Brazil Sees Coalition With Venezuela, Cuba

The first day in office for Brazil's new president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, projects the image of a leftist alliance in Latin America — one that Chavez, Venezuela's president, has already nicknamed the "Axis of Good."

Such an alliance could hinder U.S. efforts to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas stretching from Alaska to the tip of Argentina by 2005.

Despite the perception of a new Latin American troika, doubts abound that Silva really wants to form a bloc with such close ties to Chavez and Castro, Cuba's leader.

But by giving Latin America's other two leftist leaders such a warm welcome a day after his inauguration, Silva gets huge political mileage in Brazil, where Castro and Chavez are revered by the far left of his party.

The United States sent trade representative Robert Zoellick to the inauguration, seen by the Brazilians as something of a snub because Zoellick suggested last October that Brazil's only trading partner would be Antarctica if it did not join the hemispheric trade zone.

Silva responded by calling Zoellick "the sub secretary of a sub secretary of a sub secretary" during his election campaign.

At the breakfast meeting, Chavez asked Silva to send technical experts from Brazil's state-owned oil company to replace some of the 30,000 Venezuelan state oil workers who have joined a crippling nationwide strike. Silva said he would consider the request.

And before dining Thursday night with Silva, Castro told Associated Press Television News that Brazilian-Cuban relations will grow stronger now that Brazil has its first elected leftist president.

Arriving at Silva's rural retreat 20 miles outside Brasilia for dinner, Castro shook hands and signed autographs for about 50 cheering Silva supporters. He did not speak with reporters.

Castro and Chavez had front-row seats in Congress at Silva's inauguration Wednesday, where an estimated 200,000 Brazilians waved red flags. Many were dressed in red and white clothes, the colors of Silva's Workers Party.

The Cuban and Venezuelan leaders had dinner together, and talked until 4 a.m. Thursday at the Brasilia hotel where Castro is staying.

But experts said Silva's efforts to accommodate Castro and Chavez in Brasilia could be carefully calculated political window dressing.

Silva angered his party's left wing by appointing fiscal moderates to key cabinet posts, but needs its help to push programs through Congress, where he lacks a majority.

"Embracing Castro and Chavez, the symbols of anti-U.S. influence in Latin America, gets Silva political capital in Brazil," said Stephen Haber, a Latin American expert at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. "But this is a dangerous game, you go too far one way or the other and this will blow up in your face."

Silva doesn't want to scare away investors, who already sent the value of the Brazilian currency, the real, down 40 percent last summer over fears that his administration might not follow responsible economic policies.

So far, Silva seems to be pleasing his supporters without spooking financial markets. The real, which ended down 35 percent last year, finished stronger Thursday as the market reacted positively to second-tier finance ministry appointments.

Named to the posts were a mix of left-leaning, moderate and liberal economists with strong credentials, along with officials from the administration of former President Fernando Henrique Cardoso who will keep their posts.

Chavez coined the "Axis of Good" term after Silva was elected in October, hailing the victory and saying Venezuela, Brazil and Cuba should team up to fight poverty.

"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.

Here's one of the expose articles that expands on the Latin American threat to both their region and the USA that you'll find over at that Venezuela military officers (who have left Chavez) web site here...
http://www.militaresdemocraticos.com/articulos/en/20021227-01.html

-Shane

Brazilian Plotter Buys Time for Chavez; Has Links to Terrorists and to Saddam

Marco Aurelio Garcia

By Johan Freitas, in Caracas

" - We have to first give the impression that we are democrats," says Marco Aurélio Garcia, the hardline marxist behind president-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil. "Initially, we have to accept certain things. But that won't last," he warns.1

Marco Aurelio Garcia was in Venezuela last week, lending a helping hand to another make-believe democrat, Hugo Chavez. The country's general strike has left pumps dry and motorists stranded. The effects of the strike threaten to unseat Chavez. But now, thanks to Marco Aurelio Garcia, Chavez just bought himself some time: A Brazilian tanker, the Amazon Explorer, is on its way with 520.000 barrels of gasoline from the Brazilian oil company Petrobras.

Why the urgent need to personally arrive and help out? Why would Brazil intervene to break-up a strictly Venezuelan strike? Why does Lula want Chavez to stay?

A closer look at Marco Aurelio Garcia, the man behind the plan...

"Democracy is just a farce for taking power"
In interview with the French "Le Monde", Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva repeats words taught to him by Marco Aurélio Garcia when he calls a democratic election a "farce" that is merely a necessary step for the taking of power in a nation.2

For Marco Aurelio Garcia, these words are not just theory. He lived them personally, from 1969 to 1973 when he was a foreign political activist in Chile during the Salvador Allende regime.3 Allende was democratically elected, but once in power used the government to close newspapers and harshly control his political opposition. In a public scandal, huge caches of Cuban weapons were found in his home, sent from Cuba's president Fidel Castro to arm citizen militias to "defend the socialist revolution" in Chile. A Brazilian was a key helper. This was Marco Aurelio Garcia's first contact to Cuban operatives abroad.

In 1980, Marco Aurelio Garcia founded 'PT', the Brazilian Worker's Party, with Lula da Silva. Ever since founding the party, he has been its international affairs advisor.

Fast forward to 1990. Spurred on by Castro, who by this time had orchestrated military incursions in more than 30 different countries, Marco Aurelio Garcia calls a meeting of all left-wing groups from Latin America and the Caribbean. Representatives from 48 different communist parties and terrorist groups attend. This becomes the "Foro de São Paulo", which is founded with Marco Aurelio Garcia as its head -- a title which he still holds today, 12 years later.

