For The Rio Times
A federal court has served Chevron and Transocean with a preliminary injunction ordering them to halt operations in Brazil within thirty days. The injunction comes in relation to civil lawsuits resulting from a November 2011 oil leak off the coast of Rio de Janeiro, in the Campos Basin’s Frade field, which is operated by Chevron using a Transocean rig.
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For The Rio Times
BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – President Dilma Rousseff will meet with British Prime Minister David Cameron this Friday morning, as he arrives in Brazil for a trip that will include visits to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. On the table during Friday’s bilateral meeting will likely be science, technology, the Olympics and “an intensification of economic and commercial ties,” a spokesperson for the Brazilian Foreign Ministry, Itamaraty, said by telephone Monday.
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For The Rio Times
BRASÍLIA, BRAZIL – The mensalão case, dubbed the “trial of the century,” moves into its most politically significant phase this week with the Supreme Court examining the allegations of vote buying by the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Workers’ Party, PT). Now Marcos Valério has claimed in an incendiary interview with Veja magazine that the scheme reached into the highest levels of the government.
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For The Rio Times
Finance Minister Guido Mantega revised Brazil’s economic growth forecast for this year to two percent Thursday, from an earlier estimate of three percent. The downgrade comes as a response to Brazil’s continuing struggle with an economy that has stagnated over the past 18 months, growing just 2.7 percent in 2011, down from 7.5 percent in 2010, as it faces shockwaves from the global economic crisis and China’s economic slowdown.
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For The Rio Times
Regional election courts have barred more than 300 mayoral candidates in October’s municipal elections from running for office under the Lei do Ficha Limpa (Clean Record Law), which declares citizens convicted of a range of crimes ineligible for office. The crimes that prohibit holding public office include corruption, drug trafficking and fraud, within eight years of completing their sentences.
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For Americas Quarterly
After accepting the government’s offer of a 15.8-percent pay raise over three years, some 400,000 public-sector employees ended their month-long strike and returned to work on Monday. While the workers may have gotten what they wanted, popular patience with public sector workers and unions may be wearing thin.