Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, almost as large as the other countries on the continent combined. It therefore shares a border with all the countries of South America except Chile and Ecuador. In a large country, landscapes and natural environments vary. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of BRA that stands for the country of Brazil.
Yearbook 2011
Brazil. The newly elected President Dilma Rousseff’s first major political crisis and yet another major scandal for the ruling party Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) characterized the first half of the year. One of the party’s veterans and the president’s closest men, the presidential secretary Antonio Palocci, was forced to resign from his post in early June after accusations of having used his political office for private gain. Cracks within the government-led coalition of PT also became evident in the wake of the Paloccian scandal, mainly between PT and PMDB (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro). In September, another minister, the Minister of Tourism Pedro Novais of the PMDB, resigned because of allegations of misappropriation of public funds, and in early December he was followed by Labor Minister Carlos Lupi from another of President Rousseff’s support parties, accused of the same thing. Development Minister Fernando Pimentel from PT was also under investigation at the end of the year.
| Land area | 8,514,877 km² |
| Total population | 211.715.973 |
| Population density (per km²） | 24.9 |
| Capital | Brasília |
| Official language | Portuguese |
| Income per capita | $ 15,600 |
| Currency | Brazilian real |
| ISO 3166 code | BR |
| Internet TLD | .br |
| License plate | BR |
| Telephone code | +55 |
| Time zone UTC | -2 to 4 |
| Geographic coordinates | 10 00 S, 55 00 W. |
According to Countryaah official site, Brazil also emerged in 2011 as one of the fastest growing developing countries in the world. Despite the global financial crisis, the country’s economy was estimated to grow by about 4% during the year. In September, the Brazilian government offered to financially support the crisis-hit euro zone together with China.
At the same time, crime continued to be one of Brazil’s most serious domestic problems, although figures in November indicated that it had dropped somewhat. Part of that was explained by the “pacification policy” that Governor Sérgio Cabral has taken against drug leagues in Rio de Janeiro’s slums, especially in the infamous Rocinha, and which in turn is explained by the city hosting the 2014 Soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympics One of Rocinha’s biggest drug dealers, Antônio Bomfim Lopes, called “Nem”, was arrested on November 8. However, in several of the slums that have been “pacified” in recent years, the drug leagues have quickly re-established themselves. At the same time, corruption within the police force is still widespread. At the end of September, the Chief of Rio Military Police, Mário Sérgio Duarte,
During the rainy season at the beginning of the year, Rio and São Paulo were affected mainly by heavy rains and landslides that killed more than 700 people’s lives. At the same time, the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul was hit by severe drought.
1930 Civil Revolution
The international crisis of 1929 weakened the political and economic power of the coffee bourgeoisie, and in a coup in the fall of 1930, an alliance – the “Alliança Liberal” – led by Getulio Vargas came to power. The coup has been called Brazil’s bourgeois revolution. The working class did not join the alliance. It consisted of groups within the industrial bourgeoisie, the part of the agricultural bourgeoisie that did not grow coffee, and also a group of young, reform-friendly and nationalist officers – the “lieutenant movement”. Vargas took action to stimulate Brazil’s national capitalism thereby gaining some independence from international interests. Limitations were made on foreign companies’ access to foreign currency and national production was protected by import and customs regulations. A strong state power took a direct part in the country’s economic development: The state took care of the less profitable and long-term projects such as steel mills and railway construction. The production of consumer goods, oriented to the domestic market and protected by customs walls, was reserved for the private industry.
During Vargas’ first year, two strong political movements developed in Brazil. One, around the fascist Acaõ Popular Integralista, was supported by large landowners and attracted large sections of the middle class through its appeal to nationalist sentiments. The other called itself the Alliança Nacional Libertadora (the National Liberation Alliance) and consisted of the Communist Party, the Left in the Lieutenant Movement and some unions. Luis Carlos Prestes led this movement, which was eventually countered by the church and the United States, and finally banned in 1934. There were still fierce confrontations between the liberation alliance and the right-wing forces, with the police standing on the fascist side. In 1935, the liberation alliance sought to implement revolution, and for four days a revolutionary unity front government sat in power. But the rebellion was turned down. Prestes, who was then also chairman of the Communist Party, was arrested and imprisoned until 1945.