A Pacific Council delegation recently traveled to Rio de Janeiro and Brasília in an effort to gain on-the-ground insights into Brazil’s current economic and political climate, as well as its role in South America and the Western Hemisphere. Briefings covered U.S.-Brazil relations, educational exchange programs, the country’s current economic recession, the upcoming Olympic Games in 2016, domestic corruption scandals, and more.

The problems Brazil faces in the current moment are daunting: inflation is around 10%, the value of the Brazilian real dropped by nearly half against the U.S. dollar this year, and the economy is expected to shrink by 2% in 2015. Political corruption is widespread. President Dilma Rousseff’s approval rating hovers at a mere 7%.

But even as the delegation’s Brazilian counterparts expressed their concerns about the country’s current social, political, and economic woes, they consistently referred to a “silver lining.” For one, the 2016 Olympic Games could still serve to bolster Rio de Janiero’s deficient infrastructure. And even though Brazil is caught in the middle of a significant corruption scandal, the crackdown itself indicates that the previously anemic judicial system is actually working. Perhaps, the delegation’s interlocutors opined, the current problems are just “growing pains.”

Key meetings during the visit included:

• A discussion on U.S.-Brazil relations and the current state of the country’s social and political climate with Ambassador Liliana Ayalde, U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, along with the Country Team;
• A meeting with Mr. Jonathan Dunn, Consul General of the U.K. in Rio de Janeiro, on the influence of Brazil’s ongoing recession on Western economies;
• An in-depth look at Brazil’s march towards the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio in conversation with Mr. Agemar Sanctos of the International Organizing Committee for the Rio Games; and
• A discussion with Ambassador Fernando Coimbra, Head of the Office for International Affairs at the Ministry for the Environment, on Brazilian environmental policy, the Amazon, and the U.S.-Brazil partnership on climate change.
   

Check out some photos from the delegation’s visit to Brazil here. 

This delegation visit was part of the Pacific Council's ongoing journey across the BRICS countries, which will include a visit to South Africa in 2016 and India in 2017, following prior visits to Russia and China. Read more about Pacific Council delegations.