No doubt Lula is being pressured from both left and right about Bolivian gas, at home and abroad:
<blockquote>Brazil, Bolivia to Address Energy Crisis <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/21/AR2006092100843.html> By ALAN CLENDENNING The Associated Press Thursday, September 21, 2006; 5:06 PM SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva insisted Thursday he's taking a tough line in a major energy dispute with Bolivia, and said he'll meet with Bolivian leader Evo Morales to try solve the crisis after Brazil's Oct. 1 presidential elections. Silva used a televised interview to fend off allegations by his main political rival that ideological friendship with Morales has led him to soft-pedal Brazil's national interests. He said the two leaders would meet at an unspecified date after the election "to find a solution for the issue" that has strained relations between the neighboring nations just as Silva enters the home stretch of his re-election bid amid rising political heat. Bolivia last week shocked Brazil when it announced it would take all the money Brazil's state-owned oil company gets from its two Bolivian refineries _ which process 90 percent of the Andean nation's fuel for domestic consumption _ and give back whatever is justified. It quickly backed away from that plan under intense Brazilian pressure. Silva's main opponent, former Sao Paulo state Gov. Geraldo Alckmin, launched a new barrage of attacks against the president Thursday, again accusing him of being too soft on Morales and saying the dispute is causing fear in Latin American investment circles. Silva insisted on Globo TV's "Good Morning Brazil" that he's been aggressive in defending Brazil's interests _ pointing out that Bolivia, too, is vulnerable. Bolivia provides half of the natural gas Brazil uses for industrial power generation, for cooking and cars, but the landlocked Andean nation needs Brazil as a client because it lacks a pipeline to a coast that would allow it to market much of its gas elsewhere. "You can't keep sticking a sword in Brazil's head because you gave us the gas, because we can also stick a sword in your head because we buy the gas," Silva said he told Morales. Silva said he made it clear to Morales that if Bolivia stops selling gas to Brazil, "it's going to be hard to sell it to someone else." Even so, Alckmin called Brazil's negotiating posture with Bolivia "dubious and submissive." Silva "has the obligation to defend Brazil, but he's putting ideological interests first, leaving Brazil's interests in second place," Alckmin said Thursday in an interview on CBN radio. It was a clear attempt to link Silva, Brazil's first elected leftist president, to Morales, a much more strident leftist who counts Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro among his mentors and friends. Bolivia nationalized its energy industry in May, sending troops to guard petroleum installations run by Petroleo Brasileiro SA and other foreign firms. Petrobras and Bolivia have since held several rounds negotiations about the company's future role in Bolivia, but they have always broken down in acrimony. Bolivia wants Brazil to pay higher gas prices and to cede majority control of Petrobras' Bolivian operations to Bolivia's state-owned oil company. Polls suggest Silva will win a first-round victory with more than half the vote. If he falls short, he'll face an Oct. 29 runoff with the top challenger. Petrobras is spending billions of dollars to boost production of Brazilian natural gas while planning to import it from other nations, but experts say Latin America's largest country will remain hooked to Bolivian natural gas for years to come. "I never wanted Brazil to be so dependent on gas from Bolivia," Silva said, blaming earlier administrations for the dependence. U.S.-traded shares of Petrobras shares fell 11 cents to close at $77 on the New York Stock Exchange. As Silva worked to neutralize the political fallout from the gas crisis, his party was rocked by allegations of electoral corruption that prompted the resignation of Silva's campaign manager Wednesday night.</blockquote> It's said that São Paulo's GDP alone is about US$76 billion, more than three times larger than Bolivia's (about US$25 billion). What relation with Bolivia and other economically weaker countries in Latin America do the Brazilians want their country to have? If the problem can't be solved more in Bolivia's favor than in Brazil's, I fear that MAS won't last long in the Bolivian government. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>
