Word: collor
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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President Fidel Castro has not visited Brazil since 1959, the year he installed himself as Cuba's supremo. So when Castro announced that he would attend last week's inauguration of Brazil's new President, Fernando Collor de Mello, authorities there were not sure what to expect: certainly a Cuban security detachment, perhaps even a few small arms...
...Mikhail Gorbachev posed for photographs with Brazilian President-elect Fernando Collor de Mello in the Kremlin last week, a Brazilian journalist called out the question on everyone's mind. Would Gorbachev confirm the report broadcast around the globe by CNN that he was planning to quit as Communist Party chief? Gorbachev listened to the translation with a puzzled look, then smiled. "Many rumors and suppositions are circulating worldwide," he said, gesticulating with his hands for emphasis. "All this is groundless. It has come into vogue in the international press to set rumor mills working as soon as we approach...
During his presidential campaign, Collor hammered away at the antigovernment, antibureaucracy theme. He promised to privatize many of Brazil's oversize state industries, strip away excessive layers of government staffing, crack down on waste and corruption, bring the federal budget in line with reality and reduce inflation to 3% a month -- low by Brazilian standards. He also promised to spend $94 billion on housing, education and health services for the poor. Collor's resulting popularity among the country's shirt-sleeved masses, declared a bitter Lula, is undeserved. The President- elect, he predicted, "will govern in favor of big business...
There is certainly no shortage of skepticism about Collor's chances of succeeding, even though Brazil's foreign bankers generally approved of the people's choice. "No Brazilian politician has a shred of credibility in the marketplace," says Lawrence Brainard, a senior vice president at Bankers Trust, a major Brazilian creditor. "So people will simply discard what Collor said prior to elections and see what he actually does...
...Collor's skills as a political tactician will also be tested. His power base, the National Reconstruction Party, controls only a few seats in the congress. The new President will need to create alliances with centrist parties and rely on a bandwagon effect from his victory to govern effectively. Though he denies it, Collor is known to be deeply superstitious, never entering a room, for example, except with his right foot first. Now he needs to keep his right foot forward for five long years...