Proper policing, better government and a stronger economy are starting to make a difference in the more violent and squalid districts of Brazil’s former capital
Jun 10th 2010 | RIO DE JANEIRO
THANKS to a film (“City of God”) made in 2002, Cidade de Deus, a rundown housing project in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, became an internationally known symbol of the lawless urban squalor that has blighted Brazil’s most glamorous city for decades. The Comando Vermelho, a heavily armed gang of drug traffickers, dominated the lives of the 60,000 or so residents of Cidade de Deus and its surrounding favelas (the Brazilian term for the tightly packed self-built slums of the poor). The gangsters, some of them teenagers, could impose their reign of terror thanks to the brutal incompetence of the police and the venal indifference of the authorities.
Some of these problems are repeated across Brazil’s cities. But they are particularly acute in Rio de Janeiro, which has suffered chronic misgovernment and decline since the capital moved to Brasília in 1960. Ahead of Rio’s bagging of the 2016 Olympic games last autumn, rivals muttered about its criminal violence. In the week before the Olympic committee’s decision, the New Yorker magazine ran a chilling account of a Rio drug lord and his fief.
But Rio is undergoing a renaissance, one which even holds out hope for the 1m of the city’s 6m residents who live in favelas. Last year the police took control of Cidade de Deus—this time for keeps, they say. A force of 318 officers, backed by 25 patrol cars, is based in a new community-police station in a side street between two fetid, litter-strewn drainage channels. The result has been dramatic. In 2008 there were 29 murders in Cidade de Deus. So far this year there has been just one, and it involved a beating rather than a firearm, says José Beltrame, the security secretary in the Rio state government who is in charge of policing in the city. Other crime has fallen too.
Many residents are appreciative. “It was horror before,” says Jeanne Barbosa, who runs a small bar on the ground floor of her house. “Bodies would be thrown out of passing cars, and there were kids with revolvers.” Her niece was killed as she walked home, by a stray bullet from a firefight between the police and traffickers. “Now the children can play in the street.” A dreadlocked unemployed welder who gives his name as Sérgio is more sceptical. He says the police commit abuses. His friend, who has the blank stare of a crack addict, adds with deranged precision: “89% of them are corrupt.”
The police station in Cidade de Deus is one of eight, known as UPPs or Pacifying Police Units, set up in Rio’s favelas since late 2008. They are part of an ambitious strategy by Mr Beltrame to restore law and order. This starts with better intelligence work. To minimise abuses, the police who staff the UPPs are newly recruited and specially trained. He has assigned targets to the whole force. By getting the city and federal governments to chip in with bonuses, he has managed to double the salaries of front-line policemen.
The police’s objective is not so much to abolish the drug trade as to drive the armed gangs from the streets, and thus to open the way for other branches of the state. The gangs condemn favela residents to a life outside the law: electricity and satellite television are pirated; few residents have property deeds; and their jobs are in the informal economy, as are the minibuses that take them to work. The authorities are trying to consolidate security with legality and infrastructure. On May 31st Cidade de Deus gained its first health clinic. Next door, the city government is building a subsidised restaurant. Nearby, two young women are signing up residents for the electricity company, which offers new fridges and energy-saving light bulbs as an incentive to submit to higher bills.
So far the plan is little more than an experiment, albeit a promising one. The UPPs cover only around 140,000 people. The traffickers are lying low and have hidden their weapons, but they have not disappeared. The police must still overcome the mistrust of the community, says Tião Santos of Viva Rio, an NGO. The police in both Rio and São Paulo are still too trigger-happy: Human Rights Watch, a campaign group, recently noted that between them they kill more than 1,000 civilians a year.
City of the unholy trinity
Most of Rio’s 1,000-odd favelas are still more or less controlled by three trafficking gangs or by criminal militias set up by rogue police and firemen. But even in some of these places there is hope. Take Vigário Geral, a small favela where 21 people were massacred by a police death-squad in 1993. On a recent visit, the footbridge over the railway that leads there was guarded by two young men, one with a bulky revolver tucked ostentatiously into the top pocket of his jacket. But back in the 1990s there were a dozen youths with rifles guarding the bridge, says José Júnior of AfroReggae, an NGO which has just opened a large cultural centre in Vigário Geral, financed by government and private companies.
Boosted by falling crime rates (see chart), Mr Beltrame, a former federal police chief, plans to install 40 UPPs covering 500,000 people over the next four years. By then he hopes Rio’s murder rate will be similar to that of São Paulo, which reformed its police in the 1990s.
