One of her disappointments, Bianchi says, is that the Brazilian Justice didn’t allow the boy to express his wish and decide by himself if he wanted to stay with the Brazilian family or go with the father to the United States.

For her, they transformed her grandson into an “object of a political and economic agreement.” She mentioned the news she read at the BBC Brazil reporting that the U.S. Senate has approved unanimously an extension of the tariff exemption program that benefits exports of Brazil and 131 other countries. The vote had been postponed and only came after the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered the delivery of Sean to his father.

Bianchi stated that she was “shocked, sad, disappointed and embarrassed” at the decision taken by Gilmar Mendes, Brazil’s Chief Justice, who ruled against an injunction she had won to keep the boy in Brazil till he could be heard by the courts.

On Tuesday, Sean’s grandmother released an open letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Her lawyer, Sergio Tostes, announced this Wednesday they don’t want to file any more appeals in the case.

Jose “Pepe” Mujica, the candidate of the governing leftist Broad Front coalition, got 47.5 percent of the votes Sunday, just below the majority needed to win outright.

Conservative ex-president Luis Alberto LaCalle got 28.5 percent, and Pedro Bordaberry of the Colorado Party 17 percent with 99.9 percent of the votes counted, the electoral court said Monday.

Bordaberry immediately endorsed Lacalle in hopes of keeping the leftist out of the presidency, but Mujica said his coalition will still have the edge against the combined center-right rivals.

Mujica said the nation of 3.4 million people can become something like Finland, with a diversified economy that creates well-paid jobs and also provides for “the people who have the least.”

They said about 40 other prisoners were injured at the jail in the coastal town of Joao Pessoa.

Following a meeting on Monday at the Brazilian Foreign Ministry building Itamaraty, Lula told a press conference that he regretted the fact that the two countries bilateral trade so far this year is only 7.4 billion dollars.

“The world crisis has left us this challenge: not only to recover these levels of trade, but to beat them, given the vast potential of the two economies, which are both emerging and highly dynamic,” Lula said.

“There’s work to do,” Chavez said on state television during a meeting with a delegation of Colombians.

Chavez’s call for the ambassador’s return is the most public sign of thawing in relations since July 28, when Chavez said he would “freeze relations” with Venezuela’s western neighbor and pulled his ambassador.

The Buenos Aires International Art Fair — known as ArteBA — took place this week and attracted more than 130,000 visitors during its five-day run.

ArteBA is considered the most important contemporary art fair in Latin America, and has been increasingly attracting more and more galleries and collectors from around the globe.

This year, 90 galleries representing 800 Latin American artists were present. Despite fears that the global financial crisis would hit business, most gallery owners said sales were brisk.

“What crisis? My sales have been incredible this week,” says Daniel Abate, a gallery owner in Buenos Aires, who was selling works at ArteBA with an average price of $5,000 dollars.

“We’ve made some great sales, some great contacts. So I cannot complain. I think people are more cautious about spending but real collectors are always helping to keep the wheel moving,” said Henrique Faria, who runs galleries in Caracas and New York.