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November 2006
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Members : 17360
Content : 3757
Content View Hits : 29521364
Content : 3757
Content View Hits : 29521364
On October 29, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won the second round of Brazil's presidential elections with more than 60% of the vote. A large portion of Brazilians, including several leftwing critics, believe that Lula's second term (2007-2010) will center more on development than the first term, model itself less after the demands of the market, and move closer to the social movements.
Brazil's presidential election passed with very little notice here in the United States, where attention is focused on Iraq, Iran, North Korea, illegal immigration, and our own elections. Re-elected president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is viewed as an example of a "soft left" leader, the other clear example in Latin America being Chile's Michelle Bachelet. 
With each passing day, we get more and more the impression that this year's campaign was exactly like the one in 2002. A farce. President Lula, candidate to the re-election, repeating his performance as candidate the first time around, promised the world regarding changes. He reiterated that he would change the economic policy, that he would resist privatizations, that he would make productive activity much more profitable than speculative activity. 
"Without Angola, there is no Brazil," said the polemical Friar Antonio Vieira at the beginning of the 17th Century. Now we, being the largest black nation second only to Nigeria, ask the question, "Without Africa, what is Brazil?"
Despite growing populism and political tensions, Latin America is becoming more globalized, according to the 2006 Latin American Globalization Index from Latin Business Chronicle. But Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, managed to become the least-globalized economy in the region.