If he has a good chance of achieving this, it is because Rio is enjoying “a magic moment [in which] everything is conspiring in its favour,” says André Urani, an economist who studies the city. The economy is growing strongly and creating jobs. Rio is the hub for Brazil’s offshore oil, but it is also attracting new industries. After decades of populism and political conflict, public management in the state is being transformed. Sérgio Cabral, the state governor, and Eduardo Paes, the mayor, are both allies of Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (all three turned up to open the clinic in Cidade de Deus). So federal money is pouring into the city. The state government, having cleaned up its chaotic finances, has room to borrow.
The extra funds will pay for an upgrade of the city’s transport system for the 2014 World Cup (the final will be played in Rio’s Maracanã stadium) and for the Olympics. Having secured the games with a conservative bid that put most of the events in well-heeled Barra and Copacabana, the authorities are now tweaking the plan. Mr Paes wants to revamp the seedy port area by getting private developers to build accommodation there for the 20,000 journalists who will cover the games. Some of the new money is also going on installing the paving, lighting and sewerage that turn favelas into neighbourhoods.
There is still much to do. Complexo do Alemão, an agglomeration of favelas spread over hillsides in the north of the city, is dotted with new housing projects and the concrete pillars of a 5km (3 mile) cable car that by later this year should link it to the suburban railway network. One of its muddy streets of small shops boasts a branch of Banco Santander, opened last month—the first bank inside a Rio favela. Guilherme Nicolas, the branch manager, hopes to sign up 10,000 customers. But he says most residents earn less than 1,000 reais ($600) a month, and some want loans to buy food. Insecurity and poverty have gone hand in hand in Rio. A safer city has a better chance of becoming a less socially divided one.
Brazil kicked off Latin America's premier fashion event, Sao Paulo Fashion Week, Wednesday, with parades showcasing its economic prosperity and optimism.
"We're a young country, a young culture, with an enormous potential for growth, for development," organizer Paulo Borges told reporters ahead of the first shows.
Brazil's designs for the 2010-2011 summer season - including the inevitable sexy bikinis - are sashaying down the catwalks daily to next Monday under the overarching theme "Anima" ("animated" or "lively" in Portuguese).
Gisele Bundchen, the Brazilian beauty who has become the world's top-paid model, will Sunday be making her first catwalk show since giving birth to a baby four months ago with her husband, US football player Tom Brady.
The Sao Paulo Fashion Week this year trains the spotlight on Brazilians' obsession with brand names and stylish clothes, underpinning a 50-billion-dollar fashion market that is becoming one of the most profitable in the world for the big luxury groups.
It also confirms Brazil's growing economic power.
Latin America's biggest economy, ranked 10th in the world, is currently expanding at nine percent on an annual basis - almost as much as the global champion China.
A leading consulting firm specializing in Brazil's luxury market, MCF Consultoria, said the sector expanded 11.5 percent last year, when much of the rest of the world was tightening its belts in the global downturn, and could grow more than 17 percent this year.
"Brazilians love to shop," the firm's director, Carlos Ferreirinha, told AFP.
"In Brazil, people will spend what they do not have. Spending in Brazil is much higher than any discretionary money capability," he said.
He explained that shops regularly allow customers to pay off items in monthly instalments, interest free.
That, and the soaring value of Brazil's currency, the real, have pushed spending on imported goods denominated in dollars or euros to a record level.
French label Louis Vuitton, whose handbags grace the arm of almost every woman in Sao Paulo's rich Jardins neighborhood, has done very well from the trend, winning brand-recognition with 23 percent of Brazilian consumers, according to a survey conducted by MCF Consultoria.
Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Dior and Gucci also have big profiles.
Brazilians are fashion snobs, insisting on wearing the very latest collections from Europe, Ferreirinha explained.
"They want to give the impression that they are very updated, very contemporary, and this is translated into impulsiveness," he said.
And there no immediate prospect of Brazil's gaping consumerist maw snapping shut any time soon, according to Ferreirinha.
"We're going to have at least 20 years more of very important growth. Brazil is still very much behind the development process that everybody believes we can have," he said, pointing to a nascent but rapidly growing middle class.
June 13 (Reuters) - The Brazilian real is now the second most important currency on international derivatives exchanges in terms of open positions, behind the U.S. dollar but ahead of the euro, the Bank for International Settlements said.
Open interest in futures and options contracts on the Brazilian real rose by 41 percent in the first three months of 2010 to $0.14 trillion, the BIS said in its quarterly report published on Sunday.
"The importance of the real in the currency segment of the futures and options market is due to the fact that there is comparatively little trading over the counter," the BIS said.
The real is not a fully convertible currency, but it has a well developed and liquid futures market.
Total open interest in FX futures and options contracts across all currencies rose by 29 percent to $0.4 trillion in the first quarter, far outpacing growth in turnover, which rose by 11 percent to $9 trillion.
Open interest in U.S. dollar contracts was $0.33 trillion by the end of March and in euro contracts it was $0.10 trillion, the BIS said, adding that interest in sterling-related contracts rose 57 percent to $0.02 trillion.
