If ever there was a time to test Lula’s prediction, it is now, when his country is hosting the World Cup and struggling to prepare for the Olympics Games in Rio in 2016.
In this issue we look behind the headlines of football and favelas to investigate the contradictions within the world’s seventh largest economy. Government initiatives have lifted 40 million out of poverty yet the middle class is angry; Brazil used to be the global investors’ favourite, but the bond markets have turned against their star performer; a prominent advocate of South-South solidarity, its values are often in conflict with its commercial and diplomatic interests.