Brazil disappoints Castro, Chavez, Kirchner and Morales
By Tony Pagliaro
10.01.06 | Brasil’s foreign policy has always been professional and non emotional. Recent statements made by both “Lula” and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, the experienced Celso Amorín, have disappointed the “hard left” of the region, i.e. the governments led by the “neo-montonero” Néstor Kirchner (and his wife, Senator Cristina Kirchner); the communist Fidel Castro; and the pathological Hugo Chávez. Said wise statements may well have been a disappointment for Evo Morales, the recent newcomer into the “hard left” Latin American group.
Amorín said in Brasilia, in front of sixty foreign ambassadors, “The idea of confrontation is an old one, it belongs to the seventies, and cannot exist in a globalized world”. He is right, once again. He added that Brasil wants to have “normal relations” with every country. In other words, that Brasil is not -like Kirchner, for example- interested in bullying the rest of the world.
Amorín defended dialogue as a tool for international relations. It is really amazing that this had to be done. But the fact is that some in the region, lead by Hugo Chávez, seem to believe much more in intimidation and insult than in dialogue.
While Castro, Chávez and Kirchner do belong to such unusual group, others like Morales (if one reads correctly the message contained in his “soft” -typically Bolivian-style adopted in his recent visit to Madrid) may not necessarily be willing to join the “hard” -but small- core group of Latin American leftist leaders.
“Lula”, according to a cable by EFE, had taken a similar position during his early speech, at the very same diplomatic meeting. Some still make some sense in Latin America. Like Amorín, who (surrounded by a rather difficult crowd) understands the fragility of freedom and wants to preserve it.
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