The Sao Paulo Forum: Supporters of terrorism
As the leader of the Sao Paulo Forum, Garcia controls and coordinates the activities of subversives and extremists from the Rio Grande to the southernmost tip of Argentina.
Several of the members of the Sao Paulo Forum are terrorists. Some are on the FBI's Most Wanted list. But this is not a coincidence. The Sao Paulo Forum, under the auspices of its executive secretary Marco Aurelio Garcia, has made it a policy to support terrorist groups. Consider this quote from its 10th Congress, which took place NEW-AXIS December 7, 2001 in Havana, Cuba, and which refers to the terrorist groups ELN and FARC of Colombia:
"9. Ratify the legitimacy, justice and necessity of the Colombian organizations' fight and our solidarity with them."

The new axis of terrorism starts with Cuba, then works its way down to Colombia, financed with Venezuelan oil billions, and ends in budding superpower Brazil.

In a policy dictated by Havana, Cuba, the Sao Paulo Forum leader Marco Aurelio Garcia has shown special interest in named terrorist Manuel Marulanda Velez, a.k.a. 'Tirofijo', leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Every year from 1990, Garcia has made it his priority to personally meet with FARC. The meetings have not just taken place in Havana (with Fidel Castro himself being always present), but also in Mexico, where Marco Aurelio Garcia travelled to meet with FARC-member Marco León Calara on Tuesday, December 5 2000.

What they talk about is a matter that remains behind closed doors. But every time they meet, FARC always increases its attacks in the weeks that follow, with a high cost in loss of human lives.

What's in store for Brazil - and the region...
Brazil's foreign policy, under the guidance of Marco Aurelio Garcia , will be designed in Havana, Cuba. Garcia's Brazil will actively work against current United States policy, starting with it's policy towards Fidel Castro: "We'll attempt to eliminate the trade embargo against Cuba," he promises.4

Marco Aurelio Garcia describes his party, PT, as "radical, of the left, socialist"5. But Garcia is more than radical, and more to the left of mere socialists. Because Garcia is, in fact, a hardline communist. He wants to revive communism. In an article which he wrote about 'The Communist Manifest' by Karl Marx, he ended saying that: "The agenda is clear. If this new horizon which we search for is still called communism, it is time to re-constitute it."6

Marco Aurelio Garcia works closely with other marxist politicians around the world and appears in anthologies whose other participants read like a who's-who of international terrorism supporters. From Cuba, we meet Dario Machado and Marta Harnecker. From China, YunLin Nie, author of "The Communist Manifesto and Socialism with Chinese Characteristics". Pham Nhu Cuong represents Vietnam, and Mohamed Latifi is the Iranian contact. Extremists from democratic countries also collaborate, like Seppo Ruotsalainen ("The Revolutionary Process and Manifesto") from Finland, Alan Woods ("The Communist Manifesto Today") from England, and Pierre Zarka ("The Manifest of the Communist Party") from France. All share a deep and intense hatred of the United States, and everything that the West stands for.7

The Nuclear Weapons link to Saddam
Brazil used to have a nuclear weapons development program, which they stopped at the request of the United States. But now, with Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in charge and Marco Aurelio Garcia directing foreign strategy, there are plans for the program to be silently reactivated. Nuclear capability is necessary for the strong anti-Americanism of Marco Aurelio Garcia and the terrorist groups which he supports through the Sao Paulo Forum.

From a nuclear Brazil, there are links to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The first link is Hugo Chavez. The second, Sao Paulo Forum co-founder Fidel Castro. Hugo Chavez is Saddam's best friend in Latin America, and has personally visited and supported Saddam Hussein. After the first Chavez visit, Fidel Castro then sent his right-hand man, Rodrigo Alvarez Cambras, to Iraq for personal discussions with Saddam as well. Up until now, the trio of Saddam-Castro-Chavez has only worked together on bio-weapons. But from January 2003, with Lula taking power in Brazil, nuclear warheads will be added to the mix as well. It is just a matter of time. And with the rescue package of Brazilian gasoline to Chavez, Marco Aurelio Garcia just bought some more time for the beleaguered Venezuelan president.
In a world where totalitarian dictatorships are still very much alive, nothing would please Marco Aurelio Garcia more than to see Saddam go nuclear.

More information: www.MilitaresDemocraticos.com

REFERENCES:

1: “La Nación”, Buenos Aires (Argentina) 5 October 2002.
2: Le Monde, Paris: "En privé, Lula, âgé de 56 ans, pense tout haut que l'élection est une "farce" et qu'il faut en passer par là pour prendre le pouvoir".
3: Article in "O Estado de S. Paulo" Newspaper (Sao Paulo, Brazil), Monday, Nov 6 2000: "Quem é Marco Aurélio Garcia"
4: Emilio J. Corbière, quoting Marco Aurelio Garcia in: "Lulazo, populismo y desarrollismo", published in "La Fogata, el fuego de la lucha revolucionaria" 28 October 2002
5: Marco Aurélio Garcia, "A social-democracia e o PT", from Revista Teoria & Debate N° 12, Sao Paulo, Oct/Dec. Issue 1990
6: "O Manifesto e a refundação do comunismo", by Marco Aurélio Garcia, published in Teoria e debate, nº 36. Brazil. 26 January 2001.
7: Source: Internatif, France (2002)

December 27, 2002

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