Brazil's currency is attractive for investors because of its strong economy, high interest rates -- which were raised above 10 percent last week [ID:nN09179023] -- and its status as a commodity-linked currency. The real is, though, vulnerable during times of heightened aversion to risk on financial markets.
Recent data showed Brazil's economy grew at its fastest pace in at least 14 years in the first quarter. [ID:nN08250176]
(Reporting by Jessica Mortimer; Editing by Susan Fenton)
U.S., Brazilian officials at odds over letter on Iranian uranium
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, May 28, 2010
Maybe there should have been a follow-up note.
On April 20, President Obama sent a 2 1/2 -page letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva outlining a deal that the United States had unsuccessfully pursued in October, one in which Iran would swap the bulk of its enriched uranium for fuel for a medical research reactor. At the time, Brazil and Turkey were contemplating mediation efforts with Iran.
"For us, Iran's agreement to transfer 1,200 kg of low-enriched uranium (LEU) out of the country would build confidence and reduce regional tensions by substantially reducing Iran's LEU stockpile," Obama wrote, according to a copy of the letter posted Thursday on the Web site PoliticaExterna.com.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received a similar letter.
That letter has become a sort of talisman for Brazil, which says Lula and Erdogan used it as a guide when they negotiated a deal with Tehran on May 17. Brazilian officials are shocked that the United States is raising objections to the agreement and its terms, including the fact that it did not end Iran's recent decision to begin enriching uranium to a level of 20 percent.
Brazil's foreign minister, Celso Amorim, said that his government was encouraged "to implement the proposals in October, without deviation, and we did." As for the 20 percent enrichment, he said, "Nobody told us, 'Hey, if you do not stop the enrichment to 20 percent, forget the deal.' "
U.S. officials beg to differ. A senior U.S. official said the letter was designed to deal with a discrete problem. At the time, the Turks and Brazilians seemed inclined to accept an Iranian proposal to ship the uranium out piecemeal, rather than in one batch.
"It was a letter that was responding to something they were doing, in which we were pointing out that what you are doing falls well short of what we are seeking before," he said.
Meanwhile, in the days leading up to the negotiations, the official said, there were "multiple conversations" between the Americans and their Turkish and Brazilian counterparts laying out what needed to happen, including an end to the 20 percent enrichment. "There was a constant drumbeat in the conversations," he said.
But U.S. officials said there was no president-to-president letter laying out those broader concerns. So Lula and Erdogan went to Tehran with the earlier -- and, in the White House's view, out-of-date -- missive.
"They became riveted on the TRR," the official said, referring to the Tehran Research Reactor. "Lula wanted to go there. He wanted to play a certain kind of role. This was the most immediate thing out there."
Brimming with confidence, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva is raising his country's global status with increasing forays into international politics. In his most recent coup, he convinced Iran to agree to a controversial nuclear deal. Could it offer an opportunity to avoid both sanctions and war?
He was accused of being many things in the past, including a communist, a coarse proletarian and a drinker. But those days are long gone. As Brazil ascends to become a new economic power, his reputation has experienced a meteoric rise. Many now view Brazil's president as a hero of the southern hemisphere and an important counterweight to Washington, Brussels and Beijing. The American news magazine Time took things a step further two weeks ago when it named him the "world's most influential political leader," even ahead of US President Barack Obama. In his native Brazil, there are many who see him as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Price.
And now this man, Luiz Inácio da Silva, 64, nicknamed "Lula" ("Squid"), who spent his childhood in a slum as the son of illiterate parents, has scored yet another political coup. In a marathon meeting, he negotiated a nuclear deal with the Iranian leadership. On Monday, he appeared triumphantly at the side of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The three leaders reached an agreement that they believe would take UN sanctions against Iran over its possible nuclear weapons program off the agenda. The West, which had been pushing for a tightening of international punitive measures, looked duped, even taken by surprise.
But Washington's counterattack came the next day, opening a new chapter in the simmering nuclear dispute, in which Beijing, in particular, had long resisted a tougher approach. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced: "We have reached agreement on a strong draft with the cooperation of both Russia and China." The planned sanctions resolution was sent to all members of the United Nations Security Council, including Brazil and Turkey. The two countries are both two-year elected members of the 15-member body, which must accept a resolution with at least nine votes before it can take effect.
US Adamant on Sanctions
Clinton specifically thanked Lula for his "sincere efforts." But her expression clearly suggested that she perceived his efforts as more of an impediment than anything else. "We are proceeding to rally the international community on behalf of a strong sanctions resolution that will in our view send an unmistakable message about what is expected from Iran," Clinton said.
