Brazil: Manoeuvring by IMF, Washington

The International Monetary Fund and Washington begin a campaign of destabilisation against the Brazilian economy as Labour Party candidate Lula stands clear in the opinion polls, with 40% of voting intentions for next October’s presidential elections. The traditional closing of ranks by Brazil’s entrepreneurial class and foreign investors has predictably begun.

The IMF risk factor report for Brazil has inexplicably shot up to 1,728 points, a rating higher than that of Nigeria, which does not service its debt repayments, whereas Brazil does, having reduced its foreign debt from 225 to 208 bn. USD.

The result is a shockwave around the community of investors, controlled by Washington, the exchange rate of the Real (Brazilian currency) falling to an eight-year low of 2.84 to the USD. The message to Brazil from Washington is crystal-clear: Washington does not see with good eyes the eventual victory of Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the candidate for the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Labour), whose political background has been as a leader of the Brazilian Metalworkers’ Union.

This, despite the fact that Lula has repeatedly proved that he will not be the radical leader from the loony left that many of Brazil’s corrupt elite, who own 95% of the country’s resources while 40,000,000 people live below the poverty line, would like to paint him as. Evidence of this is the electoral alliance with the conservative PFL (Liberal Front Party), a clear indication that Lula is not the radical he is hysterically denounced as being, a clear indication that he is a level-headed, responsible and experienced politician who has a clear vision of how much he can do and where his limitations lie. It is not in his interests to antagonise the entrepreneurial class, and proof of this is the choice of PFL Senator and industrialist Jose Alencar for his Vice President. The motion was carried in the PFL congress by 95 votes in favour and 4 abstentions.

Washington’s influence and interests in the majority of South American countries is not a secret, neither is it a secret that when a people starts to give indications that it is ready to take its destiny into its own hands, Washington has a number of rabbits to draw out of the hat.

It is the Brazilian people who have to show in October whether or not they have the political courage to become stakeholders in their own destiny, creating a just political and social model which does not exclude, a priori, 25% of its population from any share in the country’s resources or future.

Marcia MIRANDA PRAVDA.Ru BRAZIL