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Emerging Brazil
Brasilia, Brazil –– Long a source of unrest in
Latin America, Brazil today is an island of calm surrounded by troubled
neighbors. Venezuelan military officers join a rising call for President Hugo Chavez to resign. Violence in Colombia deepens as peace talks between the government and Marxist guerrillas break down. Argentina's economy flounders and unrest grows. With Bolivia facing an escalating protest by coca growers and democracy struggling to take root in Ecuador and Peru, Brazil has emerged as a zone of relative stability and long-term promise. The continent's largest country is acting as its No. 1 power – and is campaigning for a seat among the decision-making nations of the world. It is a rare moment in South American history. For years, Brazil
and Argentina competed for influence on the continent, and its military
dictators viewed each other with suspicion. When civilian rule returned, the two nations opted for cooperation and created Mercosur, a tariff-slashing trade bloc that also includes Paraguay, Uruguay and associate members Bolivia and Chile. But Mercosur was foundering on internal trade squabbles. Now the collapse of the Argentine peso has given Brazil a rare opportunity. In a deft diplomatic play, Brazil pledged support for Argentina and breathed new life into Mercosur, which could become the region's prime negotiator for conditions to join the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas that the United States wants in place by 2005. At a recent Mercosur summit, Brazil's President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso struck a magnanimous pose toward his old rival
when he upbraided international lenders for setting conditions to help
Argentina. "It is unfair to tell Argentines to do this and that in order to qualify for assistance," Cardoso said. Brazil showed solidarity by sending much-needed medicines, and asked its business people to be patient in collecting payments from their hard-pressed Argentine partners. The policy is an astute one that bolsters Brazil's standing in the region, said Franklin Goncalves, a professor of geopolitics at Rio de Janeiro State University. "Institutions like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank humiliate Argentina by denying it immediate help," he said. He said their attitude was tantamount to telling a drowning man to learn to swim instead of rescuing him. As the Inter-American Development Bank opens its annual assembly this week in northeastern Brazil, the Argentine crisis is expected to be a top issue. And Brazil is likely to stress its support for its neighbor and strengthen its regional leadership. It's another step in Brazil's campaign to win international recognition as a major-league player. Brazil is almost as big in size as the United States, with a population of 170 million. Its diversified economy is Latin America's largest and the world's ninth But for a long time, Brazil has been swamped in
economic woes, not always of its own making. Inflation at times surpassed
2,000 percent a year. That ended in 1994, but three years later turmoil in
Asian markets spilled over to Brazil, forcing the government to devalue
its currency and spinning the economy into recession. Still, recovery came faster than expected. With inflation down to 7.7 per cent in 2001, and modest but steady growth of 1.5 percent, Brazil has emerged as a comparative success story. Analysts say a turning point was a South American summit called by Brazil two years ago. "It was the first time that Brazil genuinely exercised leadership in the region," said David Fleischer, a professor of international politics at the Brasilia Federal University. Lately, Cardoso has lobbied for Brazil to get a
permanent seat at the U.N. Security Council. He also has asserted Brazil's independence in international matters by questioning President Bush's demand that foreign countries line up unconditionally behind his war on terrorism. FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Action on Aging distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
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