But isn't Lula's less confrontational approach in the nuclear dispute much more promising? Will it be this easy to slow down Lula Superstar, who has the support of NATO member Turkey? Anyone who has followed his career will find it hard to believe. This man has always prevailed against all resistance, and all odds.
The father left the family when Lula was young, and the mother moved with her eight children from northeastern Brazil to the industrialized south, where she hoped to improve the family's chances. Lula didn't learn to read and write until he was 10. As a child, he helped support the family by working as a shoeshine boy and fruit seller, and toiling in a paint factory. He eventually managed to secure an apprenticeship as a toolmaker. When he was 25, his wife Maria and their unborn child died, because the family couldn't afford adequate medical care.
Lula became politically active as a young man, when he joined the union and organized illegal strikes in the days of the military dictatorship. He was arrested several times in the 1980s. Dissatisfied with the classic leftists, he founded his own workers' party, which he gradually transformed from a Marxist to a social democratic party. He made three unsuccessful bids for the presidency until, on his fourth try, he won the 2002 presidential election by a significant margin. It was the poor and the poorest who, in a country of extreme economic contrasts, placed their hopes in the charismatic labor leader. When Lula won the election, the super rich, fearing expropriation, made sure that their private jets were kept fueled up.
Hero of the Poor Refrained From Revolution
But those who had hoped for or feared a revolution in Brazil were surprised. After his inauguration, Lula took some of his cabinet members to a slum, and he launched a large-scale program called "Fome Zero" ("Zero Hunger") to alleviate the hardships of the underprivileged. But he did not frighten the markets. Increases in commodities prices and a modern economic policy that emphasized foreign investment and domestic education and training resources helped Lula gain re-election in 2006.
His term expires in December, at which point he will not be eligible to run for re-election. He has put the house in order domestically by grooming a potential successor. But the self-confident president evidently wants to leave a foreign policy legacy too: He regards it as his duty to turn Brazil, with its population of 196 million, into a major world power and to secure a permanent seat for his country on the UN Security Council.
Lula has recognized that it helps to maintain good relations with Washington, London and Moscow in pursuit of this goal. But he also knows that close ties to countries like China and India, as well as Middle Eastern and African countries, could be even more important. He sees himself as a man of the "south," and as a leader of the poor and disenfranchised. And, of course, he also recognizes the shifts that are taking place. Last year, for example, the People's Republic of China surpassed the United States as Brazil's biggest trading partner for the first time.
Lula is the only head of state who attended both the exclusive World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the World Social Forum, which is critical of globalization, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. He is an indefatigable globetrotter, having visited 25 countries in Africa alone, many Asian countries and almost every country in Latin America -- always with an economic delegation in tow. He relentlessly preaches his creed of a multipolar world. And because Lula is a charismatic speaker and an "authentic" labor leader, crowds around the world cheer him on as if he were a pop star. At the 2009 G-20 summit in London, US President Barack Obama, apparently a fan, said: "I love this guy."
In the meantime, Obama can no longer be certain whether Lula is indeed "his man." The Brazilian is becoming more and more self-confident as he distances himself from Washington and, at times, even seeks confrontation.
Mounting Self-Confidence
Honduras is a case in point. The United States, which has always seen Central America as its back yard, was astonished when Lula gave ousted President Manual Zelaya refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa last year and demanded a voice in the solution of the conflict. By refusing to recognize the new president, Brasilia openly opposed Obama.
Things happened very quickly after that. Lula traveled to Cuba, where he met with Raul and Fidel Castro and called for an immediate end to the American economic embargo. To the delight of his hosts, he likened the regime critics suffering in Havana's prisons to common criminals. Lula also made a point of appearing with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who breathes fire and brimstone against Washington and is increasingly gagging the press in his country. Speaking to SPIEGEL, Lula characterized the autocratic leader as "the best president of Venezuela in the last 100 years."
And when he received Ahmadinejad in Brasilia a few months ago, he commended the Iranian president for his supposedly flawless election victory and likened the Iranian opposition movement to frustrated football fans. Brazil too, he said, would not allow anyone to interfere with its "obviously peaceful" nuclear program.
Despite this closing of ranks, many were skeptical when Lula headed for Tehran to negotiate a nuclear deal with the Iranian leadership, particularly after the Iranians had shown almost no willingness to compromise in recent months. At a joint press conference with Lula, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev rated the chances of an agreement brokered by Brazil at no more than 30 percent. Lula countered by saying: "I'd say they are 99 percent." There it was again, the rising political star's pronounced ego. "He thinks he's a miracle worker who can achieve things where others have failed," says Michael Shifter, an American expert on Latin America.
