October 9, 2007 (LPAC)--The auctioning off of Brazil's North-South railroad last week was only the beginning of a wave of privatization of federal infrastructure, according to a front-page story in O Globo daily yesterday, which the government has not denied. Sixty-six infrastructure projects, ranging from highways, railroads and ports, to electricity transmission lines, irrigation, sanitation and urban planning agencies, are to be auctioned off to private interests by the end of 2008, for a hoped-for $48 billion (around $26.5 billion, at today's exchange rate).

The next on the chopping block, if remaining legal obstacles can be resolved, are seven stretches of toll roads, which the government hopes to sell this week to avidly waiting private interests, including foreign groups.

Lula's political base will not be as happy as the financiers who are gaining ground in the Lula government. Even as O Globo's report hit the streets, Lula's Workers Party (PT) and its labor allies in the CUT trade union confederation, were leading a demonstration against the opposition governor of the state of Sao Paulo, precisely because that state plans to privatize 18 state firms currently providing public services.