BRAZIL: The president of Brazil has failed to live up to the promise of his election last year, Michael McCaughan reports from Rio de Janeiro.
A contagious mood of optimism swept Brazil last year when President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva assumed office and pledged to make Brazil a world power and fulfil his lifelong goal of seeing all citizens eat three meals a day.
Lula's allies in the landless and worker movements welcomed promises of new jobs and an expanded agrarian reform programme while investors wondered how the ambitious leader would balance the budget.
Lula was hailed as a hero at the annual meeting of world business leaders in Davos, Switzerland where delegates shed tears as he outlined his vision of a more humane society.
Fifteen months later, however, Lula appears embattled and exhausted as optimism fades and economic growth falters, while a minor media tiff this week escalated into an international incident.
"I voted against Lula in the first two elections because he seemed too radical," said Mr Daniel Santos, a software engineer from Belo Horizonte, Brazil's fourth city. "I voted for him last time because the country was ready for change but it seems Lula has lost his appetite." Ms Marta Vieira, owner of a book stall in downtown Rio, voted for Lula in all three presidential contests. "He is a generous, brave and principled man," she told me, "but the challenge is overwhelming."
Ms Vieira expected Lula to announce dramatic reforms while his ratings were at their highest.
"He could have cancelled external debt repayments for just one year," she said, echoing the popular sentiment that debt repayments have placed an unfair strait-jacket around state income.
Lula has launched significant social projects with Fome Zero (Zero Hunger), assisting 46 million people who survive on less than $1 a day. He increased spending on health and education and preliminary results indicate improvements in social indicators. However, he angered party colleagues when he named corporate financier Mr Henrique Meirelles as Central Bank president and backed former president José Sarney of the opposition Democratic Movement Party as Senate president in exchange for his support of Lula's government.
Lula's reputation was dented in February when an adviser to Mr José Dirceu, the government chief of staff, was caught soliciting bribes from a local mafia boss, allegedly for the Workers' Party election campaign.
The toughest blow, however, was the announcement that a long awaited minimum salary increase would be worth just 20 reals, (€6), raising monthly income to €85. The Landless Movement declared a "Red April" of land invasions in protest at the slow pace of agrarian reform. There is a perception that Lula is held back by a business lobby which controls the economy. Lula has moved swiftly to quell internal differences, expelling four dissident legislators who spoke out against the president accommodating big business.
An upbeat Lula denied his government was in trouble and insisted Brazil had "left the intensive care unit" and was "walking in the hospital corridors". But his patience snapped this week after the New York Times published an article headlined "Brazilian leader's tippling becomes national concern".
The issue faded until Lula announced his decision to expel Larry Rohter, the reporter responsible for the story. "This is the reaction of a third rate dictator," said one opposition leader.
Meanwhile, his woes continue as federal police continue their two month strike with workers from health, social security and labour ministries threatening to join them.