With all of Brazil's problems, many people are dreading the Olympics to take place in Rio. The sad aspect is that Brazil has so much potential. Unlike the US, Brazil is taking refugees from Syria without fear of terrorism. Like the US, Brazil is a country of immigrants of from Europe, Africa (sort of), Asia, and the Middle East. Like the US, Brazil held slavery ,but instead if having a civil war, Brazil kept slavery into the 1890s, and integrated them well into the nation unlike the segregation within the American south.
But, for all this and more, Brazil is not like a United States of South America. So, with a POD of Brazil's independence, turn it into a United States of the South, but I don't mean in being a military superpower with lots of interventions, but a great provider of humanitarian aid, with the world seeing Brazil as a land of opportunity and wealth.