President Dilma Rousseff was counting on Brazilians’ gratefulness for a decade of progress to overcome concerns about a sluggish economy as the leftist leader sought re-election after a bitter, unpredictable campaign.

Allies of cancer-stricken president Hugo Chavez on Saturday chose to keep the same National Assembly president — a man who could be in line to step in as a caretaker leader in some circumstances.

Allies of Venezuela’s cancer-stricken president Hugo Chavez have re-elected the National Assembly president – a man who could be in line to step in as a caretaker leader.

Dilma Rousseff was sworn in as Brazil’s first female president today, capping a rapid political trajectory for the career technocrat and former Marxist rebel who was imprisoned and tortured during the nation’s long military dictatorship.

Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez rallied thousands of leftist sympathisers after a South American trade summit at Cordoba, in Argentina, railing against the US-backed free market policies they blame for many of Latin America’s woes.