Brazil

• Tuesday, January 26th 2010 - 13:26 UTC

  Over five million Brazilians learning Spanish: the goal 41 million

  

  Over five million Brazilians are learning Spanish, according to the latest edition from Spain’s Cervantes Institute, “2009 Memory: Spanish language in the world”. This compares favourably with the one million registered in 2006, and covers the different levels of education in Brazil from primary school to university.

• Monday, January 25th 2010 - 14:44 UTC

  Lula da Silva’s closest advisor denies a repeat of Chilean scenario in Brazil

  

  President Lula da Silva’s main advisor in international affairs Marco Aurelio Garcia brushed aside the idea that Brazil could repeat a scenario like that of Chile in the last elections, when the opposition defeated the ruling coalition.

• Monday, January 25th 2010 - 14:35 UTC

  Brazil hands to Argentina Colonel accused of human rights abuses

  Brazil has extradited to Argentina a retired Uruguayan army colonel to face charges of human rights abuses dating back to military rule in the Southern cone countries during the 1970s.

• Saturday, January 23rd 2010 - 15:52 UTC

  Lula da Silva calls for unity and warns followers about the “Piñera factor”

  

  Brazilian president Lula da Silva called on his followers not to repeat what happened in Chile where the centre-left coalition lost the recent presidential election to the conservatives for having run with two candidates.

• Saturday, January 23rd 2010 - 15:13 UTC

  Brazilian bank plans to enter the Mexican retail banking market

  

  Brazil’s Banco Bradesco announced Friday that it plans to enter the Mexican retail banking market through the acquisition of Ibi Mexico

• Thursday, January 21st 2010 - 06:46 UTC

  Brazil inaugurates first commercial ethanol-fuelled power plant

  

  Brazil inaugurated this week the world’s first ethanol-fuelled power plant in the state of Minas Gerais. The flex-fuel turbine, which was converted from running solely on natural gas, began operating on December 31 and is currently in its optimization and testing phase.

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 12:49 UTC

  Lula da Silva announces campaign to promote protégé Dilma Rousseff

  

  With less that a year for presidential elections Brazilian leader Lula da Silva announced a spree of “public works inaugurations” until April, with the purpose of promoting the candidacy of his cabinet chief Dilma Rousseff.

• Wednesday, January 20th 2010 - 12:38 UTC

  Brazil promises to find killers of journalist and compensates family

  

  The Inter American Press Association IAPA praised Governor Jaques Wagner from the Brazilian state of Bahia for the enactment of legislation which provides for payment to the widow and children of journalist Manoel Leal de Oliveira murdered in 1998.

• Tuesday, January 19th 2010 - 13:45 UTC

  Argentina/Brazil review bilateral trade in February

  

  Argentina and Brazil will be meeting early February in Buenos Aires to assess how bilateral trade has been evolving and to plan the following steps to keep improving trade relations between Mercosur senior members.

• Tuesday, January 19th 2010 - 01:57 UTC

  Lula da Silva absent from Bolivia’s Morales taking office ceremony

  

  Brazilian president Lula da Silva will not be participating this week at Bolivia’s Evo Morales taking office ceremony. He will be represented by his foreign affairs advisor Marco Aurelio García, according to Valor Economico, a financial publication from Sao Paulo.