Portside

Recently the mainstream media has portrayed the political crisis in Brazil as a result of internal corruption and the lack of economic growth, which is blamed on the President Dilma Rousseff and the Workers’ Party. What is rarely mentioned, however, is that Brazil is experiencing a historical divide. Some Brazilians believe President Rousseff hasn’t followed the dictates of neoliberalism closely enough, while others argue the corporations have far too much power.

Congress is in revolt, inflation is rising, Brazil’s credit rating is flirting with junk status, a huge corruption scandal looms, and polls put her approval rating at 8% ahead of Sunday’s planned protests – can things get any worse for Rousseff?

Rousseff won most of Brazil's 26 states including Minas Gerais, Neves' home state where she was the governor from 2003 to 2010. Neves did well in a band of states in the West and South of the country, where the population is wealthier and predominantly of European ancestry, while Rousseff did well in the East and North, where there is a higher proportion of people of African and mixed African and European ancestry.

The election is being avidly watched by the right wing throughout the hemisphere, eager to see signs of ebbing of the "pink tide" that brought progressive governments into several countries of the region in the last decade and a half.

BRICS and the SCO are the two largest independent international organizations to develop over the past decade. What role these new organizations will play internationally is not clear. Certainly sanction regimens will be harder to maintain because the SCO and the BRICS create alternatives. South Africa, for instance, announced that it would begin buying Iran oil in the next few months, an important breach in the sanctions against Iran.

Wall Street really, really wanted Marina Silva to win. Too bad for Wall Street.

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Born into a poor, mixed-race Amazon family, Marina Silva is on the verge of a stunning election win after taking over her party

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Two middle-aged men, former residents of Favelo do Metro, sat around a plastic table between the sidewalk and a demolished home. We asked them why the city would hastily evict this community, only to leave wreckage behind: “They didn’t give us a reason why we had to leave. They just came, pushed us out, and knocked the buildings down. Brazil spends and spends on ‘the future.’ Meanwhile, there’s nothing for the people of today.”