* Fourth straight month of gains, underscores rebound (Recasts, adds quotes, context and byline)
By Isabel Versiani
BRASILIA, May 17 (Reuters) - Brazil's economy added a record number of jobs for the month of April and will create as many as 280,000 jobs in May, underscoring the strength of the expansion in Latin America's largest economy.
A total of 305,068 payroll jobs were added in April, the fourth straight month of increases, the labor ministry said on Monday.
This brings the total net payroll positions added so far this year to 962,327 and the economy should create between 240,000 and 280,000 in May, Labor Minister Carlos Lupi told reporters in Brasilia. Brazil is expected to have a net 2.5 million new jobs in 2010, he said.
The economy was playing catch up to last year when companies laid off workers or were reluctant to hire in the midst of the global financial crisis, he said.
"We are not at the limit (of economic activity). The Brazilian industry still has room to grow," Lupi told a press conference.
"I don't see any possibility of consumption cooling."
The jobs data comes days after the government took measures to cool the economy which many say is in danger of overheating. Brazil's government last week said it had plans to cut its 2010 budget by another 10 billion reais, bringing total spending cuts to 1 percent of gross domestic product. For more see [ID:nN13116480].
Brazil became among the first countries to come out of the global financial crisis in 2009 and is expected to grow 6.3 percent this year, according to the latest weekly central bank survey. Some banks are expecting the economy to expand as much as 7.5 percent this year.
Much of Brazil's work force is not registered with the labor ministry and belongs to a vast informal economy. The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is seeking to increase the number of payroll jobs in the country.
(Reporting by Isabel Versiani; Writing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
Having met in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran, the undersigned have agreed on the following Declaration:
1. We reaffirm our commitment to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and in accordance with the related articles of the NPT, recall the right of all State Parties, including the Islamic Republic of Iran, to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy (as well as nuclear fuel cycle including enrichment activities) for peaceful purposes without discrimination.
2. We express our strong conviction that we have the opportunity now to begin a forward looking process that will create a positive, constructive, non-confrontational atmosphere leading to an era of interaction and cooperation.
3. We believe that the nuclear fuel exchange is instrumental in initiating cooperation in different areas, especially with regard to peaceful nuclear cooperation including nuclear power plant and research reactors construction.
4. Based on this point the nuclear fuel exchange is a starting point to begin cooperation and a positive constructive move forward among nations. Such a move should lead to positive interaction and cooperation in the field of peaceful nuclear activities replacing and avoiding all kinds of confrontation through refraining from measures, actions and rhetorical statements that would jeopardize Iran's rights and obligations under the NPT.
5. Based on the above, in order to facilitate the nuclear cooperation mentioned above, the Islamic Republic of Iran agrees to deposit 1200 kg LEU in Turkey. While in Turkey this LEU will continue to be the property of Iran. Iran and the IAEA may station observers to monitor the safekeeping of the LEU in Turkey.
6. Iran will notify the IAEA in writing through official channels of its agreement with the above within seven days following the date of this declaration. Upon the positive response of the Vienna Group (US, Russia, France and the IAEA) further details of the exchange will be elaborated through a written agreement and proper arrangement between Iran and the Vienna Group that specifically committed themselves to deliver 120 kg of fuel needed for the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR).
7. When the Vienna Group declares its commitment to this provision, then both parties would commit themselves to the implemention of the agreement mentioned in item 6. Islamic Republic of Iran expressed its readiness to deposit its LEU (1200 kg) within one month. On the basis of the same agreement the Vienna Group should deliver 120 kg fuel required for TRR in no later than one year.
8. In case the provisions of this Declaration are not respected Turkey, upon the request of Iran, will return swiftly and unconditionally Iran's LEU to Iran.
9. We welcome the decision of the Islamic Republic of Iran to continue as in the past their talks with the 5+1 countries in Turkey on the common concerns based on collective commitments according to the common points of their proposals.
10. Turkey and Brazil appreciated Iran's commitment to the NPT and its constructive role in pursuing the realization of nuclear rights of its member states. The Islamic Republic of Iran likewise appreciated the constructive efforts of the friendly countries Turkey and Brazil in creating the conducive environment for realization of Iran's nuclear rights.
Irán acepta un acuerdo para intercambiar su combustible nuclear en Turquía
Turquía y Brasil avalan un plan por el que Teherán acepta enriquecer uranio en el exterior.- Los equipos iraníes seguirán purificando combustible nuclear
ÁNGELES ESPINOSA- Teherán - 17/05/2010
Irán, Brasil y Turquía acaban de firmar un acuerdo para un intercambio de combustible nuclear que pretende desbloquear la crisis por el programa atómico iraní. A falta de conocer la letra pequeña, el compromiso parece similar al que la comunidad internacional propuso en Ginebra el pasado octubre, pero incluye la garantía de que el intercambio se hará en Turquía y que este país devolverá el uranio poco enriquecido iraní en caso de que no se complete el canje.
