Brazil to finance Cuban port to serve its oil industry

Brazil to finance Cuban port to serve its oil industry

09-07-09 Brazil said it would give Cuba up to $ 300 mm in credits to start rebuilding the island's port of Mariel.
Brazilian Industry and Trade Minister Miguel Jorge said $ 110 mm had been approved by his government and the rest would likely be, as Brazil strengthens its ties with Cuba. He said that construction, to be led by a Brazilian company, would begin "very soon" with the building of infrastructure including highways and a railroad for the port about 30 miles (50 km) west of Havana.

Brazilian officials said Cuba expects the entire port project, which will be built in several phases, to cost up to $ 2 bn. The first phase is projected to take four or five years to complete and cost $ 600 mm, they said.
Cuba wants Mariel to serve as logistics centre for its still-nascent offshore oil industry and to be equipped to handle shipments from around the world, including the United States.

Jorge, who was on the second day of a two-day visit to Cuba, said Brazil's state-owned Petrobras, which last October was awarded a block for oil exploration in Cuban waters, would open an office in Havana. He said Petrobras was completing seismic studies of the block and working on getting a drilling rig to Cuba.
So far, only one test well has been drilled in Cuba's offshore fields -- by Spain's Repsol-YPF in 2004.

http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/news/ntl93509.htm

These include the opportunity to support the vast leftist democracy movement in Latin America--in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras--where leftist governments have been elected. It's interesting what one of the top generals of the Honduran junta said. He said that, by the Honduran coup, they had "prevented communism from Venezuela reaching the United States." (--quoted in the recent Report on the coup by the Zelalya government-in-exile). Where did he get such an idea if not from the Miami mafia and the corpo/fascist politicians like John McCain who support that coup?

Venezuela is not communist. What it is is democratic, and, typical of many democracies, when they are in good working order, it has a mixed economy, with strong elements of private enterprise combined with strong elements of social justice and social responsibility. This is the overwhelming trend in Latin America, and it has led to these countries banding together in trade groups, most recently in the South American "common market," UNASUR, aiming at economic and political integration. Brazil, a close ally of Venezuela (the two presidents meet every month to discuss various projects and developments) is in complete accord with Venezuela's democratically elected government, with Bolivia's democratically elected government, with Argentina's democratically elected government, etc. They may have different mixes of capitalism and socialism, different social mixes and some distinguishing problems, but they are all in accord on goals of social justice, independence (from the US) and cooperation for mutual development and prosperity. They see Cuba in proper perspective. It is neither an ideal country, nor a monster. Its political system is not the way the rest of Latin America went (toward democracy), but, on the other hand, it has the best health care system in the western hemisphere.

This is what US policy should have been engaged in, and encouraging, all along--a SANE policy of trade and cooperation for mutual benefit and the prosperity of all. Instead, our policy has been entirely controlled by the inheritors of the heinous Batista regime, whom the Cuban people rightfully overthrew, and who all fled to Miami, with their gangster enterprises, where they have been financially subsidized, ever since, by US taxpayers, and now control US/Latin American foreign policy.

That Honduran general's statement would be true, if it were worded like this: By that coup, they sought to prevent DEMOCRACY from Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras from reaching the United States.

In truth, these countries now have better democracies than our own--with governments that are much more responsive to the "will of the people," and that have much better election systems and much worthier goals.

And by our BAD policy in Latin America, which equates a mixed economy, democratically achieved, with communism, we have not only lost the opportunity to help Cuba develop its new oil discovery, we see France's president in Bolivia, to develop Bolivia's rare lithium resource, and we see Norway, England and France developing Venezuela's oil resources, and we see Venezuela helping bail Argentina out of US-run World Bank/IMF ruination, to create a healthy trading partner for itself, Brazil and other countries, and we see Brazil and Venezuela putting up the money to build a new highway from Brazil's Atlantic coast across South America to the Pacific, through Bolivia (which will turn Bolivia into a major trade route), and we see hundreds of such cooperative ventures that we are not part of, did not help, and sought only to defeat, with hostile and militaristic policies that threaten to permanently alienate the northern and southern halves in this hemisphere.

Further, this bad policy leaves our Corporate Rulers with only one option, as to the oil and other resources in Latin America: to take them by force. They don't want a "level playing field." They are no respecters of democracy and the "will of the people." They have been trying to smash those things in Latin America--and here, as a matter of fact--for some time. And there is much evidence that they are preparing for another oil war, this time in this hemisphere.

