BRAZIL | Trade deficit raises eyebrows. Brazil posted its worst weekly trade deficit in 15 years in the third week of November, according to latest (19 November) results from the ministry of development, industry and external trade (MDIC). At the weekend in Cádiz, Spain, President Dilma Rousseff again warned Europe and the rest of the developed world about the dangers of too much austerity. The Brazilian government has already written off 2012; the latest private sector consensus forecast compiled by the central bank is for growth of just 1.5% this year. However, the Rousseff administration is confident that Brazil has…

Governor Geraldo Alckmin asked the state security secretariat to publish its latest crime statistics a few days early, so as to shield his new state security secretary from the negative fallout. According to the figures, 1,157 people in the city of São Paulo were murdered between January and October this year, more than in all of 2011. In October alone, there were 149 murders in São Paulo city, more than double the 78 registered in the same period a year earlier. In Greater São Paulo, there were 289 homicides in October, up over two thirds (65.3%) on the same period…

The ruling right-wing Coaliciόn por el Cambio faces a gruelling internal electoral struggle over the coming months. The primary election contest pitting Laurence Golborne against Andrés Allamand, two of President Sebastián Piñera’s star ministers who left the cabinet to pursue their presidential ambitions, shows every sign of significantly ratcheting up the tension between the two partners in the Coaliciόn. Piñera is well aware of this, urging both candidates to recognise that “we are in the same boat and we have the same destination”. His main concern, however, is to stay relevant, to which end he has outlined a series of…

President Cristina Fernández is running the risk of an embarrassment at the polls in mid-term elections, scheduled for late October 2013, if she continues to evade dialogue. The head of the general confederation of labour (CGT) Hugo Moyano, formerly a strong supporter now an outspoken critic, organised a 24-hour strike on 20 November. This followed fast on the heels of a march against the Fernández administration on 8 November (8N) by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators. President Fernández may be heading for a repeat of what happened during her first administration. After a solid performance in the 2007 vote, her…