Brazil blocking conference to deal with Latin crises

Judging from the speeches and the talk in the hallways I heard at a top-level conference on military affairs earlier this week, there is a big bad boy who is blocking plans to solve Latin America's multiple crises -- Brazil.

It's not that Brazil has done anything dreadful since the Jan. 1 inauguration of leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said several participants at the meeting on ''Building Regional Security'' organized by the University of Miami's North-South Center. On the contrary, da Silva has proven to be more level-headed than many Washington conservatives had anticipated.

Rather, the problem is that Brazil, the biggest country in South America, is sitting on the sidelines while the neighborhood is afire, several of the speakers said. Brazil is still paralyzed by 19th century fears of U.S. imperial designs, which have long driven it to instinctively reject almost anything coming from Washington or supported by Washington, regardless of its merits, they said.

These days, Brazil is effectively blocking a Canadian-sponsored proposal to hold an emergency summit with President Bush and 33 other elected leaders in the hemisphere, aimed at doing something about the escalating crises in Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia, Haiti and several other countries.

Such a presidential summit would, among other things, force the Bush administration to pay some attention to Latin America, which fell off White House radar screens after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But while the United States, Mexico, Caribbean nations and most South American countries support the emergency summit, which would be held in September in Mexico, Brazil is stone-walling the proposal, Canadian and U.S. officials say.

''Everybody is mystified as to why Brazil doesn't go along,'' says Paul D. Durand, Canada's ambassador to the Organization of American States.

Some experts say it's because Brazil doesn't want a meeting in which it would be overshadowed by the United States. Others say it's that da Silva's two-month-old government has not had enough time to prepare for an active role in such a meeting.

In addition, Brazil continues to offer little support for Plan Colombia, the U.S.-backed effort to help Colombia fight drug traffickers and narco-terrorists. And in a statement that fell like a cold shower in Colombia, da Silva's foreign affairs advisor, Marco Aurelio Garcia said, last week that Brazil does not want to declare the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas a terrorist group because it wants to remain a ''viable mediator'' in the Colombian conflict.

Colombia has been urging the world to declare the FARC a terrorist group so that foreign humanitarian groups will stop funneling money to the Colombian rebels, who last month blew up a Bogotá social club, killing 35 people -- including five children -- and injuring 173 others.

In an effort to mend fences, da Silva invited his Colombian counterpart to a meeting in Brasilia later this week, and Brazil is scheduled to participate in a regional meeting of defense and foreign ministers in Bogotá on Tuesday. But military experts at the Miami conference were skeptical that Brazil will be of much help to Colombia in the near future.

''There is no political will there,'' said (Ret.) Col. John A. Cope, a Latin American military affairs specialist at the U.S. National Defense University. ``Brazil is the only country that really can make a difference on Colombia, and it's not doing it.''

Are such criticisms fair? In a telephone interview, Brazil's ambassador to the United States, Rubens Barbosa, told me that Brazil has been reluctant to endorse the ''emergency summit'' proposal because it was originally billed as a meeting to accelerate hemispheric free trade talks. Brazil has been critical of U.S. free trade proposals, and wants to keep discussing them at current trade ministers' meetings, he said.

''We are still studying the idea; no final decision has been made,'' Barbosa said, referring to the summit.

He added that his country may endorse the meeting if its agenda is shifted toward social issues. On Brazil's refusal to describe the FARC as a terrorist organization, he said that ``nobody has asked to do so, neither privately nor officially.''

To its credit, Brazil was the first country in the region to support the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks, and da Silva recently turned down a request by Venezuela to include nondemocratic countries in a group of friendly nations he created to help solve Venezuela's crisis.

But when it comes to the Canadian summit proposal and Colombian pleas for regional help against narco-terrorists, the critics are right. It's time for Brazil to leave its old fears behind, and be more active in regional diplomatic efforts. If it wants to be a player, it should join the game.

Insight Magazine - Chavez Plans for Terrorist Regime*** During the last few weeks, Chavez has moved to control the military high command with his closest acolytes. Gen. Luis Garcia Carneiro, who has been leading the Caracas-based 3rd Infantry Division in operations to disarm the metropolitan police, now is the effective head of the army.