All because the US is so insane on the issue of Cuba that we can't find our way to a policy that is in everyone's interests.

(I posted this elsewhere in response to a DUser blaming the sanctions on Miami exiles.)

They do make an easy foil though.

It is the US "democratic" system that isn't functional at all when it comes to making progress on this issue.

It really is this simple ...

The Cuba policy platform campaign funding for politicians on both con and pro sides of the sanctions stand to lose funding streams if the sanctions were to be lifted.

Few American politicians give a whit about the Cuban people (or the American people, for that matter).

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Your post is great and on the mark! I agree with all, except the title blaming US policy on the Miami mafiosi. They are a foil for the Corporate Masters by being easy and visible scapegoats blamed as responsible for US/Cuba policy. The political money to be had on this plank is just a tool in the toolbox of the CM to be used in the management of their overarching agenda. They are not going to relinquish this tool until a suitable replacement comes along ... and we see them trying each and every day working some angle to demonize entities not in their interest. This is why the CM fund both political sides of the US's Cuba sanctions. Just to keep the tool in the toolbox.

This is the way US progress has ever been made. Against all odds.

:hi:

that is the bottom line condition in which the Miami mafia, and other entities who don't have the interests of this country or its people in mind--such as AIPAC, or Halliburton, or Blackwater, or Exxon Mobil--operate on our government. In fact, Exxon Mobil and Blackwater are probably more at work on Oil War II-South America than the Miami mafia is. And you are right that the Corpo/Fascist policy comes first, then various manipulable assets are plugged into it, and disposed of, as needed. I think this is true of the "Christian right." The Bush Cartel has zero concern about "the sanctity of marriage" (gay rights) or "the sanctity of life" (abortion rights). They freely and massively kill innocent people--hundreds of thousands of them--who get in the way of their profits and power. The "Christian right" was/is merely a vehicle by which to write the false narratives of stolen elections, on route to gaining control of the US military and US federal coffers. I have also thought this about Israel. The Bushwhacks couldn't care less if Israel survives or is wiped off the face of the earth. They would abandon Israel in a cold minute, if it suited their war profiteering goals. Israel's rightwing is just another usable tool, at the expense of the people of Israel who need peace, and cooperation and integration into their region.

I stand corrected on the emphasis on the Miami mafia in the above comment, although this certainly does not exonerate them for their support of terrorists, and their overweaning bad influence on US Cuba and Latin American policy. They really have helped to make that policy as insane as it is, and an antithetical to the interests of the rest of us, as it is. And they have zero credibility on matters like "freedom and democracy." They support the wrong side in every conflict in Latin America. They support coupsters, and militarists, and the perpetrators of death squads--torturers and murderers--and some of them are torturers and murderers. And they support the Bushwhacks, who are just like them--lawless, radical fascists.

I do think that Miami is changing, as a new generation grows up that wants to free itself from their parents' and grandparents' fascist views. And I certainly don't mean to condemn all Miamians. I think that the majority of Miamians are progressives who have suffered under stolen elections and illegitimate rightwing rule, like the rest of us--only more so. I'm talking about a particular, entrenched, fascist, criminal group, who have power in Florida way out of proportion to their numbers, and power in Washington way out of whack with the righteousness of their "cause," which is zilch. It's not righteous at all. But I agree that the global corporate predators who rule over us couldn't care less about the lives of Cuban-Americans, except as they can use and manipulate them for bad ends.

So Miami fits the bill for the gusanos. Don't get me wrong, PP, I am in NO WAY defending the cretinous factions among them. I abhor them and all that they represent. I just feel that we should recognize the proscenium that separates us from the true actors and the stagecrafting of "reality". Too much time is spent focusing on the wrong parties, a vital facet in the art of distraction and slight of hand.

If I had $1 for every time I've read or heard the blame for US/Cuba policy put on exiles, I'd be well off. It would be like blaming the teabaggers for the back room wheeling and dealing the big insurance, big pharma, big hospital Corporate Masters that are robbing Americans blind. The teabaggers, birthers and deathers have nothing to do with it except (like loudmouthed rabid Cuban exiles and US/Cuba policy) provide window dressing to be distracted and hot and bothered over, instead of dealing with what needs to be dealt with.

Cutting through the distractions is why I like to frequent DU's Latin American forum - to read alternative news stories and for the spot on analysis by the inhabitants here. Like you. Thanks for the great posts.