Crs Report for Congress - Brazil-U.S. Relations: March 5, 2010 - Rl33456 (Paperback)

On January 1, 2007, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, of the leftist Workers' Party (PT), was inaugurated to a second four-year term as President of Brazil. Lula was re-elected in the second round of voting with fairly broad popular support. His immediate tasks were to boost Brazil's lagging economic growth and address the issues of crime, violence, and poverty. Despite President Lula's significant personal popularity, occasional corruption scandals and inter-party rivalries within his governing coalition have made it difficult to advance his agenda through Brazil's fractured legislature. Lula's top priority for 2010 is legislative approval of a new regulatory framework that will increase the state's role in the exploitation of Brazil's considerable offshore oil reserves. A presidential election to choose Lula's successor is scheduled to be held in October 2010. President Lula has benefitted from a strong economy throughout most of his second term. The global financial crisis, however, slowed Brazil's economic growth and threatened to erase some of the social gains made in recent years. President Lula implemented a number of countercyclical policies to boost the economy and protect those most exposed to the effects of the economic downturn. These actions appear to have been reasonably successful, as the ...