- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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.
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- "Brazil will only be respected in the world
when it turns into an economic, technological and military power."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Also in attendance were high-ranking members of Tupac
Amaru, who were responsible for the 1996 hostage taking at the Japanese
Embassy in Lima.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- First Published 10-31-02
- Copyright 2002 National Post
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