Military expenditures - percent of GDP:
1.3% (2005 est.)
Transnational Issues Brazil
Disputes - international:
unruly region at convergence of Argentina-Brazil-Paraguay borders
is locus of money laundering, smuggling, arms and illegal narcotics
trafficking, and fundraising for extremist organizations;
uncontested dispute with Uruguay over certain islands in the
Quarai/Cuareim and Invernada boundary streams and the resulting
tripoint with Argentina; in 2004 Brazil submitted its claims to the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to extend
its maritime continental margin
Trafficking in persons:
current situation: Brazil is a source and destination country for
women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation within Brazil and
to destinations in South America, the Caribbean, Western Europe,
Japan, the US, and the Middle East, and for men trafficked within
the country for forced agricultural labor; child sex tourism is a
problem within the country, particularly in the resort areas and
coastal cities of Brazil's northeast; foreign victims from Bolivia,
Peru, China, and Korea are trafficked to Brazil for labor
exploitation in factories
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Brazil has failed to show evidence
of increasing efforts to fight trafficking, specifically for its
failure to apply effective criminal penalties against traffickers
who exploit forced labor
Illicit drugs:
illicit producer of cannabis; trace amounts of coca cultivation in
the Amazon region, used for domestic consumption; government has a
large-scale eradication program to control cannabis; important
transshipment country for Bolivian, Colombian, and Peruvian cocaine
headed for Europe; also used by traffickers as a way station for
narcotics air transshipments between Peru and Colombia; upsurge in
drug-related violence and weapons smuggling; important market for
Colombian, Bolivian, and Peruvian cocaine; illicit narcotics
proceeds earned in Brazil are often laundered through the financial
system; significant illicit financial activity in the Tri-Border Area
This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007
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@British Indian Ocean Territory
Introduction British Indian Ocean Territory
Background:
Established as a territory of the UK in 1965, a number of the
British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) islands were transferred to
the Seychelles when it attained independence in 1976. Subsequently,
BIOT has consisted only of the six main island groups comprising the
Chagos Archipelago. The largest and most southerly of the islands,
Diego Garcia, contains a joint UK-US naval support facility. All of
the remaining islands are uninhabited. Former agricultural workers,
earlier residents in the islands, were relocated primarily to
Mauritius but also to the Seychelles, between 1967 and 1973. In
2000, a British High Court ruling invalidated the local immigration
order that had excluded them from the archipelago, but upheld the
special military status of Diego Garcia.