Law Bans Satirization of Candidates
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – A controversial law dating back to 1997 was brought into the limelight this weekend after the government banned the media from satirizing presidential candidates in the run-up to the elections. The ban led to a protest fronted by comedians from popular TV shows CQC and [...]
Mercosur Summit ‘Best In 15 Years’
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – The 39th summit of South America’s co-operative trade bloc, Mercosur, ended last week in San Juan, Argentina, with many involved praising the conclusion to a constructive and amenable conference. Brazilian President Luis Inácio da Silva went as far as to label the San Juan meeting [...]
Brazil vs. Portugal in Race for Vivo
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – The covert battles among the venerable and respected brand names of Europe in the scramble to get a foot-hold in booming Brazil inevitably claims casualties, and this week saw Spanish telecommunications giant Telefônica emerge as a distinct loser at the conclusion of a deal in [...]
What R$500,000 Buys You in Rio
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – We continue our look at what different budgets will get you in different neighborhoods in the city within the R$500,000 bandwidth, a sum which will buy an ample family apartment in an area like Catete, or just get you on the bottom rung in Leblon. [...]
Rio is Americas’ Most Expensive City
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – Rio now takes the title of most expensive city in the Americas for foreigners to live, according to a recent survey undertaken by British consultancy Employment Conditions Abroad (ECA). The study comes with a caveat: it was undertaken and compiled before this year’s dramatic fall [...]
What R$300,000 Buys You in Rio
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – As property continues on a steep upward trajectory in Rio, we decided to take a look at what can still be had in some of the city’s best known neighborhoods for around R$300,000 (US$167,926). As most urban Cariocas tend to live in apartments, we’ve focused [...]
Anti-Corruption Law in Effect This Year
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – For the 1.6 million Brazilians who put their names to the “Ficha Limpa” (Clean Record) petition, the news last week was just what they had been waiting for: the Federal Election Board (“Tribunal Superior Eleitoral” – TSE) finally ruled that the newly passed law to [...]
Prison Overcrowding Continues
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – The Brazilian government is currently considering a range of options aimed at the slowing rapid growth in the country’s prison population, including the use of electronic surveillance as a means of freeing up space in dangerously overcrowded cells. According to many observers, the federal government [...]
Airports Face ‘Operational Collapse’
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – Eight of Brazil’s major metropolitan airports have been described in a recent report as facing an imminent inability to cope with increased traffic that could lead to a complete “logistical blackout.” Undertaken by São Paulo’s Applied Economics Research Institute (IPEA), the report focuses on those [...]
Twitter To Launch Portuguese Site
By Jaylan Boyle, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO – Further evidence of the importance of Brazil’s rapidly expanding online community arrived last week with the announcement that Twitter, the world’s most popular ‘microblogging’ platform, is to unveil a version of their site in Portuguese. As with many other economic spheres of interest, Brazil is [...]