Brazil is one of the top 10 economies globally, but it fails to meet too many of its population’s basic needs. It is one of the OECD countries with the highest public spending on education – yet Brazilian students perform worse on international tests than those in other OECD countries. Half of all Brazilians still lack access to basic sanitation and 35 million lack … Read more
Latin America faces many challenges to ensure a better life for its citizens. The best tool to tackle such challenges is improving democratic governance, which does not always find fertile ground to thrive. The main obstacle to democratic governance continues to be populist politicians and their shaky commitment to democracy. The making of a democratic … Read more
After months of anticipation, Brazil’s Supreme Court released on Tuesday the names of dozens of politicians who will be investigated as part of the ongoing probe into corruption at state oil company Petrobras. The list is a veritable who’s-who of Brazilian politics, and includes nearly a third of President Michel Temer’s Cabinet and a third … Read more
It’s one thing to perform for hundreds of spectators at Salvador, Brazil’s world-famous carnaval. It’s quite another to take the stage as a transgender woman in a region that has become a focal point of rising violence against Brazil’s LGBT community. That reality wasn’t lost on trans musicians Assucena Assucena and Raquel Virgínia as they … Read more
On the surface, they seemed like two unrelated cases of bad luck. Just as Brazil’s economy was showing fragile signs of recovery, a new corruption scandal erupted on March 17 threatening to paralyze the country’s $130 billion beef sector. Days later, the pillar of President Michel Temer’s market-friendly economic agenda, a reform to the social … Read more
Venezuela’s protracted political and economic crisis is reaching a breaking point. Over the past few months thousands of Venezuelans fled across the border to seek sanctuary in northern Brazil, many of them taking only what they could carry on their backs. Although the humanitarian emergency has been brewing for some time, the Brazilian authorities appear woefully … Read more
Brazil’s current political instability began four years ago, with a wave of street demonstrations that virtually no one predicted – and eventually drew more than 1 million people into the streets. In this special report, AQ’s editor-in-chief looks back at what really caused the protests – and whether today’s politicians have fully learned their lessons. … Read more
When Sérgio Moro visited Washington, D.C. last July, the 44-year-old judge overseeing Brazil’s “Car Wash” corruption investigation was greeted with standing ovations and adoring questions. “Will you please run for president?” one Brazilian executive pleaded. “What advice would you give so we can have a ‘Car Wash’ in Mexico?” asked a lawyer. Well, what a … Read more
Este artículo es parte de un reportaje especial sobre los top cinco jóvenes emprendedores latinoamericanos seleccionados por AQ. Haga click aquí para ver el resto. Read in English A pesar de lo sabrosas que puedan ser, las hamburguesas de McDonald’s no son lo que propulsaron al gigante de los restaurantes hacia la cima de la … Read more
Read in English Por mais saborosos que sejam, não foram os hambúrgueres do McDonald’s que impulsionaram o gigante da comida rápida ao topo da cadeia alimentar. Os fundadores da empresa — e mais tarde Ray Kroc — transformaram a rede de lanchonetes em um ícone global graças ao foco incansável na eficiência, a testes meticulosos … Read more
Lourenço Canário da Silva never fought in World War II, but he was one of the unsung footsoldiers who contributed to the Allied victory. A poor laborer from the northeastern state of Ceará, Da Silva and some 34,000 other Brazilians were recruited to tap rubber in the Amazon forest between 1943 and 1945. The bounty … Read more
Beauty company Beleza Natural became a national leader by empowering Brazilian women.
The revelations of years of immense and systemic bribe payments to policymakers across Latin America by engineering and construction conglomerate Odebrecht are an unmitigated disaster for Brazil – and its foreign policy of the last decade and a half. The internationalization of Brazilian capitalism – that is, the government’s strategy of boosting Brazil’s influence by … Read more
If 2017 is anything like 2016, making predictions on where Latin America will be a year from now is probably a losing bet. Remember when it seemed inevitable that voters in Colombia would pass the country’s landmark peace accord with the FARC, or that the Rio Olympics would be crippled by large-scale social unrest? The … Read more
A version of this article was first published in Portuguese on Poder 360. In a recent interview, Brazilian President Michel Temer invoked the “voice of the streets” to say he would veto a so-called “Caixa Dois” bill – a proposal that would grant legislators amnesty for irregularities involving election financing – if Congress approved it. … Read more
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