El presidente de Irán, Mahmud Ahmadineyad, ha hecho de inmediato un llamamiento a reanudar las conversaciones con el G-6 (EE UU, Rusia, China, Reino Unido, Francia y Alemania). "Tras la firma del pacto para el intercambio de combustible nuclear, es el momento para que los países del G-6 inicien conversaciones con Irán basadas en la honestidad, la justicia y el respeto mutuo", declaró.
El acuerdo llega después de la muy anunciada intervención del presidente brasileño, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, que se encuentra en Teherán para promover las relaciones bilaterales y participar en una cumbre de países en vías de desarrollo de Asia, África y América Latina.
El primer ministro turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, otro de los impulsores de la mediación, llegó a la capital iraní anoche después de que su ministro de Exteriores, Ahmet Davutoglu, le informara de que las conversaciones avanzaban de forma positiva. Tras casi 18 horas de negociación, los iraníes aceptaban hacer el intercambio de uranio fuera de su territorio, algo a lo que hasta ahora se habían negado.
Según el texto de 10 puntos, que el jefe de la diplomacia iraní leyó ante los medios de comunicación, Irán enviará a Turquía 1.200 kilos de uranio poco enriquecido (al 3,5%) dentro de un mes, para que en el plazo máximo de un año el Organismo Internacional de la Energía Atómica (OIEA) le facilite los 120 kilos de uranio al 20% que necesita para su reactor de investigación. "Si las provisiones no se respetan, Turquía se compromete a devolver rápida e incondicionalmente los 1.200 kilos de uranio poco enriquecido en cuanto se lo pida Irán", subrayó Manuchehr Mottaki.
"La pelota está ahora en el terreno de las potencias occidentales", declaró por su parte el portavoz de Exteriores iraní, Ramin Mehmanarast. El ministro turco de Exteriores afirmó que ya no había base para nuevas sanciones de la ONU. "El acuerdo de intercambio, firmado hoy por Irán, muestra que Teherán quiere seguir una senda constructiva (...). Nohay base para nuevas sanciones y presiones", dijo Davutoglu.
Pero no está claro que el resultado vaya a ser suficiente para Estados Unidos, que sospecha que el programa nuclear iraní esconde intenciones militares.
Enriquecimiento en la planta de Natanz
Cuando Washington respaldó un intercambio similar en octubre, los 1.200 kilos de uranio poco enriquecido suponían el 80% de todo el combustible acumulado por Irán, y su salida del país por un año garantizaba que durante ese tiempo no tendría capacidad para fabricar una bomba atómica. Desde entonces, la planta de Natanz ha seguido enriqueciendo, y según el propio Ahmadineyad, a un ritmo mayor, lo que reduciría esa medida de confianza.
Teherán, que entonces desestimó la propuesta, considera que ha hecho una concesión, puesto que de acuerdo con el Tratado de No Proliferación, tiene derecho a comprar el combustible para su reactor de investigación, sin necesidad de entregar uranio poco enriquecido a cambio. Pero es precisamente el enriquecimiento de ese uranio, en contra de cinco resoluciones del Consejo de Seguridad, lo que preocupa a EE UU y sus aliados. Ese proceso lo mismo sirve para producir combustible nuclear que para fabricar bombas. Por eso se han movilizado en busca de consenso para una nueva resolución sancionadora.
A medida que se acerca el momento de su aprobación, Irán ha movilizado toda su capacidad diplomática para tratar de frenar las sanciones. En Brasil y Turquía, que actualmente ocupan dos sitios no permanentes en el Consejo de Seguridad, encontró dos aliados de peso para tratar de ganar la partida a EEUU y evitar nuevas sanciones.
PDG Realty and Agre to create Brazil's 'biggest' homebuilder
By Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo
Published: May 5 2010 03:00 | Last updated: May 5 2010 03:00
Two Brazilian homebuilders will create what they said would be the country's biggest real estate company in a R$2.3bn (US$1.8bn) stock-only acquisition.
PDG Realty, a company with much of its business in Brazil's fast-moving lower income sector, will issue new shares and swap them for shares in Agre, which is strongest in the mid-market sector and in Brazil's poor but quickly developing north-east region.
The move comes amid an explosion of credit in Brazil's housing sector. Caixa Econômica Federal, the government-controlled savings bank, lent R$45bn to homebuyers in 2009 - R$25bn more than in 2008 and R$20bn more than its own projections at the start of last year.
"We see this as a very positive move," said Eduardo Silveira, analyst at Fator Corretora, a São Paulo brokerage. "Their businesses are complementary and the price is quite cheap. PDG shareholders are getting a good asset in the middle income segment at a good price.
"Agre shareholders are getting no premium, but they are becoming shareholders in the biggest or second-biggest company in the market," he added.
