Brazil's new leader takes an unlikely global role

PORTO ALEGRE, BRAZIL - Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had a message Sunday for the world's political and business leaders meeting Davos, Switzerland, at the annual World Economic Forum.

"It is absolutely necessary to build the world economic order to meet the demands of billions of people who live at the margins," Mr. da Silva said, urging rich countries to declare "war on hunger."

This call for attention to social issues is not surprising coming from a former union leader and socialist. But the fact that he would be making it to the world's elite on an international stage is unexpected.

When he took office on Jan. 1, after more than two decades as the leader of Brazil's left-of-center Workers' Party, most people thought the man known as Lula would concentrate his efforts on resolving domestic issues. The former shoeshine boy speaks no foreign languages and had shown no particular aptitude, or interest, in foreign affairs.

Now though, his trip to Davos - coming on the heels of a stop at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the anticapitalist answer to the Davos meeting - shows that Lula is hoping the developed world will hear his message as clearly as the developing one, and perhaps even embrace him as the man capable of bridging the gap between the two. The only sitting president to attend both weekend summits, Lula has surprised politicians and analysts with vigorous international forays that have given Brazil a much higher profile, particularly in its own backyard.

Brazil needs "to assume its greatness," Lula said on a visit to Ecuador earlier this month, the first foreign trip of his presidency. "I find it incredible that all the other South American countries see Brazil as a natural leader for the continent. Brazil was the only one who for 500 years didn't see that or want to do anything about it."

Not all its neighbors were keen to see Brazil become the region's dominant power. That was partly because the former Portuguese colony's distinct culture, language, and history set it apart from its Hispanic neighbors; and partly because other Latin American leaders were reluctant to see Brazil, the nation with the largest population and economy in the region, become too strong.

Lula's predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, made some moves to change that, playing active roles in ending a border dispute between Peru and Ecuador in 1995 and also by discreetly helping Paraguay solve its political problems a few years later. In August 2000, Mr. Cardoso hosted South America's first presidential summit.

Lula has taken up the baton, primarily with troubled neighbors Venezuela and Argentina. He has extended a hand to Argentina as it tries to recover from the worst economic crisis in its history, offering to rework a regional trade agreement and even enter into talks on a common currency and joint parliament.

Even more enthusiastic, however, has been his involvement in Venezuela, where opponents of President Hugo Chávez are eight weeks into a national strike aimed at toppling him. Lula was instrumental in creating of the "group of friends," six nations (Brazil, Chile, Spain, Portugal, the United States, and Mexico) that hope find a peaceful way out of the crisis.

Although he objected to the inclusion of the US and Spain in the group - an objection he later dropped - Mr. Chávez has responded favorably to Lula, flying to Brazil to meet with the man he considers an ally. But he has not secured Lula's unfettered support. Lula remains impartial, telling those wanting to oust Chávez that their actions must be made within the Constitution, while at the same time counseling the Venezuelan leader that he must negotiate with his opponents for a peaceful solution.

Lula's handling of the situation has given him and his fledgling administration some international credibility.

"The [Workers' Party] has made it very clear it is a social democratic party in the making," says Riordan Roett, a Brazil expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. "They want nothing to do with dictatorship or authoritarianism or anticonstitutional moves. And while [Lula] politically and psychologically identifies more with [Fidel] Castro, [Ecuadorean President Lucio] Gutierrez, and Chávez ... he realizes very well that he has to have a very pragmatic and shrewd foreign policy."

Mr. Roett and other experts acknowledge that the US is probably not overjoyed at Lula's close relationship with Mr. Castro, or his willingness to engage other presidents, like Chávez or the leftist Mr. Gutierrez, who have never hidden their dislike of US policy and influence.

Some, like Rep. Henry Hyde (R) of Illinois, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, have even gone as far as to say that Lula may have posed as a moderate in order to win the election and then form, with Chávez and Castro, a Latin American axis.

Lula's words and actions since taking power call in question that prediction, and with President Bush paying little attention to the region - the administration did not send high-ranking officials to the inaugurations of either Lula or Gutierrez - the way may be open for Lula to continue carving out a leadership role.

"Brazil has always had good diplomats," says Mauro Silva, a union leader attending the six-day Porto Alegre summit, which is due to wrap up tomorrow. "Lula knows how to talk to people. It was a skill he learned as a trade-union leader. He could be a mediator ... and a bridge between [the right and left]."

