highest level since 2012

  

  Unemployment in Latin America's largest country is at its highest level since 2012, the Brazilian government said on Thursday. Brazil's IBGE statistics bureau said that the jobless rate in the three months through January was 9.5%, compared to the 6.8% in the same period one year ago.

• Thursday, March 24th 2016 - 02:03 UTC

  Brazilian Supreme Court emerges with a decisive role in the institutional crisis

  

  The Brazilian government's efforts to have former president Lula da Silva into the cabinet of president Dilma Rousseff will have to wait until next 30 March when the Supreme Court is scheduled to hold its next full meeting. The political upheaval and simultaneous legal back-and forth has reached such a pitch that it inspired a bleakly funny website, lulaeministro.com, or “Is Lula a minister?” The site shows only the former president’s face and the words, “At this moment, No.” (Or yes, depending).

• Thursday, March 24th 2016 - 01:16 UTC

  Time bomb in Brazil: list of 200 names of politicians from 18 parties who received illegal funds for elections

  

  Odebrecht, the engineering firm at the heart of Brazil's biggest ever graft probe, on Tuesday agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, in a move likely to send shockwaves across political parties that for years illegally siphoned money from state contracts. Federal police found an office to pay bribes and it surfaced that since February it has a list of 200 politicians who benefited from siphoned funds for election campaigns.