Possibly thousands of Arab terrorists as well as Colombian narcoguerrillas are being protected by DISIP, which has come under the control of Cuba's DGI, according to members of the Venezuelan security agency. European diplomatic officials in Caracas confirm that Cubans are operating DISIP's key counterterrorist and intelligence-analysis sections. According to a variety of sources, 300 to 400 Cuban military advisers coordinated by Havana's military attaché in Venezuela, navy Capt. Sergio Cardona, also are directing Chavez's elite Presidential Guard and his close circle of bodyguards, some of whom can't even sing the words to the Venezuelan national anthem. As many as 6,000 Cuban undercover agents masquerading as "sports instructors" and "teachers" also are reported to be training the Circulos Bolivarianos and even operating naval facilities.

"I quit my job when I got tired of doing dirty work for Chavez with the Cubans looking over my shoulder," Ferreira tells Insight, claiming that Interior Minister Rodriguez Chacin and other presidential aides repeatedly pressured him to launder the identities of terrorists and narcotraffickers transiting through Venezuela. He also was ordered to deceive U.S. authorities on the activities of a Hezbollah financial network whose files were requested by the FBI following the Sept. 11 attacks.***

Washington Post - Meddle with Mr. Chavez*** Without more meddling, and soon, Venezuela will likely see the collapse of what was once one of Latin America's richest economies and strongest democracies. Mr. Chavez appears to have tired of his half-baked populism; now he seems prepared to destroy what remains of civil society and the private sector. He placed strict controls on foreign currency and has vowed to take away the licenses of private television stations that supported the opposition. He fired 16,000 employees of Venezuela's state oil company -- the country's economic lifeline -- and moved to bring an institution long known for its professionalism under his personal control. Independent economists are forecasting a catastrophic drop in Venezuela's economic output this year; some foresee the virtual disappearance of the private sector. That would bring Venezuela far closer to Cuba, which maybe shouldn't be a surprise: Mr. Castro, who is Mr. Chavez's closest ally, reportedly has dispatched thousands of officials to Venezuela.***

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Fidel Castro - Cuba

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

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U.S. ambassador in Venezuela voices concern about terrorist groups in Latin America*** CARACAS, Venezuela - The United States is concerned that international terrorist groups have established bases in Venezuela and other Latin American countries, the U.S. ambassador said Friday. "We are worried about the existence of terrorist groups not only in Venezuela but in all Latin American countries," Charles Shapiro told reporters after meeting with Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.

Shapiro was responding to questions about statements made by Gen. James Hill, commander of the U.S. Southern Command. Hill told a military conference in Miami on Tuesday that organizations such as militant Lebanese group Hezbollah were operating in the tri-border area of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and Venezuela's Margarita Island, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.***

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Chávez's Bolivarian Circles in South Florida - 17 around U.S. - Spreading around world *** Circle leaders draw strength from what they say is a growing Bolivarian international network. The U.S. circle members will hold their first national assembly in New York in March, and Chávez representatives from Venezuela plan to attend.

The Venezuelan government also will host an international Bolivarian Circle meeting in April in Caracas. ''There are circles in Bilbao, Madrid, Denmark -- all over the place. It's really neat,'' said Guillermo García Ponce, Chávez advisory committee coordinator, in an interview with The Herald in Caracas. He acknowledged that South Florida has become an anti-Chávez stronghold. ''I suppose [the Miami circle] will have to keep a low profile,'' García said.

Anti-Chávez activists say they do not oppose the presence of a Bolivarian Circle in Miami as long as it doesn't instigate the violence they allege the circles have caused in Venezuela -- a claim Soto and others deny. ''The government has allowed the Bolivarian Circles to attack the newspapers, attack the reporters,'' said Raúl Leoni, a Venezuelan opposition leader who lives in Weston. ``The fact that you win an election doesn't make you eternal if you're not doing your job correctly.''

……………..The Bolivarian Circles -- along with Chávez's controversial 1999 ''Bolivarian constitution'' -- are part of his overarching ``Bolivarian Revolution.'' Some 70,000 circles exist in Venezuela, made up largely of the working class. Typically, they meet weekly and engage in humanitarian projects such as providing food for the poor -- with military financing -- and building schools. Critics compare the circles to Fidel Castro's Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.***

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