Country profilesBrazil

Humanitarian profile

In the new millennium Brazil has grown rapidly into a global economic force, but is still one of the countries with the biggest chasm between richest and poorest. The world’s fifth most populous country hopes it has put behind it a long period of foreign-debt defaults, rampant inflation and military dictatorships that marred much of the 20^th century. Beneath its glamorous image, serious problems persist such as drug violence in appalling slums, official corruption, land disputes and the continued degradation of the Amazon rainforest by loggers and cattle ranchers. Drought is the most troubling weather problem.

Country snapshot

Many Brazilians think their country's time has come. It has found enough oil to be largely self-sufficient, become an agricultural giant and is an increasing influential player on the international stage and during climate change negotiations.

Brazil's rising confidence as an emerging global power has seen it push for a permanent seat on the United Nations (UN) Security Council. It won a temporary two-year stint on the U.N. body in 2010.

The hosting of the football World Cup in 2014 and Rio's Olympics in 2016 can be seen as symbols of Brazil's coming of age, as memories fade of the foreign debt defaults, rampant inflation and military dictatorships that marred much of the 20th century.

The Brazil brand is riding high. To many people around the world it means racial harmony, sunshine, football, carnival and the silky tunes of its Bossa Nova music.

But for a fuller picture of the world's fifth most populous country and Latin America's largest, add crime and drug violence in overcrowded urban slums, allegations of official corruption, the chasm between rich and poor, fights over land and the continued degradation of the Amazon rainforest.

Government

Brazil is a Federal Republic. Its 26 states enjoy considerable autonomy on issues such as security and education. Parliament has an upper house, the Federal Senate, and a lower Chamber of Deputies which is elected every four years. The next presidential and parliamentary vote is due in October 2010.

Economy

Brazil's economy was founded on sugar and coffee tended by African slaves from the late 16th century onwards.

Since then, it has grown to become Latin America's leading economic power. It is the world's largest exporter of iron ore and soya and a major export of corned beef, coffee, textiles and biofuel ethanol made from sugar cane. It is also one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the world. Brazil is set to become the largest exporter of frozen meat and the country produces more cars than Mexico and more steel than Italy.

Brazil's economy stayed volatile during the 1980's plagued by boom-bust cycles and mountains of foreign debt, until reforms including privatizations in the 1990s brought some stability.

Under Lula, who merged elements of social democracy with market liberalism, the economy grew steadily benefiting from a commodities boom.

But Brazil was shaken by the 2008 global financial crisis, when demand for its goods shrank just as the country embarked on its biggest ever infrastructure investment plan.

Brazil, though, bounced back relatively quickly after the recession, and was one of the first emerging markets to begin a recovery, with economic growth estimated at five per cent for 2010.

Brazil is a member of the G20 group of major developed and developing nations and part of the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), a high-profile bloc of emerging powers who are using their increasing economic clout to yield greater influence in international affairs.

Brazil is considered one of the most unequal societies in Latin America, with some 10 percent of the country's richest absorbing nearly 51 percent of all income. Much of the country's arable land remains in the hands of a few wealthy families.

Lula vowed to close the huge gap between rich and poor. "If at the end of my term every Brazilian person has three meals per day, I will have fulfilled my life's mission," he famously declared during his first inauguration speech.

His government introduced major social welfare programmes and expanded microcredit schemes to the poor, targeting Brazil's dirt-poor in the Amazon and north-east. The middle class has grown, but still millions remain in entrenched poverty.

History

The import of up to four million African slaves to Brazil - seven times the number shipped to the U.S. - has perhaps defined and influenced Brazilian society and history more than any other country in Latin America.

After more than three centuries under Portuguese rule, Brazil gained its independence peacefully from its colonial power in 1822, with a member of the royal family staying to establish a monarchy. A republic was proclaimed in 1889, a year after the official abolition of slavery.

Coffee exporters had a grip on politics for decades and were followed by populist and military governments until in 1985, when civilian rule was restored.

The hunger for land has also shaped Brazil's history. Military rulers moved settlers into the Amazon region in the 1970s, destroying vast areas of rainforest. Though the policy has stopped, deforestation by loggers and cattle ranchers continues amid clashes with indigenous groups.

On his fourth attempt, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - better known as "Lula"- won the presidential elections in 2002 with a landslide victory to become Brazil's first leftwing head of state and chief of government in more than four decades.

Lula, a one time peanut seller and shoe shine boy, helped stabilise the economy in his first term with tough fiscal measures and won a re-election four years later on his Workers' Party reform platform.

Legal snapshot

The legal system is based on Roman traditions so civil law prevails over common-law practices. Most law is codified. Its basis is the 1988 constitution, which in rare cases allows the Federal Senate to pass on legal judgments. The highest court is the Supreme Federal Tribunal. It has been criticized for being slow but is very open with sessions even being posted on Youtube and Twitter.com.

From 2005, Lula's government was plagued by a series of high-profile corruption scandals. Allegations of illegal vote-buying forced several members of the government to resign, while another scandal involving illegal wiretapping of officials, politicians and judges by the state intelligence agency led to the resignation of the agency's chief.

Brazil was ranked 75th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's annual index of perceived corruption. (1st meaning least corrupt). Despite some improvements, Brazil's low grades were attributed - in line with other Latin American countries -- to weak institutions, deficient government practices and excessive interference of private interests, which frustrate initiatives which aim to promote a more sustainable development.