When the president gets tied down
RIO GRANDE DO SUL: Riding with the gaúcho
Turning banks into tax collectors
Coming to Belo Horizonte from Salvador, you see the more familiar and rich south-east of Brazil, which includes the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo. The city of Belo Horizonte is in the idiom of São Paulo, with old buildings and churches jammed between skyscrapers, but it's more pleasant: - more trees, wider streets, fewer cars, cleaner air, less crime. Belo Horizonte is not a bit provincial despite being the capital of a conservative, inland state.
Minas Gerais means general mines and the state was a wilderness until the discovery of gold in 1693 by bandeirantes (explorers). The ensuing goldrush led to tension with São Paulo and a war, the Guerra dos Emboabos, in 1708, which São Paulo lost. The two centres have competed for power ever since and in the 20th century Brazilian power politics were often described as café com leite(coffee with milk) as the federal government was dominated either by the paulista (São Paulo) coffee elite or the cattle ranchers of Minas (occasionally challenged by Rio Grande do Sul).