Transparency Needed in Sao Paulo Construction Project

In this release...

Transparency Needed in Sao Paulo Construction Project, Expenditure not Necessarily Prudent

With the highest GDP in Brazil, the state of São Paulo still faces many challenges in terms of improving its infrastructure to support its economic growth. São Paulo's Governor, Geraldo Alckmin, recently visited Washington D.C to secure a 1.5 billion USD loan from the IDB to conclude the northern section of the Mário Covas beltway, which will connect the port of Santos and the Cumbica/Guarulhos airport. As São Paulo invests in infrastructure, opportunities abound for investors and companies to expand their businesses into Brazil's largest state. However, this loan comes with strings attached, and it remains unclear how Governor Alckmin intends to repay the IDB in the future.

This analysis was prepared by Marcela Micheloni, with contributions from Carolina Logato, Research Associates at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

To read the full analysis, click here.

Latin America: Water Politics, Coups, and James Bond

The 2008 film Quantum of Solace describes the adventures of James Bond, the internationally famous fictional British spy, in his quest to stop a potential military coup in Bolivia as a shadowy organization attempts to take over the country’s water supply. While not a huge success at the box office, this movie is interesting from an academic point of view as it highlights a number of real issues in Latin America, particularly in Bolivia. Such highly relevant topics include: the profit potential of water, the likelihood of coups in the region, and how international corporations tend to be perceived by the general population of developing countries.

This analysis was prepared by W. Alex Sanchez, Senior Research Fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

To read the full analysis, click here.

Also, for those in the D.C. area...

Check out COHA's Summer Fundraising Event: Celebrating the Americas, happening this Thursday, June 28, at 7 p.m. at the District of Columbia Arts Center. The event will feature a screening of The Panama Deception, as well as lively dialogue on both the film and current happenings in Latin America. For more information, click here.

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Tuesday, June 26th, 2012 | Research Memorandum 12.45

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The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being "one of the nation's most respected bodies of scholars and policy makers." For more information, please see our web page at www.coha.org

ENDS

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