16 C Americas / The Economist
I N 1928 HENRY FORD built a factory in the Amazon rainforest. He planned to grow rubber trees, make tyres and teach Brazilians Utopian ideals at a Midwest-style company town called Fordlndia. It lasted 17 years. Pests killed the trees and vice doomed the town. But car culture thrived in Brazil. Ford stayed, its profits fattened by industry-promoting subsidies from the government. On January 11th Ford Brasil said that it will close its factories, laying off 5,000 workers. Although the decision is
I N 2013, after WikiLeaks revealed that the United States National Security Agency had bugged the phone of Dilma Rousseff, then Brazils president, Joe Biden called to apologise. A year later the American vice-president went to Brazil for a World Cup football match bearing a gift: declassified documents shedding light on abuses by Brazils military dictatorship of 1964-85. Ms Rousseff had herself been tortured. Ms Rousseff called Mr Biden a seductive vice-president. Other Latin American leaders fo