Under the deal, Agre shareholders will receive 0.495 newly issued shares in PDG Realty for each Agre share. PDG Realty will issue 145.5m new shares at R$15.48 per share, the average of their closing price in the last 10 days of April. Based on the same measure, Agre shares are valued at R$7.66 under the deal.
Agre's existing lowincome business, Asa, will be sold. It will be offered first to its founding shareholders and, if they decline, to Veremonte Participações, an indirect shareholder in Agre, which has agreed to buy it for R$73m, based on the same calculation as the share swap.
"This solves several problems at once," Mr Silveira said, adding that the sale of Asa removed any overlap in the deal and the share issue by PDG Realty removed doubts among investors about Agre's capitalisation.
Agre was the only one of Brazil's listed real estate companies not to make a secondary issue of shares in the past year or so.
PDG Realty will compete for market leadership with Cyrela, once Brazil's biggest real estate company.
The deal continues rapid consolidation in the sector. Agre was formed only last September in a merger of the former Agre with Abyara and Klabin Segall.
House prices have been rising rapidly in Brazil and especially Rio de Janeiro, where prices have doubled in two years in expectation of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games.
When Brazilians first elected Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva President in 2002, the country's robber barons nervously checked the fuel gauges on their private jets. They had turned Brazil into one of the most inequitable places on earth, and now it looked like payback time. Lula, 64, was a genuine son of Latin America's working class — in fact, a founding member of the Workers' Party — who'd once been jailed for leading a strike.
By the time Lula finally won the presidency, after three failed attempts, he was a familiar figure in Brazilian national life. But what led him to politics in the first place? Was it his personal knowledge of how hard many Brazilians must work just to get by? Being forced to leave school after fifth grade to support his family? Working as a shoeshine boy? Losing part of a finger in a factory accident?
No, it was when, at age 25, he watched his wife Maria die during the eighth month of her pregnancy, along with their child, because they couldn't afford decent medical care.
There's a lesson here for the world's billionaires: let people have good health care, and they'll cause much less trouble for you.
And here's a lesson for the rest of us: the great irony of Lula's presidency — he was elected to a second term in 2006 and will serve through this year — is that even as he tries to propel Brazil into the First World with government social programs like Fome Zero (Zero Starvation), designed to end hunger, and with plans to improve the education available to members of Brazil's working class, the U.S. looks more like the old Third World every day.
What Lula wants for Brazil is what we used to call the American Dream. We in the U.S., by contrast, where the richest 1% now own more financial wealth than the bottom 95% combined, are living in a society that is fast becoming more like Brazil.
* Car industry helped propel economic growth in 2009 (Adds sales numbers)
SAO PAULO April 30 (Reuters) - Global automakers will likely invest up to $11.2 billion in Brazil over the next two years, taking advantage of pent-up demand for vehicles in the largest Latin American economy, the president of industry group Anfavea, Cledorvino Bellini, said on Friday.
The investment comes as April car sales for Brazil are expected to reach a record for the month, despite retreating 13 percent from the all-time high in March, underscoring the importance of domestic demand to Brazil's economic rebound.
Through Thursday, sales of new vehicles in Brazil totaled 261,063, down from 299,368 through the same period in the previous month, Anfavea said on Friday. The April figures are a 20.3 percent rise over the year-ago period.
Bellini, who is the head of Fiat's (FIA.MI) Latin American operations, said at an event in Sao Paulo that expansion plans follow an "extremely positive 2009 in Brazil."
Brazil's economy is forecast to grow nearly 6 percent in 2010, according to central bank estimates, fueled by an increase in credit to consumers and businesses, low unemployment and rising household income.
Automobile sales in the country rose 11.4 percent in 2009 from the previous year to a record 3.14 million units, in part because of easier credit and government tax breaks.
"The country was the last to enter the crisis and one of the first to emerge from it," Bellini said.
Brazil, the fifth-biggest market for the industry, is a major market for global automakers such as Italy's Fiat, Germany's Volkswagen AG (VOWG.DE), U.S.-based General Motors Company [GM.UL] and Ford Motor Co (F.N). (Reporting by Alberto Alerigi Jr.; Writing by Luciana Lopez)
The Associated Press Sunday, March 28, 2010; 11:02 AM
SAO PAULO -- A poll says the popularity of Brazil's president is at its highest level since he took office in 2003.
The Datafolha polling institute says 76 percent of Brazilians see the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as good or great. It is the highest support for a president since the Datafolha began conducting such polls in 1990.
Datafolha says the popularity increased 3 percentage points compared to the last survey in February.
Silva has maintained a high popularity thanks to improved socio-economic numbers. His second term ends this year.
