U.S. Brazil watchers doubt leftist candidate will win*** Despite the latest polls showing that Brazil's leftist candidate Luiz Inacio ''Lula'' da Silva is widening his lead for the October presidential elections, the majority view in U.S. business and diplomatic circles is that he will not win and that predictions of a dramatic shift to the left in Latin America's biggest country are premature. Is it wishful thinking on the part of Wall Street economists who fear a massive economic downturn for Brazil if da Silva's Workers Party wins the election? Or is da Silva, who has already failed in three previous runs for the presidency, incapable of surpassing the threshold of the estimated 35 percent of Brazilians who traditionally vote for the left?***
Castro Bugs Fox Because Fox Is Bugging Castro***Now that the air has been cleared, the Fox government is free to join more aggressively in the growing Latin outcry against the Cuban regime's human rights violations. It may even take the lead. With Mr. Fox's foreign minister Jorge Castañeda, a reformed Marxist, taking a special interest in human rights in Cuba, Castro's world image could take a real beating.***