In Brazil, famed for its tiny bikinis and carefree attitude, a university student has been expelled after violent protests by students and professors outraged at the short mini skirt she wore on campus and her “provocative attitude”.
A country with the size of Brazil can’t fight with Paraguay, said Brazilian president Lula da Silva justifying the Itaipu hydroelectric energy agreement signed last July with his Paraguayan counterpart Fernando Lugo in Asuncion.
He added, “I preferred to give a country like Paraguay the chance to develop”.
Brazilian Foreign Affairs minister Celso Amorim will receive Monday in Rio do Janeiro his Argentine counterpart Jorge Taiana to discuss several issues of the “bilateral agenda” including, according to Argentine diplomatic sources the ongoing “trade differences”.
Brazilian president Lula da Silva warned his peer Barack Obama that South America “does not need US bases” in Colombia to combat narcotics trade and suggested he look after “US drugs consumers”.
Israeli President Shimon Peres begins Monday a “historic visit” to Brazil and Argentina, the first in decades to both countries for an Israeli head of state, and one of the main issues of the agenda will be the so-called “Iranian infiltration” in Latinamerica.
Brazilian diplomacy is working on a “non aggression” pact which it will propose to Colombia and other regional governments following on the military agreement signed by Bogotá with Washington and which has caused much concern in Brazil according to the Sao Paulo press.
Brazilian president Lula da Silva claims that his United States peer, Barack Obama has forgotten about Latinamerica after having promised a new relation with the continent. He also revealed he was working for a meeting between Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Colombia’s Alvaro Uribe “so they can address their differences”.
Renowned Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso gave his full support to Green party presidential hopeful Marina Silva that he expects will show more elegance and pragmatism than President Lula da Silva, whom he described as “illiterate” and a “coarse speaker”.
In related news the Brazilian Senate postponed for a week a full house vote on the incorporation of Venezuela to Mercosur which is pending since March 2007 when the administration of President Lula da Silva sent the request.
Brazil’s all powerful Sao Paulo Federation of Industries, FIESP, said it is willing to yield positions so a free trade agreement can be reached with the European Union but also suggested Brazil should leave Mercosur aside.