March 10, 2007

Snubbing Chavez and Seducing Brazil Are Two Sides of Same Bush Game

by Raúl Zibechi

...
When Nicholas Burns visited Brazil in early February, he gave an interview to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo that reveals Washington's plans for the region. "We are very dependent on oil. So we have to develop alternative fuels, we have to decrease our gasoline consumption. We produce corn ethanol because we have large cornfields. You (Brazil) produce ethanol from sugarcane. We are both world leaders. We control more than 70% of the world market.

"We believe that this is a connection with Brazil, it is an area in which we can grow together and we can lead the development of a world market with very positive consequences for the environment and for the economy. Biofuels will become the biggest and most positive point of connection between Brazil and the United States." (1)

Burns added that Brazil can play a major role in stimulating ethanol production in Central America and the Caribbean, where sugarcane plantations cover vast areas in private sector partnerships. He was very clear in pointing out that the agreement with Brazil on the development of biofuels will contribute to decreasing the dependency of U.S. imports from Venezuela and Iran. "We don't want to be dependent on those countries," Burns concluded.

The same day, the newspaper interviewed Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, who agreed with Burns: "To resuscitate the FTAA would require too great an effort. I find it much better to think in terms of bilateral associations. Ethanol, for example, does not depend at all on other countries."

Obviously the two governments are thinking along the same lines, but it is important to clarify what each has to gain.
...

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home