Brazilian president heads south

Rousseff's first foreign trip as president starts today with a visit to Argentina for meetings with Cristina Kirschner. The newspaper O Globo focused on the fact that it’s the first such meeting where both presidents are women. This particular piece of news isn’t exactly surprising, since it’s an inevitable consequence of the Rousseff's election as Brazil’s first female president. But Globo may be spotlighting it because the agenda for the meeting so far seems uncontroversial. Rousseff and Kirschner are set to sign various agreements aimed at strengthening bilateral integration on issues from nuclear energy to construction. But the meeting is set to provide one more first: the two presidents will meet together with representatives from mothers and grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, women who united to protest the disappearance of their children and grandchildren during Argentina’s military dictatorship.