A new Brazil-Venezuela alliance

By CARLOS COELLO CARACAS
Venezuela, March 4

President Hugo Chavez' statements on the purchase of military Super Tucano aircraft from Brazil to equip the Venezuelan Air Force coincided with the signing of a strategic alliance with Brazil, through which Brazil significantly increased its presence in Venezuela via the most advantageous trade interchange that it has obtained on the continent.

There were already strong signs of a rapprochement between both countries between December 2002 and February 2003, when Chavez made considerable purchases of gasoline and foodstuffs from Brazil during a two-month national strike against his government.In gratitude, Chavez opened the door to increased Brazilian investment in diverse sectors of the Venezuelan economy.During the 2004 the national referendum that could have revoked Chavez's mandate, Brazil's international presence through the Organization of American States was a determining factor in the certification of the results in Chavez's favor, although the opposition denounced it as a "massive fraud."

At the time of the signing of the strategic alliance, Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva emphasized that the countries of the region must make their purchases among themselves and not solely from the "North," that is, the United States.In diplomatic circles it has been pointed out that the "strategic alliance" is Brazilian rhetoric to disguise its increasing influence in South America.Fernando Gerbasi, former Venezuelan ambassador in Brazil and Colombia, maintains that Brazil has had for the past 30 years a very clear strategy -- that of gradually and consistently increasing its presence in the region.Although the Venezuelan head of state did not say how many military planes his country is purchasing from Brazil, some Brazilian analysts estimate the total purchase to be between 20 and 50 planes, a figure first advanced by the newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo.According to Brazilian representative Marcelo Ortiz, president of the Parliamentary Front for Defense of the National Industry, negotiations are ongoing to persuade Venezuela to buy 50 fighter jets from Brazil, instead of acquiring MiG aircraft from Russia.Chavez recently announced his intention to purchase 100,000 Kalashnikov automatic rifles, combat helicopters, antitank and antiaircraft missiles and other equipment from Russia along with negotiating to acquire up to 50 MiG fighters.The projected purchase aroused a firestorm of criticism in Washington, especially the 100,000 rifles.Roger Noriega, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, said that the United States fears that the munitions are going to end up at the hands of Colombia's guerrillas from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC.Noriega declared that Venezuela has yet to explain why it wants so many weapons, since the Army of reservists that reports directly to Chavez is only about 35,000 men.The purchase of Brazilian arms is only a small part of the overall strategic alliance that Chavez and Lula signed this week.The package consists of 20 agreements, focusing particularly on the fields of oil, petrochemicals, gas and mining cooperation.They also cover other areas such as military, scientific, technological, television communications (particularly the TV network Telesur), fishing and agricultural industries.Brazil's president is thinking big.Lula mentioned among the most important elements of the agreements are joint oil and petrochemical projects, the joint exploration for petroleum, iron, coal, gas, bauxite and nickel reserves on Venezuelan territory, construction of the third bridge over the Orinoco River by Brazilian companies, cooperation in monitoring Amazonian airspace, and the construction of airplanes for Venezuela by the Brazilian Aeronautics Company, or Embraer.Lula also underscored importance of his government's substantial program of financial aid for Brazilian exports to Venezuela.

This strategic alliance reflects a substantial increase in bilateral trade between Venezuela and Brazil, which nearly doubled from $880 million in 2003 to $1.6 billion in 2004. The trade is heavily weighted in Brazil's favor; of this amount, $1.4 billion consisted of Brazilian exports to Venezuela, with only $200 million representing Venezuelan exports to Brazil, which has caused some grumbling in the Venezuelan manufacturing community.Brazilian industrialists hope that by the end of 2005, Veneuelan-Brazilian bilateral trade could top $3 billion.If that goal is reached, then Brazil would replace Colombia as Venezuela's second-largest trading partner.Venezuela's largest trading partner continues to be the United States, primarily because of its oil exports, which account for 14 percent of U.S. energy imports.Given the Bush administration's rising hostility to his government, Chavez is attempting to diversify the base of Venezuelan energy exports to include China, Russia, Cuba, Brazil and Argentina.Lula and Chavez both reject the Free Trade Zone of the Americas, or ALCA, promoted by Washington.While Washington already seems to have written off the Chavez regime for many observers the question over the growing Brazilian-Venezuelan rapprochement is how much anger the Bush administration might subsequently direct at Brazil, South America's rising regional superpower.

http://news.newkerala.com/world-news/?action=fullnews&id=80459

... as they worry where the neocon bully boys is gonna try to bust-in next with guns ablazin.

Wanting to keep their money for themselves too, I'll bet.