Argentine President Cristina Fernandez was received on Sunday in the Vatican by Pope Francis for an encounter that lasted almost two hours, in the fifth meeting between the pontiff and head of state since the ex-Buenos Aires archbishop was elected to the Holy See. The meeting however was not without criticism from Buenos Aires.
Some 130 ministers, 12 heads of state or government, including presidents from Argentina and Chile, Cristina Fernandez and Michelle Bachelet, plus numerous other high-level government representatives will be converging on Rome this week for the 39th session of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) governing Conference (6-13 June).
Uruguay's president Jose Mujica has now denied alleged statements collected in a book about his life written by two journalists, that he personally presented last Sunday in Buenos Aires and in which there is a mention to former president Lula da Silva and the 'mensalao', one of Brazil's largest corruption scandals involving monthly payments to have bills passed by Congress.
A close ally of Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and currently part of her government's coalition said “too much stealing” by Lula da Silva's ruling Workers Party (PT) is responsible for the country's political crisis and public opinion disenchantment with politics.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, (and her political mentor Lula da Silva), raced on Wednesday to defuse a rebellion by legislators upset about her budget austerity plans and her handling of a corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras, which now threatens political stability.
Brazilian prosecutors formally charged executives from six of the country's largest engineering firms with forming a cartel to funnel kickbacks from state-run oil firm Petrobras to the ruling political party and its allies.
Brazilian banker Luiz Carlos Trabuco Cappi, president of Bradesco, turned down an invitation from president Dilma Rousseff to occupy the Finance ministry as of next January first. According to the Sao Paulo financial publication Valor, there was no insistence on the issue from political sources.
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.