A train arrives at the Light train station in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, Jan. 13, 2017. An increase in bus fares in Sao Paulo caused demonstrations which turned as an economic recession coupled with rising inflation has resulted in widespread dissatisfaction with government services. NurPhoto SIPA USA/PA Images. All rights reserved.
The process of growth and modernization in Brazil in the last fifteen years has always been described as an example to be followed by other developing countries. Today, however, the Brazilian ‘locomotive’ has stopped.
The country is going through a dramatic period of political and economic instability. The Olympic Games in 2016 should have been a very special occasion for a show of Brazilian power before an international audience, but they revealed instead the structural weaknesses of a country full of ambiguities and contradictions. The so-called South American China has been temporarily buried under the rubble of the Petrobras inquiry and the negative effects of the economic crisis. Oil wealth appears to be, yet again, not a blessing but a curse.