Hugo Chavez

Fidel Castro

Lucio Gutierrez - Three years after a coup attempt former colonel takes reins in Ecuador***Seven Latin American presidents were among the guests at the inauguration, including the region's top leftist leaders, Cuba's Fidel Castro, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Gutierrez has frequently expressed his admiration for Chavez, raising fears among some Ecuadoreans that he may seek to emulate Chavez, a former paratrooper and coup leader whose leftist rhetoric has divided Venezuela and produced growing political instability.

Gutierrez thrust himself into the national spotlight in January 2000, when he led a group of disgruntled junior army officers and 5,000 Indian protesters in an uprising that drove the widely repudiated Jamil Mahuad from power in the midst of the country's worst economic crisis in decades. Gutierrez was imprisoned for six months after the coup and expelled from the army.

In his address Wednesday, he said he would take strong steps against "the corrupt oligarchy that has robbed our money, our dreams and the right of Ecuadoreans to have dignified lives." "If sharing and showing solidarity, if fighting corruption, social injustice and impunity, means belonging to the left, then I am a leftist," he said, drawing cheers. But he added: "If generating wealth and promoting production means belonging to the right, then I am a rightist." That remark drew fewer cheers.***

Brazil Sees Coalition With Venezuela, Cuba***"We will form an 'axis of good,' good for the people, good for the future," Chavez said at the time. But Brazilian political scientists dismissed the possibility of an "Axis of Good" being created by the meetings between Silva, Castro and Chavez. "There is no way this represents the beginning of Chavez' 'Axis of Good' and much less the 'Axis of Evil' imagined by right-wing Americans," said Luciano Dias, a political scientist at the Brasilia-based Brazilian Institute of Political Studies. Silva, who is popularly known as Lula, "would never even consider creating a nucleus of leftists in Latin America, he is too smart for that," Dias said. U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher would not comment Thursday on the possibility of the alliance.

Chavez left his strikebound and politically riven country despite the crippling work stoppage aimed at toppling him from the presidency of the world's fifth largest oil producer. Silva also has a compelling reason for staying on friendly terms with Chavez: The long border the two countries share. "Brazil worries very much about violence in Venezuela spilling over into Brazil," Haber said. "So you want to have peaceful relations with the Venezuelan, regardless of who is in charge."

During his breakfast with Silva, Chavez also brought up the idea of increasing cooperation among Latin American state-owned oil industries and set up a company called Petro-America. "It would become a sort of Latin American OPEC," Chavez said. "It would start with Venezuela's PDVSA and Brazil's Petrobras," and could come to include Ecopetrol from Colombia, PetroEcuador from Ecuador, and PetroTrinidad from Trinidad and Tobago." Last week, Cardoso's outgoing administration sent a tanker to Venezuela carrying 520,000 barrels of gasoline, but that barely dented shortages around the country. If Silva decides to help Chavez with Brazilian oil workers, it probably won't accomplish much either, said Albert Fishlow, who heads Columbia University's Brazilian studies program. "If he does it will be minimal and not enough to affect the situation," Fishlow said.***

Castro, Chavez Attending Brazilian Inauguration - "Jan. 1 is no longer a Cuban monopoly" [Full Text] BRASILIA, Brazil - Cuban leader Fidel Castro arrived Tuesday in Brazil to attend the inauguration of Luiz Inacio da Silva, the country's first leftist president in 40 years. Castro, dressed in trademark green uniform, was driven in a motorcade to a Brasilia hotel amid tight security. "I am happy to be in Brazil, and happy to say that Jan. 1 is no longer a Cuban monopoly," Castro told reporters. Jan. 1 is the anniversary of the Cuban revolution that brought Castro to power. A serious leg infection kept Castro out of sight in Cuba for nearly two weeks in December, but he showed no difficulty walking as he entered the hotel.

