Brazil Fights to Untie Its Transportation Noose

Bevins cites a host of problems plaguing transportation in the rapidly modernizing country, as old airports, roads, and rails struggle to keep up with demands of citizens and businesses. With the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics fast approaching, President Dilma Rousseff has launched an effort to modernize the country's transportation infrastructure, beginning with the controversial selling of three major state-owned airports to private interests, reports Bevins.

"Analysts say pitiful infrastructure is keeping Brazil from even faster growth and that action is needed on the country's other transportation bottlenecks. But even limited privatization is a hard sell to unions and other hard-core supporters of Rousseff's Workers' Party. It's unclear how much further Rousseff, a former leftist rebel, might go."