Brazil's president stresses importance of relations with Caribbean countries

Brazil's president stresses importance of relations with Caribbean countries
13:25, February 23, 2010

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stressed the importance of the relationship between Brazil and the Caribbean nations on Monday.

The president kicked off his visit to Mexico, Cuba, Haiti and El Salvador on Sunday. It is the first time that Caribbean nations are included in the president's itinerary.

The president's first stop was Mexico, where he stayed till Tuesday to participate in the Second Caribbean and Latin American Summit. Lula reminded that the first meeting was held in December 2008 in Brazil's Bahia state.

"It was the first time we managed to gather all (Latin American and Caribbean) countries without the participation of the United States and Canada," he said.

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Lula is very smart, he's always pushing for good relations, to get contracts and sales for Brazilian companies.

misinformed and disinformed as we are, by the corpo-fascist press, don't know how deep and wide this sovereignty movement is, in Latin America, and how the various news events and issues are related to it. For instance, when President Chavez of Venezuela called Bush Jr. "the devil" at the UN, I believe that he was speaking for numerous Latin American leaders who had been bullied and strongarmed by the Bush Junta to support the horrible invasion of Iraq. They resisted that pressure, but few dared to speak of what they had been through. Latin American leaders have been under this kind of pressure from the U.S. on other issues as well--on Cuba, for instance, and on Chavez himself (--They were told that they must "isolate" Chavez, which they refused to do. Lulu, for instance, chose that occasion to specifically back Chavez up) --and on U.S. dominated "free trade for the rich" and on the failed, corrupt, murderous U.S. "war on drugs." And Latin American countries have, of course, been under this kind of pressure for the last one hundred years and more--bullied, strongarmed by the U.S. on policies that are NOT in their interest AT ALL. And they are, at long last, rebelling.

The people of Venezuela peacefully turning back a U.S.-supported rightwing military coup against the Chavez government, in 2002, was a specific assertion of sovereignty. 'We will have the government that WE choose, not that the U.S. chooses,' is what they were saying. This was an unprecedented, successful assertion of sovereignty, and was the precipitating rebellion that has sparked many more--and is one big reason why the U.S. hates the Chavez government so much. It was chosen by the Venezuelan people, and defended by the Venezuelan people, in opposition to U.S. wishes.

And this sovereignty movement has manifested in many other ways--with Latin America, in general, taking a 180 degree different position on Cuba than the U.S.--they have virtually all recognized the Cuban government and have normal relations with Cuba; with increasing opposition to the U.S. "war on drugs"; with increasing opposition to U.S. dominated "free trade"; with the development of trade groups that exclude the U.S. (UNASUR--an all-South American trade group, and prototype "common market," which played a crucial role in defeating the U.S.-instigated coup in Bolivia in 2008; and ALBA, a Venezuela-Cuba organized trade group for collective economic/political clout and mutual aid among the smaller Central American/Caribbean countries); with opposition to the U.S.-supported rightwing coup in Honduras; and with general opposition to the new U.S./Colombia military agreement (the Pentagon's South Vietnam-style occupation of Colombia, and war planning); and--very important--with assertion of national control over their resources, at which, again, Venezuela has been the leader. Interestingly, Brazil has now made similar conditions for exploitation of its new oil find, to those that the Chavez government has insisted upon, particularly the nation keeping a controlling share of the oil projects, and also commitment of a substantial amount of the profit to social programs (education and other "bootstrapping" of the poor).

"'It was the first time we managed to gather all (Latin American and Caribbean) countries without the participation of the United States and Canada,' (Lulu) said."

This is a very "hot"--meaningful, important--statement.

Canada, with its rightwing government, and the U.S.--with a rightwing government no matter whom we elect--have been hampering collective action in the interest of Latin Americans at the OAS. The U.S. has always done this. Canada now is making the problem worse. And Lulu, and most other Latin American leaders, are looking for ways to get around it. It is vital that people reading about these matters understand the basic issue: sovereignty. Latin America is not really "anti-U.S." Even the most serious leftists--Chavez in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia, Correa in Ecuador, Fernandez in Argentina, Ortega in Nicaragua--are not "anti-U.S." They are pro-sovereignty. They and the people who elected them want control of their own affairs. They are more pro-democracy than our own government--way more. Lulu himself is an excellent manifestation of how widespread this movement is. It is pervasive. Evo Morales said, "We want partners, not bosses." U.S. corporations and war profiteers--our real rulers--don't want to be "partners," of course. And that is the problem. Latin America is not anti-U.S. It is anti-U.S. corporate/war profiteer tyranny. And so should we all be.

Most Latin American governments are chosen by the people, and the US has very little influence, except possibly in the banana republics in Central America. Latin America does benefit by creating a unified block to negotiate trade with the USA and EU. As for the other gobbledygock coming from Chavez, it's just more of the same hot air. Nobody in their right mind will go into a political alliance with such an unstable character, especially when he is prone to insult other leaders and advocates Marxism. Chavez' time has passed now. He is running out of resources, the Venezuelan people are increasingly opposed to him, and he's going to have to spend a lot of energy just trying to stay in power.