Silva takes over Wednesday for outgoing president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in an inaugural ceremony expected to attract presidents from at least six other Latin American countries and 100,000 or more Brazilians. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was also expected to attend. But the four-week-old strike in Venezuela aimed at ousting him was expected to delay him. Earlier this month, Chavez said until the last minute that he would attend an economic summit in Brasilia, but never showed up. Silva, a 57-year-old former union leader, will govern Latin America's largest country and counts Castro and Chavez among his friends. [End]

May 2001 - Fidel, Saddam and Hugo --An improbable but growing friendship of three military revolutionaries ***The improbable but growing friendship of three military revolutionaries - Fidel Castro of Cuba, Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela - poses a challenge to U.S. interests and to President-elect George W. Bush. It is a friendship with considerable power: Venezuela and Iraq are among the top 10 oil exporters. Cuba is a beneficiary of their largesse and, in Venezuela's case, a mentor of revolution.

Meanwhile, United Nations economic sanctions against Iraq, imposed after the Persian Gulf War nearly 10 years ago, and the four-decade U.S. embargo against Cuba, following the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, are crumbling. Allies and U.S. businesses are increasingly violating or ignoring both embargoes, and there is nothing Washington seems able to do about it. Earlier this month, the UN Security Council overrode U.S. objections and released $525 million from its Iraqi oil fund for use in upgrading Mr. Saddam's oil industry.

The Castro-Hussein-Chávez connection is anti-American and anti-capitalistic, but not in an ideological way. What matters to the three is domestic power built upon a base of nationalism that they believe legitimizes their policies

In a way, this bizarre trio represents the rebirth, a half century later, of the kind of nationalist populism spawned by General Juan Perón in Argentina and Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt. Mr. Castro and Mr. Saddam gained power through armed revolutions; Mr. Chávez, a paratroopers' lieutenant colonel, was democratically elected in 1998, after serving time for trying to overthrow the government in 1992.

Mr. Chávez is the most intriguing new leader to emerge in Latin America since Mr. Castro - and he is the lynchpin between Mr. Castro and Mr. Saddam. Although Cuba had been sending doctors and health workers to Iraq for years, there had not been any major contacts between the two countries until Mr. Chávez appeared on the scene. This fall, Mr. Chávez became the first democratically elected foreign head of state to visit Iraq since the Gulf War, ostensibly to invite Mr. Saddam to a summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. But it also was an in-your face gesture toward the United States. ***

January 2003 - More Facts Uncovered in Chavez - Al Qaeda Collaboration*** Major Juan Diaz Castillo, Chavez's personal pilot, was assigned the job of planning the delivery of the $1 million collaboration to the terrorist group. Now an active member of the country's resistance movement, he is today revealing details of the transfer and of other subversive acts carried out in the name of Chavez's so called "Bolivarian Revolution".

" - They are criminals and killers," he lambasts the inner circle of Chavez cohorts. And he is not afraid of naming names: "The job was given to me by Hugo Chavez. I coordinated with current Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, then Interior Minister Luis Alfonso Davila, and the current Vice President (then Defense Minister) Jose Vicente Rangel. When we determined the difficulty of sending three Hercules C-130 transport planes to Afghanistan, Diosdado Cabello decided to send cash instead.

" - In the last week of September, 2001, one million U.S. dollars was transferred to Dr Walter Marquez, Venezuela's representative for the region. Of that amount, one hundred thousand was used for food and clothing for the Taliban government, and the remaining nine hundred thousand dollars went to the Taliban in cash, with the understanding that it was to support the Al Qaeda terrorists in their relocation efforts."

Cuban involvement: "Chavez is Castro's puppet"

Asked why Chavez would support Al Qaeda, the high-level military defector offered two explanations. " - First of all, Chavez had for a long time wanted a direct line of communication with Al Qaeda. He had asked Libya for that, but with no success. Then came 9/11 and Chavez was impressed," remembers the pilot of the presidential airplane.

" - Second, Chavez looks up to Fidel Castro. The Cuban dictator has collaborated with terrorist groups for years. Chavez emulates Fidel Casto. It sounds bizarre, but Chavez is a bizarre man. He was already starting to go off the rails in 2001, and he wanted direct contacts to all the major terror groups in the world." According to Diaz Castillo, Chavez depends on Fidel Castro's advice in governing Venezuela. The pilot revealed that during the last four years, roughly 4,000 Venezuelans have been receiving military and intelligence training in Cuba. The Cuban communist dictator assists Venezuela's embattled crypto-communist in holding onto power, at whatever cost, because Cuba depends on Venezuela's oil billions to stay afloat. Earlier this year, Fidel Castro said that "for the Cuban revolution to survive, it is necessary for the Bolivarian revolution to survive," in reference to Chavez's Marxist experiment.***

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