Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff supported by the decisive campaigning of Lula da Silva, narrowly won re-election on Sunday after convincing voters that the record on poverty reduction in the last twelve years was more important than a recent economic slump.
Dilma Rousseff has stopped her erosion in opinion polls as she seeks a second term as Brazil’s president, even reversing the trend with only days left before the election, greatly thanks to her predecessor and mentor Lula da Silva.
The original Mercosur is over; it has been reduced to a political block with a three member board, Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela, according to Demetrio Magnoli a renowned Folha de Sao Paulo columnist who added that the 'political' Mercosur has helped the Alliance of the Pacific to advance.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff acknowledged many problems and challenges still plague the country's woeful heath system but defended her record on the economy and education on a live 15-minute interview on the Globo television network's nightly news.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa, who with an iron hand presided over a well-known corruption trial that resulted in important politicians going to jail, will step down from the bench this year, Brazil's Senate leader said Thursday.
President Dilma Rousseff said on Wednesday she will seek re-election in October, even though some are calling for the return of her popular predecessor president Lula da Silva. Rousseff, who belongs to Lula's Workers Party and was his protegée, said she hoped to have the support of all the parties allied with her government.
At least twenty members of Brazil's Lower House belonging to the ruling coalition have formally asked for the return of former president Lula da Silva as candidate for next October's election given 'the current economic situation of the country', which in practical terms means dumping Dilma Rousseff's re-election pretensions.
The visit this week of Brazil's former president Lula da Silva to Havana could help to unravel the current political crisis in Venezuela according to Argentine political analyst Rosendo Fraga, since both countries have much to lose if the conflicting situation continues.
Former president Lula da Silva lobbied strongly on Thursday in New York trying to convince US investors to make business in Brazil during a conference to members of the American Society and Council of Americas, which organized the event.
In a landmark judgment, Brazil's Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld more than a dozen jail terms handed down in a political corruption scandal which broke in 2005.