Datafolha interviewed more than 4,000 people on March 25-26. The poll's margin of error is 2 percentage points. The survey was published Sunday in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper.
March 17 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil’s Workers’ Party candidate Dilma Rousseff has almost closed the gap with the opposition’s likely contender even as 42 percent of voters remain unaware that she is President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s chosen heir.
In line with other polls, backing for Rousseff rose to 30 percent from 17 percent in December, according to an Ibope poll distributed today by the National Industrial Confederation. Support for undeclared opposition candidate Jose Serra, governor of Sao Paulo state, slipped to 35 percent from 38 percent. The March 6-10 poll of 2,002 likely voters has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
“Voters are very satisfied with the status quo and they are looking for a candidate that represents continuity,” Christopher Garman, Latin America director at the New York-based Eurasia Group, said in a phone interview before the poll was released. “The only reason why Dilma is behind is because she is not well-known.”
Cabinet chief Rousseff, 62, who has never before sought public office, is still unknown or little known by 42 percent of Brazilians, down from 67 percent in December, according to the poll. Her biggest asset is the support of Lula, whose approval rating in the poll was 83 percent, near the record 84 percent reached in March 2009.
Preference for Lula
According to the poll, 53 per cent of the voters would prefer a candidate backed by Lula.
Lula, 64, is barred by the constitution from seeking a third consecutive term. He has been traveling around Brazil with Rousseff inaugurating public works and trying to raise her profile as the candidate of his Workers’ Party.
The numbers released today confirm the trend shown at a CNT/Sensus poll, published Feb. 1, that showed Rousseff narrowing the gap with Serra to 7 percentage points.
“If the president’s level of approval was near a historical high last year, when the economy was not growing, imagine how it’ll be in 2010, when it will grow around 5.5 percent,” Garman said.
Serra, 67, who hasn’t officially announced his candidacy, is the governor of Brazil’s wealthiest and most populous state. He belongs to the opposition Social Democracy Party, which held the presidency from 1995 through 2002.
Rejection
Rejection of Rousseff dropped to 27 percent from 41 percent in the previous poll. The decline in voter rejection of Serra wasn’t as dramatic: 25 percent from 29 percent.
The race to succeed Lula is “very competitive” with no candidate likely to open a commanding lead until just before balloting, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said in a March 15 report.
A victory by Rousseff could lead to higher government spending and renew concerns about the government’s fiscal position, according to the report.
Unlike Serra, a past critic of high interest rates, Rousseff would likely follow Lula in maintaining the independence of central bank policy makers, Bank of America said.
Although this year’s election won’t replicate the market “hysteria” that accompanied Lula’s victory in 2002, it shouldn’t be treated as a non-event either, Bank of America said, while recommending its clients buy nine-month real put options at a strike price of 1.95 per dollar.
The trade makes money if the real weakens beyond 2.03 per dollar during the period, from 1.7649 at 3:01 p.m. New York time.
To contact the reporters on this story: Adriana Brasileiro in Rio de Janeiro at abrasileiro@bloomberg.net; Fabiola Moura in New York at fdemoura@bloomberg.net
Published: March 12 2010 02:00 | Last updated: March 12 2010 02:00
A surge in consumer demand and a strong recovery in investment suggest Brazil's economy is on course to grow at least 5.5 per cent this year, according to data released yesterday by its national statistics office.
Consumption by families increased 7.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009 against the same period in 2008. Investment rose 3.6 per cent in the same period, or by 6.6 per cent compared with the previous quarter.
Gross domestic product grew 2 per cent year on year in the fourth quarter and fell 0.2 per cent for the whole of 2009 compared with 2008.
Brazil's economy adds record number of jobs in Feb
Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:30am EDT
* Brazil adds 209,425 payroll jobs in February
* Second straight month of gains, underscores recovery (Recasts, adds details, context)
BRASILIA, March 17 (Reuters) - Brazil's economy added jobs for the second straight month in February, creating a hefty 209,425 payroll positions as companies ramped up hiring amid a strong economic recovery, the government said on Wednesday.
The number was a record for the month of February, a holiday-shortened month because of annual Carnival festivities around that country.
In January, Latin America's largest economy added 181,419 payroll positions, also a record for that month. So far this year, 390,844 payroll jobs have been created in Brazil.
Most of Brazil's workforce is not registered with the labor ministry and belongs to a vast informal economy. The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is seeking to increase the number of payroll jobs in the country.
The government had anticipated stronger net payroll job creation in February than in January, Labor Minister Carlos Lupi said last month. [ID:nSPG002744]
Brazil became among the first countries to come out of the global financial crisis in 2009 and is expected to grow 5.45 percent this year, according to the latest weekly central bank survey. (Reporting by Isabel Versiani; Writing by Luciana Lopez; Editing by Diane Craft)
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