While World View reports on Latin America, we have not concentrated on its largest country, Brazil. and its politics and economy as we hear about the trial of its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, and the 50% tariffs imposed on trade from Brazil by President Donald Trump.
We wanted to explore Brazil’s current relations with the U.S. and invited Professor Patrick Iber from the University of Wisconsin-Madison into the studio to explain them to us and to our listeners.
Professor Iber took us through the description of the main political actors in Brazil, current Brazilian politics and economy and how and why Brazil managed to get on the wrong side of the Trump administration. Along the way he touched on similarities and differences between Brazil and the U.S., how President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva and Jair Bolsonaro became presidents of Brazil and their relationships with the U.S. and related economic and political factors.
Iber isn’t making any predictions at this time as the situation in each country is in flux, as is their relationship with each other. However Professor Iber has agreed to come back and fill us in when there are changes, so stay tuned.
About Professor Patrick Iber: http://history.wisc.edu/people/iber-patrick/
Recent news articles:
http://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzgq9n8xjo
http://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazilian-judge-defying-trump-is-testing-peers-patience-2025-09-01/
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/29/i-am-in-no-rush-brazils-lula-weighs-countermeasures-to-trumps-tariffs
http://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/world/americas/brazil-big-tech-trump-tariffs.html
