Brazil's leaders have long sought to exercise quiet leadership in South America. That is natural enough: in population and in economic terms, Brazil accounts for roughly half of its continent. Yet its ambitions have often been constrained by economic crises, intermittent dictatorships, its own introversion and its neighbours' mistrust. Despite the formation of the Mercosur trade group, Portuguese-speaking Brazil has frequently seemed a semi-detached participant in broader, Spanish-speaking, Latin American gatherings.
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