Books in the Latin America Bureau Special Report series

In 2002, after a long political struggle, Lula was elected Brazil's first working class President amid huge expectations that he and the Workers' Party (PT) would bring much-needed reform. A great deal was achieved, including a dramatic reduction in poverty. But, just months before the staging of the World Cup in 2014, a series of social protests swept across the country. In 2015 further demonstrations erupted, with insistent calls for the impeachment of Lula's re-elected successor, President Dilma Rousseff, for corruption. Brazil Under the Workers' Party, the first serious look at what went right - and what went wrong - during the 12 years of Workers' Party rule, tells a fascinating story of realpolitik, as Brazil's first ethical party uses the old corrupt ways of Brazil's dysfunctional political system to achieve real change and is then devoured by the political system it has failed to reform. An enthralling tale, of great significance for Latin America and the world, told by two experienced commentators on Brazil.

A canal through Nicaragua connecting two oceans has been a dream central to Nicaraguan identity and to the history of the country. But the current Canal scheme, passed in 2013, has catalysed opposition to President Ortega, who is seen to be using the project to boost his reputation. This book asks the questions: what are the possible economic benefits that the Canal will offer the country? What damage might the Canal will do to the environment, particularly to Lake Cocibolca, the largest source of freshwater in Central America? The Nicaragua Grand Canal explores the geopolitics of the project, especially the significance of China's involvement. The final sections of the book examine resistance to the Canal proposal from within Nicaragua. Although popular with the wider population, the Canal proposal has been greeted by protests particularly by peasant farmers whose land will be expropriated and by indigenous groups whose lives will be irrevocably altered by the Canal.