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Brazil's leader pledges to build nuclear arsenal
National Post ^ | October 31, 2002 | Isabel Vincent

Posted on 10/31/2002 7:05:30 PM PST by Ranger

Brazil's newly elected president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, has promised to expand the military in Latin America's largest country and turn Brazil into a nuclear power.

Mr. da Silva, a left-wing populist who campaigned on promises to improve conditions for the country's vast population of poor, promised military leaders he will forego Brazil's adherence to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and refocus efforts on building up nuclear weapons.

"Why is it that someone asks me to put down my weapons and only keep a slingshot while he keeps a cannon pointed at me?" said Mr. da Silva, addressing a group of high-ranking military officers in Rio de Janeiro earlier this month.

"Brazil will only be respected in the world when it turns into an economic, technological and military power."

In addition to nuclear weapons, Mr. da Silva, who takes over the Brazilian presidency on Jan. 1, has pledged support for a plan that would see Embraer, a Brazilian aircraft manufacturer, begin producing a new jet fighter and missile technology capable of competing with the U.S. F-16.

Mr. da Silva did not make clear why the country needs nuclear weapons in a region where no other country has a similar program. He also did not address how Brazil, which has been promised a US$30-billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to bail out its floundering economy, would pay for the program.

Analysts suggest Mr. da Silva made the pledge to win support from the military, which remains a powerful force in Brazil and has traditionally looked with suspicion on leftist politicians.

The spectre of nuclear weapons emerging under a leftist government in a country with a population of more than 175 million has rekindled Cold War anxieties in Washington. Mr. da Silva, a former union leader and Communist, is close to both Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, the firebrand president of Venezuela.

He has on several occasions attended conferences with Latin American terrorists, such as the FARC guerrillas of Colombia and the Tupac Amaru rebels in Peru. Mr. da Silva has been friends with Mr. Castro for more than 25 years, has praised him as "a great hero" and urged the United States to lift its trade embargo against Cuba.

In 1990, Mr. Castro and Mr. da Silva established the Forum of Sao Paulo, a group of highly-placed Latin American leftists who organize annual conferences to debate issues. Last year the conference was held in Havana and featured members of the FARC, which has waged a long civil war with the Colombian government and is largely financed by drug smuggling.

Also in attendance were high-ranking members of Tupac Amaru, who were responsible for the 1996 hostage taking at the Japanese Embassy in Lima.

"A new terrorist and nuclear/ballistic missile threat may well come from an axis including Cuba's Fidel Castro and a newly elected radical president in Brazil, all with links to Iraq," said Constantine Menges, a senior fellow a the Hudson Institute in Washington and former member of the U.S. National Security Council.

In a recent letter to George W. Bush, the U.S. President, a group of 12 Republican congressmen warned that Mr. da Silva's position on nuclear weapons was a matter of "grave concern." So far, the White House has made no comment on Mr. da Silva's ambitions.

"The fact that Lula associates with the worst elements of Latin America should make clear that this is no moderate," said Paul Weyrich, chair and chief executive of the Free Congress Foundation in Washington. "He may be wearing suits these days, but his politics could end up putting Brazil in a straitjacket."

Mr. da Silva already faces severe financial problems. He has promised extensive social reforms for the poor, who make up more than a third of the population, and needs to reassure foreign investors who fear the government will default on the country's US$250-billion debt. Stock markets in the country have plunged and the Brazilian currency, the real, has fallen sharply in recent months on fears of an economic meltdown.

Mr. da Silva has promised to adhere to the strict budgetary restrictions imposed by the IMF as a condition of the US$30-billion bailout. But, among his own economic advisors, there is little consensus on what the primary focus of a Workers' Party government economic policy might be.

Between 1965 and 1994 the Brazilian military worked to develop nuclear weapons and designed two atomic bombs. The country was reportedly on the verge of testing a nuclear device when the program was shut down by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who was elected president in 1994.

The program also brought Brazil into alliances with Iraq and China, which sold enriched uranium to Brazil and has invested in the Brazilian aerospace industry. In several campaign speeches, Mr. da Silva said he would welcome a closer relationship with China.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: brazil; latinamericalist; lula; nuclearweapons; nukes; wmd
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To: Ranger
Lula is just blowing smoke...As the article says, the military likes to be stroked every once in a while. N. Korea has been able to extort money from the US quite effectively by promoting that they are working on a nuclear program. Lula is doing the same here...
41 posted on 10/31/2002 8:03:56 PM PST by Maringa
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To: Ranger
Brazil has the largest black population of any country outside Africa. (Don't know if that means anything here, just a factoid.)
42 posted on 10/31/2002 8:10:32 PM PST by blam
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To: JasonC
Exactly.

Also makes an excellent bargaining chip, and a source of walking around money paid by our enemies that desire nukes themselves (proliferation). We need to starve 'em out. Of course, doing that could backfire and rally the unwashed around this whackjob. It would be nice if we could truly be proactive for a change in this assed-up world. It's getting tiresome having to go around and shut the barn doors after the horses get out.

