Benedita da Silva, the first black vice-governor of Rio de Janeiro, is profiled. Through her efforts to keep hope alive for impoverished Brazilians, laws were recently enacted to protect the rights of Rio's street children and domestic employees.
Bermuda's Progressive Labor Party, supported by the island's black population, won a second term in general elections on Jul 24, 2003, but Jennifer Smith, who led the party to victory, has been ousted by a rebel Cabinet faction that claimed she was too autocratic and aloof.
