Look at Cuba, it has been able to trade with every country save one. The US embargoe is insignificant economically and it's still a basket case.
We just liberated a country with huge oil reserves that thirty years ago was one of the few countries in the middle east with the potential to become a modern nation, at least in the economic sense. The Baathists got in and the rest as they say is history.
As for Brazil, they are going to have to be eventually bitch slapped since Lula made a deal with the military to resurect their nuclear program. Brazil unlike Iraq, Iran or north korea is a far more advanced country with the industrial infrastructure to create WMD's faster than most countries. I hope those guys in Washington are keeping an eye there. We musn't get distracted by what is going on in north korea and iraq that we make the mistake to ignore brazil. If brazil fires up their nuclear program it will force argentina to do the same and it's program was far more advanced than brazil's. Argentina did not produce nuclear weapons but it was in possesion of the entire seven stage cycle for the production of nuclear weapons. There are only seven other countries in that stage of development, five are nuclear armed (USA, France, UK, China, USSR) two are not (Canada, Germany). Brazil may soon join that club if the military is allowed and that will force argentina to crank up it's program again. Another rivalry ala pakistan-india model in the making. I don't think that's where we want to head.