Brazzil

On November 5, 2008, the Chinese government released a policy paper on Latin America and the Caribbean, as it had previously done so for Europe in 2003 and for Africa in 2006. Although it may not come as a huge surprise that Latin America is the most recent region for which China has formally spelled out its foreign policy position, the region has been historically perceived as being under the United States' sphere of influence.

The Senate chairman, José Sarney, is following in the tradition of his predecessors and abusing the power entrusted by his office to enrich himself and his relatives. As this is how he has been operating in half a century of political life we should not be surprised, but perhaps we could expect higher standards from a man who was President of the Republic for five years and has been Senate chairman on two previous occasions.