Luis Fernando Ramirez, the new defence minister, is a loyal sidekick of the president's.

ECONOMIST: Colombia’s trembling peace | The

The aim, according to Luis Fernando Ramirez, the defence minister, is more modest: to convince the guerrillas that they can never win militarily, and so should start negotiating in earnest.

ECONOMIST: Colombia calls for arms from Uncle Sam | The

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's economic reforms lost momentum after two political fixers, Sergio Motta and Luis Eduardo Magalhaes, died in 1998.

ECONOMIST: Brazil loses a political kingpin