Did Obama bribe Brazil with $2 billion to help put Honduras’s Zelaya back into power?

Island Turtle ^ | September 30, 2009 | Corky Boyd

[Corky Boyd]

Something smells fishy. First the Obama administration announces $2 billion of financial support for Brazil’s offshore drilling efforts. And a month later Brazil spirits legally deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya back into the country, granting him sanctuary in its embassy. Are these two stories related?

First from the Wall Street Journal, August 18, headlined Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling:

The U.S. is going to lend billions of dollars to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the huge offshore discovery....

And from Reuters yesterday, headlined Lula faces criticism in Brazil over Honduras role:

BRASILIA, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Brazil's government is facing growing criticism at home over its handling of the Honduran crisis as senior lawmakers accuse it of allowing the ousted president to use its embassy as a political platform.

[dalebert]

i was saying that the payback to soros was not our bill ...obama owed it...not us....i am tired of paying obama’s debts

[fours]

From Fox News:
“In fact, the Export-Import bank receives no appropriations from Congress and thus does not rely on American taxpayer dollars and is also not “sending” $2 billion to the Brazilian company but offering lines of credit to U.S. firms so they can compete to land contracts as part of Petrobras’ drilling operations.”

“The $2 billion “preliminary commitment” by the Export-Import Bank to Petrobras is expected to grow, as the U.S. competes on behalf of American exporters of goods and services against those from China. Beijing has extended a commitment of $10 billion — but the Brazilians are said to prefer U.S. management and technology.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/20/loan-brazilian-oil-company-riles-conservatives-favor-offshore-drilling/

Obama got the US Export-Import bank to lend $2 billion to Brazil’s Petrobras for oil exploration. It’s not taxpayer money, the bank has its own money and “was established ... for the purposes of financing and insuring foreign purchases of United States goods for customers unable or unwilling to accept credit risk. The mission of the Bank is to create and sustain U.S. jobs by financing sales of U.S. exports to international buyers.”
http://www.exim.gov/brazil/pressrelease_082009.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export-Import_Bank_of_the_United_States

In short, these are not tax dollars, they are loan guarantees to finance the purchasing of oil drilling equipment & consulting services from American firms.

[Judges Gone Wild]

Now I want you to understand something. These aren’t crook- crooks. This was consensual. People voted for change.

[fours]

Whether government should be setting up banks like the Export-Import bank is a different question, though — I think most Cato-style libertarian types are against government-chartered banks in general. Personally I think it’s a practical reality that if the USA wants to compete in the global marketplace, we need an Ex-Im Bank to compete with China, etc.

Though the Ex-Im Bank’s charter includes “the principle that Ex-Im Bank does not compete with private sector lenders, but rather provides financing for transactions that would otherwise not take place because commercial lenders are either unable or unwilling to accept the political or commercial risks inherent in the deal.” [wikipedia]

[Lancey Howard]

Connecting the dots - - excellent.

[Lancey Howard]

People voted for change.

Congratulations, America, on your "historic" election.

[khnyny]

Thanks for the info.

There is still a question of who decides who receives these investments. I understand George Soros directly benefited from this little loan.

[dalebert]

thanks for all the info...i did not understand how that worked.

[Don Corleone]

Wanna bet that most of the 2 billion will never see an oil program? Can you say BRIBERY big time?

[fours]

Yeah, Soros bought a lot of Petrobras before the loan was announced, I forgot to mention that in my post.

As reported at Bloomberg.com, George Soros purchased an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), (better known as Petrobras) in Q2. The Brazilian oil company is now the largest holding in his fund, amounting to 22 percent of the total $3.68 billion of stocks and American depositary receipts held by Soros Fund Management LLC.

While the timing for Soros may not be perfect for this trade, a number of other people are also betting on Petrobras. As quoted by Ricardo Kobayashi from UBS Pactual SA: “Petrobras has something that other oil companies don’t have: oil - lots of it and they’re going to find more. If you can buy now and hang on, if you have the staying power, it’s great.’’
http://seekingalpha.com/article/91621-petrobras-buy-and-sit-tight-like-soros

[fours]

That article I quoted is from before the loan announcement (”while the timing for Soros may not be perfect” ...) and of course now the timing looks pretty good. So, yeah, fishy?

[TigersEye]

Ah, I see. I misunderstood what you meant by ‘bill.’

[TigersEye]

Thank you. That sounds far less problematic than has been presented to us. Somehow I missed FOX News treatment of it.

[Texas Fossil]

This was the deal that Sarah Palin got ridiculed in the Media for exposing.

It is even worse than that.

The new head of the Import/Export Bank is a fellow leftie friend of Obozo. From the New School in NY.

—
Obama has been proven to have been a member of the “New Party” in Chicago.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=78945

—

And he recently appointed the Dean of the “New School” in NY as President of the “Export-Import Bank”.

http://www.newschool.edu/Milano/servonblog.aspx?blogmonth=6&blogyear=2009&blogid=2277

“Fred Hochberg, who served as Milano (The New School) dean from 2004 – 2008, has just been sworn in as the 23rd president of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), the official export credit agency of the United States. In this capacity, Hochberg serves as chairman of the board.

During the Clinton Administration, from 1998 through 2001,Hochberg served as deputy, then acting administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA), where he helped to lead an enhancement of customer service and substantially increased lending to minority and women small-business owners.

We are excited to have a member of the Milano community in such an important position in the Obama Administration.”

—

This is the bank that made the loan for offshore drilling to Brazil.

“The U.S. government is prepared to provide up to $10 billion in loans to finance the development of massive hydrocarbon reserves off Brazil’s coast, a Brazilian official said Wednesday.

President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Gen. James Jones, discussed the matter with officials this week during a visit to the South American country, Brazilian Planning Minister Paulo Bernardo da Silva told reporters. He said the U.S. Export-Import Bank already has signed a letter of intent in that regard with Brazilian state oil company Petrobras…”

—

Sarah Palin took heat for mentioning this, but I would bet that if honestly examined it was one Marxist aiding another Marxist.

[SumProVita]

“I think the $2 billion dollar drilling “loan” was to repay Soros. But the use of the Brazilian embassy to give Zelaya an in-country platform to foment revolution might be a way of saying thanks. There is no doubt 0bama supports the wannabe dictator.”

That’s how I see it as well.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“Something smells fishy. First the Obama administration announces $2 billion of financial support for Brazil’s offshore drilling efforts. And a month later Brazil spirits legally deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya back into the country, granting him sanctuary in its embassy. Are these two stories related?”

Take it to the bank!!

[Citizen Soldier]

I said this is why it helped the guy because of the US money

[Texas Fossil]

“The President doesn’t operate the Treasury.”

—

NO, but he just appointed a Leftie friend as the new President of the Export-Import Bank that financed the project for Brazil.