8/9/2019 Dana com Dspotas

1/3

Lula's Dance With the DespotsThe president of Brazil is preserving his country's unfortunate image asa resentful, Third-World ankle-biter.

By MARY ANASTASIA O'GRADY - JUNE 14, 2010

It probably wasn't long after we all got kicked out of the garden thatBrazil began dreaming about becoming a serious country and a playeron the world stage. Now, just as it seemed like the eternal Braziliandream was about to come true, President Lula da Silva is snatchingdefeat from the jaws of victory.

Brazil may be gaining some respect on the economic and monetary frontbut when it comes to geopolitical leadership, Mr. da Silva is working

overtime to preserve the country's image as a resentful, Third-Worldankle-biter.

The latest example of how Brazil is not yet ready for prime time ininternational circles came last week when it voted against sanctions onIran at the United Nations Security Council. Turkey was Brazil's lonepartner in this embarrassing exercise. But Turkey at least can blame thecomplexity of its Muslim roots. Lula is driving Brazil's reputation into thesand for his own political gratification.

Brazil defended its U.N. vote on the grounds that the "sanctions will

most probably lead to the suffering of the people of Iran and will playinto the hands of those, on all sides, that do not want dialogue toprevail." Unpack that statement and there's nothing inside. Thesanctions are directed, not at civilians, but at Iranian nuclear and missileproliferation ambitions. As to "dialogue," it should be obvious by nowthat what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad needs is a little lessconversation.

Brazil's Lula da Silva (l.) with Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran,May 16.

8/9/2019 Dana com Dspotas

2/3

If Brazil considered its vote a principled stand in defense of therighteous, it sure gave in fast. After making a stink about the sanctions,it quickly announced it would honor them. This suggests that it mayhave some appreciation for the diminishing returns of its lunatic foreignpolicies.

Lula's Worker's Party is hard left, but no one should mistake him for acommitted bolshevik. He is merely a clever politician who came up fromthe streets and loves power and limousines. As Brazil's first Workers'Party president he has had to balance the useful things he has learnedabout markets and monetary restraint against the ideology of his base.

His answer to this quandary has been to use his foreign ministrywherea genetically left-leaning foreign service bureaucracy is headed by thenotoriously anti-American, anticapitalist intellectual Celso Amorimtoburnish his leftist credentials. With his friendship with the "nonaligned"providing a shield, he has been able to keep the collectivist ideologuesout of the economy.

But Brazil's reputation as a leader among emerging economies hassuffered greatly. To satisfy the left, Lula has been asked to defend andelevate its heroes, who are some of the most egregious human rightsviolators on the planet.

8/9/2019 Dana com Dspotas

3/3

A review of his two-term presidency reveals a trend toward defendingdespots and dissing democrats. The repressive Iranian government isonly the latest example. There is also Lula's unconditional support forCuba's dictatorship and Venezuela's Hugo Chvez. In February, Cubaallowed political dissident Orlando Zapata to starve to death the same

week Lula arrived on the island slave plantation to hobnob with theCastro brothers. When asked by the press about Zapata, Lula dismissedhis death as one of many by hunger-strikers in history that the worldignored. He obviously never heard of the Irish militant Bobby Sands.

Lula also has stuck by Mr. Chvez as he has destroyed democraticinstitutions in his country and collaborated with the drug-traffickingRevolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). A grown-up Brazilwould have used its influence to lead a push back against this state-sponsored terrorism. But under Lula's political cost-benefit analysis, thevictims of FARC violence don't count.

Hondurans have not fared any better during Lula's power trip. Brazilspent a good part of last year trying to force their country to reinstatedeposed president Manuel Zelaya, even though he had been removed bythe civilian government for violating the constitution. Brazil's actions,including harboring Mr. Zelaya at the Brazilian Embassy for months,created immense economic hardship for Hondurans.

Last week U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for lettingHonduras back into the Organization of American States (OAS), noting

that the country has held an election and returned to normalcy. Brazilobjected. "Honduras's return to the OAS must be linked to specificmeans for ensuring re-democratization and the establishment offundamental rights," Brazil's deputy foreign minister, Antonio de AguiarPatriota said. Note to Brazil: Don't you mean Cuba?

Brazil will hold a presidential election in October and though Lula willleave office popular, the Workers' Party candidate is not guaranteed toride his coattails. So he is now feeding red meat to the party base byholding hands with Mr. Ahmadinejad and voting against Uncle Sam.

Will it work? A lot will depend on whether those Brazilians who view himas squandering the nation's emerging prominence outnumber thosebacking his dance with the despots. As former razilian PresidentFernando Henrique Cardoso has warned, Lula's policy has Brazil"switching sides" but it's far from clear that Brazilians are in agreement.