Brazil ministers rebut new wave of campaign funding allegations

Two Brazilian ministers denied on Friday that there was anything illegal about campaign donations made in recent years by a businessman allegedly involved in massive corruption scandal at state-run oil company Petrobras.

Brazil's Eletrobras cuts over 4,000 jobs in buyout

Brazilian state-led electric utility Eletrobras said on Friday 4,088 employees had agreed to a buyout package aimed at cutting payrolls and slashing costs in the face of lower electricity tariffs.

Dilma Rousseff moves Brazil to centre

Brazil's new president picks a different route to prosperity and influence from Latin America's generation of left-populist leaders.

For those familiar with Latin American politics, the notion that Muammar Gaddafi had fled to Venezuela seemed absurd. Certainly, Chávez and other leftwing Latin American leaders have seemed embarrassed and uncertain how to respond to the events unfolding in Libya. But Chávez has not given explicit support and it is an awkward moment for many governments. In any case, Gaddafi has much better friends in Africa and had some good friends in London as well.

Obama has broad agenda in Latin America trip, Brazil key

President Barack Obama will pursue a broad agenda when he makes a five-day trip to three Latin American nations in March, soon after Treasury Sec. Timothy Geithner traveled to the largest economy in the region, Brazil, to lay the groundwork for the President's trip.

Obama will be meeting new Brazilian President Dilma Rouseff for the first time since she took office for outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Investors bullish on Latin America

Latin American investors remain bullish on the continent’s outlook in 2011, with many planning to rachet up their exposure to Brazil and Mexico, according to a new poll.

At a time when money is dripping out of emerging market equity funds, more than half (65 per cent) of the 289 investors surveyed by Banco Santander at a recent conference still expect total returns on their Latin American holdings to match or exceed what they earned last year. And 91 per cent are betting Latin American equities will throw up positive returns in the first half of 2011, buoyed by booming commodity prices, spending by the middle class and the recovery of the US economy. Drilling down more closely, more than one-third of the investors polled (41 per cent) expect the MSCI-LatAm Index to rise 5 to 10 per cent while 21 per cent are even more optimistic and forecast gains of more than 10 per cent.