VINOD SREEHARSHA

On the eve of international soccer’s once-every-four-years celebration of the world’s most popular sport, 65-year-old Caetano De Carvalho is in a prime location, or so it would seem. This working-class suburb of Sao Paulo, where he has lived for 22 years, offers an easy walk to the modern new soccer stadium where the World Cup’s opening match between host Brazil and Croatia will be played Thursday.

Brazil’s efforts to become one of the world’s major oil producers have attracted businesses such as U.S. drilling giants Halliburton and Baker Hughes, gained it partnerships with oil companies from India and China, lured immigrants from idyllic Norway and drawn investment dollars from American pension funds in Florida, South Carolina and California.

Eike Batista was once the symbol of Brazil’s surging prosperity – declared in 2010 the world’s eighth richest person by Forbes, lionized in stories and interviews by “60 Minutes” and Charlie Rose, and a key backer of Brazil’s winning bids to host soccer’s 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has scrapped a scheduled state visit to the White House amid Brazilian outrage over news that the U.S. spied on her and a Brazilian oil company.

Revelations of a U.S. spy program that allegedly allows digital surveillance of the presidents of Brazil and Mexico have drawn cries of indignation and anger in both nations, but the fallout may be strongest for U.S.-Brazil relations.

As Pope Francis visits Brazil this week, he’s being praised as a humble pontiff for the poor, just the person, the Vatican hopes, who can reinvigorate a Roman Catholic Church beset by scandals and secrecy in a land where the number of practicing Catholics has plummeted in recent years. But next door in his native Argentina, not all are impressed with the stories of his rejecting the stately Vatican quarters the pope traditionally has occupied, or the plush papal finery and luxury cars. “He is a good actor,” said Estela de la Cuadra, who’s 77.

With the help of Brazil, South America’s largest economy, Venezuela has joined the regional economic alliance Mercosur, once heralded as the continent’s answer to the European Union.