43 posted on 10/31/2002 8:26:59 PM PST by thescourged1
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To: jalisco555
Give this guy 7 years and we'll be seeing Brazilian boat people washing up in Haiti.
44 posted on 10/31/2002 8:31:31 PM PST by Doctor Stochastic
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Everybody wants a nuke these days. It's a badge of honor. May God help us all.
45 posted on 10/31/2002 8:49:10 PM PST by Dec31,1999
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To: Maringa
The military does not get "stroked" by the prospect of nuclear confrontation with the US. Fidel does, though. Lulu is appeasing an appetite alright, but it is not a conservative one or exclusively Brazilian. He is announcing to the world that he wants Brazil to no longer be a non-controversial member of a pacified Latin America at peace with global capitalism. He instead wants Brazil to be another China, and himself to be another Mao. That is not "blowing smoke", it is serious news of the first order of magnitude.
46 posted on 11/01/2002 12:13:27 AM PST by JasonC
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To: maro; Poohbah; Miss Marple; Willie Green; Cincinatus' Wife; Long Cut; MLedeen
Saddam's got to go first - he's the guy who has the proclivity to USE weapons of mass destruction or provide them to others.

North Korea's next - if only because they are a threat to Japan and South Korea.

Lula just went to third on the list - they don't have the nukes yet, they are starting devleopment. And Lula may end up being Allende III (Chavez has Allende II wrapped up, IMHO).
47 posted on 11/01/2002 8:14:05 AM PST by hchutch
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To: hchutch
Perhaps we could demoralize Chavez with the introduction of Parrot Fever into Venezuela.

Dear Hugo:

Shape up or the parrot gets it.

Regards,
GWB


48 posted on 11/01/2002 8:32:36 AM PST by Miss Marple
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To: Pokey78
Too bad Ozzy wasn't there to bite the bird's head off.
49 posted on 11/01/2002 8:36:07 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: Miss Marple; hchutch
Great bird, that Norwegian Blue! Lovely plumage, eh?
50 posted on 11/01/2002 8:37:40 AM PST by Poohbah
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To: Poohbah
"Pinin' for the fjords!!"

At least he doesn't wear a beret. Think about it. Who MADE the beret? Did they measure the parrot? Were there fittings? Are there other costumes under production? Will the parrot have a little military hat when Chavez dresses as a general? Is there a new position in the Venezuelan government..."Official Parrot Costumer?"

Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

51 posted on 11/01/2002 8:47:49 AM PST by Miss Marple
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To: Poohbah; Miss Marple
"This parrot is no more!"

*clonk clonk*

"It has ceased to be!!"

--

Of course, on the Brazilian front...


RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)

Brazilian President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva angrily used the United States of using chemical weapons, stealing Brazil's stockpile of nuclear weapons, and sabotaging the equipment beyond repair.

Lula da Silva claims that Brazilian army patrols came across the nuclear scientists sitting outside a building half-naked. Inside, Brazilian officers showed machineryt hat had been destroyed "in a precise and permanent manner."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld denied the allegations in a press conference. When pressed abotu helicopter sightings, Rumsfeld said, "the Brazilians must have started seeing black helicopters."

...
52 posted on 11/01/2002 8:49:53 AM PST by hchutch
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To: Miss Marple; hchutch
To the tune of Ballad of the Green Berets by Barry Sadler:

Green wings on his back
On Chavez's hand, he'll take no slack
One hundred parrots we'll test today
But only three will wear the Parrot Beret!

53 posted on 11/01/2002 8:50:37 AM PST by Poohbah
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To: hchutch
Don't forget:

He's rung down the curtain and joined the bleedin' Choir Invisible!

He's f---ing snuffed it!

54 posted on 11/01/2002 8:51:31 AM PST by Poohbah
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To: All
I now wait for the response from the rainforest huggers who will say that the U.S. must pledge to not use nuclear weapons against Brazil, as the use of such could cause damage to the fragile ecosystem.
55 posted on 11/01/2002 8:59:04 AM PST by WillVoteForFood
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To: hchutch; Poohbah; Miss Marple
used = accused

Darn typos. Need... more... Dew...
56 posted on 11/01/2002 8:59:55 AM PST by hchutch
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To: hchutch
Heheheh.
57 posted on 11/01/2002 9:01:05 AM PST by Miss Marple
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To: Ranger
Two words should summarise Lula's fate:

"Salvador Allende"

Where are the CIA Black Ops lads when we need them?

Regards, Ivan

58 posted on 11/01/2002 9:01:34 AM PST by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan; Miss Marple; Poohbah
CIA has been, for the most part, gelded since the Church Committee. The last DCI who really got results was Bill Casey, and look at how the Left trashed his reputation! Since then, CIA can't do anything.

If such a thing is to be done, it will have to be a covert agency Congress does NOT know about, IMHO.
59 posted on 11/01/2002 9:07:16 AM PST by hchutch
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To: hchutch; MadIvan; Miss Marple
No need. The Brazilian military is probably working on the coup right now. The Brazilian Navy--the most nuclear-minded branch of service--wants nuclear submarines. They do NOT want nuclear weapons because (a) submarine reactors use almost bomb grade uranium, and a nuclear weapons program means competition for material, and (b) openly seeking nuc-u-LEER weapons is a great way to land on Uncle's s**t list, and if that happens, fuggedaboudit, no way they're getting nuke boats.
60 posted on 11/01/2002 9:13:12 AM PST by Poohbah
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