Brazil looks to join Chavez-backed bank

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CNN/Reuters

Brazil looks to join Chavez-backed bank
Finance minister says his nation will be part of South American multilateral bank to rival World Bank.
April 14 2007: 11:46 PM EDT


WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Brazil wants to be part of creating a new South American multilateral bank, the brainchild of Venezuela and Argentina, Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega said Saturday.

The project, called Bank of the South, aims to offer Latin America an alternative to traditional lenders like the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a foe of U.S. policies, claims that the Washington-based multilateral lenders are heavily influenced by U.S. interests.

Brazil's decision came after Mantega met Friday night with Venezuelan, Argentine, Bolivian and Ecuadorean officials at the World Bank. The officials were in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings over the weekend.



Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/14/news/international/bc.imf.brazil.mantega.reut/?postversion=2007041423

[Peace Patriot]

1. My, my, my! The irony and the beauty of this development couldn't be greater!

At the offices of the World Bank, no less.

Rumsfeld gone thunk.
Wolfie going thunk.
The Iraq War going thunk.
Gonzales and Rove getting ready to go thunk.
And Rice's failed Bush tour of South America having gone thunk, thunk, thunk.

Thunk in Colombia: plot against Chavez exposed; Bush's death squads in big trouble.
Thunk in Brazil: Keep your mouth shut, Mr. Danger.
Thunk in Uruguay: Butt out, George. We don't need no stinkin "free trade" badges.
Even thunk in Mexico: Calderon feeling obliged to lecture Bush in public on the sovereignty of Latin American countries, notably mentioning Venezuela.

And now Brazil joins the Bank of the South--AT THE WORLD BANK MEETING!

The beauty of it makes you want to weep!

Brazil may be playing a bit of a double game. Lulu up at Camp David last week, dealing over ethanol. But still, I tend to give South American countries some benefit of the doubt in this situation. Exercising their sovereignty for the first time. Billions of mouths to feed. Decades, centuries, of the savaging of their economies by the US and the super-rich. If they make some mistakes, I think they will find their way to good policy soon enough. And I'm hoping that Lulu is driving a hard bargain for his people in the meantime. He has the advantage. I consider corporate ethanol production in the Amazon to be a terrible idea, that Brazil will bitterly regret. But, in the end, its decision to join the Bank of the South may be not only the MEANS of reversing that error, but the means of all sorts of advances--social, environmental, political--for the future.

I'm so glad to hear this. I was never worried that Lulu could be "divided and conquered" by the Bushites on essentials, like Lulu's support of Chavez. (That seems to be a consensus among Latin American leaders, in any case--at least as the violent interference.) Lulu seems too savvy for that, anyway. But I was a bit worried about global predator influence on the ethanol deal, and what Lulu might be using his advantage for (--an advantage that he really owes to Venezuela and Chavez, from what I can see). Brazil joining the Bank of the South tells me that the Leftist (majorityist) movement--which is, at its heart, an environmental movement (led by the indigenous)--is in great shape and is progressing well. Brazil's huge economy will also bolster the independent bank. And the Bank of the South and Mercosur will likely lead to a South American "Common Market" and possibly a common currency (to get off the US dollar). All of the mechanisms of oppression are being challenged and dismantled--the World Bank/IMF, the rightwing assassination and mayhem squads, funded by Bush, in Colombia, the oil cartel control of resources, the dependence on grossly unfair "free trade," and the alliance of the traitorous rich with US/Bush cabal. All going down. Thunkity-thunk. And a great people are at last arising and coming into their own: Latin America is the future! And we had better hurry up and get rid of our Junta, and throw off our status as the world's biggest "Banana Republic," and join our brothers and sisters to the south in creating a truly free, and truly democratic, and truly just western hemisphere.

[Joanne98]

2. Now that would be a power house. k&r