Weekly Report - 29 April 2010 (WR-10-17)

BRAZIL | Brasí­lia's inequalities. The scandal afflicting the former governor of the Distrito Federal, Roberto Arruda, and its repercussions, took the gloss off the celebrations in Brasí­lia, which turned 50 on 21 April. When it was built, Brasí­lia was a symbol of Brazilian optimism and hope. The expectation of its creators was that the planned city would lead to a relatively equal society, one that would set a utopian example for the rest of Brazil. However, the city's designers failed to make plans to house the candangos, the tens of thousands of poor migrants that built the city but who were subsequently relegated to build their own precarious houses far away from the city's centre - the Plano Piloto - in so-called 'satellite-cities' (see sidebar). These cities were the source of votes for elected unprincipled politicians like Arruda and Roriz, and others (from across the political spectrum) elsewhere in Brazil, who pursue populist policies while in office to keep the poorer population dependent on the state and, therefore, on their political patronage.

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