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Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)
Mon Dec 12, 2011, 12:46 AM Dec 2011

Venezuela and Brazil tighten ties

Brazil and Venezuela: South American Giants Tighten Ties

By CORREO DEL ORINOCO INTERNATIONAL

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez received his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff in the capital of Caracas last Thursday 1 December for an encounter that saw the signing of 11 new bilateral accords in areas ranging from science and technology to housing and energy.

The meeting was Rousseff's first official visit to Venezuela since being sworn in as Brazilian President on January 1 and took place before the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) summit began in Caracas on Friday afternoon.


(NOTE: Nice photo of them at the link.)
(SNIP)

Key among the pacts signed last week was the commitment on behalf of Venezuela's state owned airline, Conviasa, to acquire 20 new planes from the Brazilian company Embraer as well as the collaboration of Brazil's Central Bank, the Caixa, in Venezuela's massive new public housing initiative.

With respect to energy, both governments agreed to form a mixed company between a subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company Pdvsa and the Brazilian company Odebrecht as well as work to boost the capacity of Venezuela's current electricity output.

During their meeting, the two heads of state also revised the progress of an earlier agricultural accord that has led to the cultivation more than 7,000 hectares (17,000 acres) of land in the central Venezuelan state of Anzoategui.


(SNIP)

...the gains made in Anzoategui as well as others made by collaborative projects with Brazil are the direct result of the integrationist policies that have existed between the two countries since the 8-year presidency of Rousseff's predecessor, Lula da Silva.

(SNIP)

Officials report that commercial activity between Brazil and Venezuela in the first 10 months of 2011 has grown by more than 20 percent in relation to the same period last year.

(MORE)
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/6682
(Creative Commons License)
(my emphases)

---------------------------

There is nothing more important to U.S. transglobal corporations and war profiteers (and thus to the U.S. government) than breaking up this critically important alliance between the leftist governments of Venezuela and Brazil. Rightwing posters at DU have been trying to chat up phantom divisions between these leaders for some time as well as downplaying the momentous formalization of UNASUR (all South American countries) in 2008 and, this week, CELAC (all Latin American countries), with the U.S. and Canada not invited to join.

The alliance between Lula da Silva and Hugo Chavez was essential to the formation of both of these new institutions, which reflect the overwhelming trend in Latin America toward economic/political integration, independence, communal strength and social justice. Lula's protege, Dilma Rousseff, is now furthering this alliance. She has much reason to support it, from a social justice and "raise all boats"-prosperity point of view, and also a personal reason. Her first contact with the U.S., as a young woman, was at the hands of torturers in the U.S.-supported fascist regime in Brazil. It is experiences like hers--including half a century of bullying, bloodshed and exploitation by the U.S. and its fascist allies in Latin America--that have driven Latin America's majority to seek independence from the U.S.
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Venezuela and Brazil tighten ties (Original Post) Peace Patriot Dec 2011 OP
Chavez looks pretty good! His hair is growing back. n/t bitchkitty Dec 2011 #1
Yup! I was struck by how well he looks, too. Peace Patriot Dec 2011 #3
Good time to highlight the hideous FBI/CIA/State Dept. U.S. torturer, Dan Mitrione Judi Lynn Dec 2011 #2
I wasn't sure who tortured Dilma Rousseff when she was young, Peace Patriot Dec 2011 #4

Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)
3. Yup! I was struck by how well he looks, too.
Mon Dec 12, 2011, 11:57 AM
Dec 2011

His smile looks real, not fake. He looks jolly, actually--and certainly doesn't show any of the ravages you might expect from a battle with cancer. He's gained rather than lost weight. Maybe that's not good for his long term, overall health but it's certainly better than wasting away (a big problem with cancer patients, of course). He's obviously eating and enjoying food and has good energy--hosting that big CELAC celebration in Caracas amidst all that is required of him as President.

I think that the USAID-funded rightwing in Venezuela (and the Miami Mafia here) are looking at their worst nightmare: a fully recovered Chavez!

Judi Lynn

(160,217 posts)
2. Good time to highlight the hideous FBI/CIA/State Dept. U.S. torturer, Dan Mitrione
Mon Dec 12, 2011, 04:50 AM
Dec 2011

He was sent to ply his trade during the vicious season in Brazil, and could have easily been the instructor of those who tortured
Brazil's current elected President:


Daniel Mitrione was born in Italy on 4th August, 1920. The family emigrated to the United States and in 1945 Mitrione became a police officer in Richmond, Indiana.

Mitrione joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1959. The following year he was assigned to the State Department's International Cooperation Administration. He was then sent to South America to teach "advanced counterinsurgency techniques." His speciality was in teaching the police how to torture political prisoners without killing them.

According to A.J. Langguth of the New York Times, Mitrione was working for the CIA via the International Development's Office of Public Safety (OPS). We know he was in several foreign countries but between 1960 and 1967 he spent a lot of time in Brazil and was involved in trying to undermine the left-wing president João Goulart, who had taken power after President Juscelino Kubitschek resigned from office in 1961.

~snip~
The CIA began to make plans for overthrowing Goulart. A psychological warfare program approved by Henry Kissinger, at the request of telecom giant ITT during his chair of the 40 Committee, sent U.S. PSYOPS disinformation teams to spread fabricated rumors concerning Goulart. John McCloy was asked to set up a channel of communication between the CIA and Jack W. Burford, one of the senior executives of the Hanna Mining Company. In February, 1964, McCloy went to Brazil to hold secret negotiations with Goulart. However, Goulart rejected the deal offered by Hanna Mining.

More:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmitrione.htm

Thank you for your article, Peace Patriot. Absolutely good news from the two democratically elected leaders.

Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)
4. I wasn't sure who tortured Dilma Rousseff when she was young,
Mon Dec 12, 2011, 01:27 PM
Dec 2011

so I didn't say that her first experience of the U.S. was at the hands of U.S. torturers. But it could be true. At the least, her torturers were likely taught their hideous 'trade' by U.S. operatives.

It's the kind of experience you don't forget. And, though Lula da Silva also suffered imprisonment, for union organizing during the U.S.-supported fascist regime, Dilma Rousseff was, literally, tortured in horrible ways. I sense a kind of resolve in her--beyond even Lula's resolve--to establish Latin American independence and collective defense of sovereignty so that what happened to her CAN NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN.

It must have been a very great moment for her--and, indeed, for all of the new leftist leaders--to stand at that formative meeting of CELAC and declare their independence--to stand TOGETHER, in unity against the exploitation and horrors that the U.S. has inflicted on this region's peoples, and to have accomplished this great work of diplomacy, getting every Latin American country--even U.S. client states--into the organization with the highest representation (all the heads of state) at this first formal meeting.

This is the FUTURE of Latin America and Rousseff has traveled that journey--from tortured victim of the U.S. and its fascist allies, to president of a thriving, progressive country in a region that is, at long last, pulling together for mutual benefit and defense.

I can only imagine what she felt, meeting with Chavez (whose government and people pioneered this amazing peaceful revolution), and Jose Mujica (president of Uruguay--also tortured by the U.S.-supported fascists), and Daniel Ortega (leader of Nicaragua's revolution against the Reagan Horrors, now president of his country), Rafael Correa (president of Ecuador and another target of fascist coupsters and Bushwhacks), Fernando Lugo (leftist president of Paraguay!), Evo Morales (leader of the end of racist 'apartheid' in Bolivia), Cristina Fernandez (fiery wife of the late president of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, now president of Argentina in her own right--both of them leaders of the first and most important alliance with Venezuela) and all the rest.

It would not surprise me if Rousseff wept tears of joy contemplating this assemblage--a dream come true for believers in peace and social justice. Or, I should say, a dream in the making.

What brilliance and sheer effort by the people of Latin America--and what untold suffering--went into creating this organization! It has much work to do--and is unquestionably a CIA target for "divide and conquer" tactics. But it is now real, concrete, in motion and represents the hopes and dreams of the region's PEOPLE, for so long obstructed and delayed by our own wretched government policy and criminal misuse of billions of our tax dollars.

On the other hand, I think she is a woman who keeps her tears to herself. Her mode is action. And I think we're going to see some remarkable actions by this woman and her government in the coming years, both within Brazil and in the region.

I think that one of the regional things that is going to happen, with Rousseff in the lead, is prevention of another Honduras (U.S.-supported rightwing/military coup). Her mentor, Lula, did everything in his power to stop that coup but had no regional Latin America-wide organization to help him. ALBA (Chavez-led trade group of mostly small Caribbean countries) was not strong enough. There was no UNASUR (the all South America organization, just formed in summer 2008, which acted to prevent the Bushwhack coup against Morales in Bolivia in September 2008). Things are going to be different with CELAC (all Latin American countries), which can bring unified institutional political/economic pressure to bear against U.S. supported coupsters.

I also think that Rousseff will lead a re-democratization of Honduras, in honor of her mentor. I am sure that she is fully aware that union leaders and other advocates of the poor are being oppressed, tortured and murdered in Honduras and she sides with the victims and with Zelaya in the critical need for reform. The U.S. is now building yet more military bases in Honduras, as a launching pad for its aggressive intentions in its "circle the wagons" region (Central America/the Caribbean). Lula identified this military activity by the U.S. as a threat to Brazil. Rouseff likely sees it the same way and understands the critical importance of Honduran sovereignty, independence and political and economic reform.

We may also see a region-wide rejection of the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs," which has become a tool of oppression by U.S. transglobal corporations and war profiteers. If Colombia's new president, Manuel Santos, a rightwinger, is talking about this, we can be sure that it's a hot topic among the leftist leaders. (What he said is that he couldn't lead the legalization of drugs without being "crucified" but that he could support legalization led by others--a rather interesting statement.) ("Crucified" by whom? Washington-based war profiteers?) With Rousseff in the lead, the DEA and all of the U.S. "security state" apparatus could be evicted from the region, just like they have evicted the World Bank/IMF, "neo-liberalism" and the "blue-eyed wonders of Wall Street" over the last decade. That would be a ringing "declaration of independence"--and the sort of thing that I feel that Rousseff is capable of.

It would not surprise me at all to see this happen in South America. It (legalization) is well on its way, politically, there. The key will be Central America, and, with the former presidents of Mexico forming a commission and recommending the legalization of marijuana and a re-thinking of the entire "war on drugs," it is a possibility in that region as well. And it is the kind of huge exercise of leadership and diplomacy that I think Rouseff is capable of.

Don't know the politics of this in Brazil. But it is a Latin America-wide trend in political thinking and I would expect Brazil to lead it to fulfillment. Others have been pioneering the way: Morales' eviction of the DEA in Bolivia and legalization of the coca leaf--an Indigenous medicine plant; Venezuela's utter rejection of the U.S. "war on drugs"; Ecuador's ejection of the U.S. military from its base in Ecuador (allegedly used for drug surveillance) and of a U.S. diplomat who was trying to control Ecuador's police force through its anti-drug efforts; Mexico's former presidents' commission; Santos' curious statement and other events have been feeding this trend. Brazil is an enormous country and its political system moves a bit slower than others. There are many interests--and, no doubt, Brazil's own war profiteer interests--involved. But such a move--Latin America's "declaration of independence" from the U.S. "war on drugs"--would NEED Brazil to be in the lead, and I think that Rousseff is the leader to do it. She has that kind of strength.

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