To hold y'all off until I get a real post written up, here's a spookified preview of my next article for the
Rio Times:
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| Pew pew pew pew! |
Despite Brazilian Sensitivity on Sovereignty, Military Cooperation with the U.S. Increasing.In early
2010, President Lula deemed relations with the U.S. of “
enormous unexploited potential” according to diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, a sentiment now echoed by President-Elect Dilma Rousseff. Ms. Rousseff
recently said one of her top priorities after taking office on January 1
st will be to visit U.S. President Obama to build closer ties between Brazil and the U.S., particularly on trade and human rights.
However, military ties between the two nations are already good and improving, a result of President Lula’s personal rapport with former U.S. President Bush and increasing trade across the equator. Last month, the U.S. participated for the first time in Brazil’s CRUZEX 5 or “Southern Cross,” South America’s largest simulated air warfare exercise. Held in Natal, CRUZEX is usually a participation of 3,000 airmen from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, France and Uruguay. But this year, Colorado Air National Guard Airmen were invited to work alongside pilots and crews from Latin America and France.
“We now have personal contacts with the participating countries,”
said Brig. Gen. Trulan A. Eyre,
the commander of the American forces. “If another partner country is in need, we now have face-to-face contacts with (representatives) from these countries.... We now have the type of partnership that whatever is needed, we will be there to support each other.”
Cooperation across a wide range of areas has seen quiet improvement since
2001 and is set to continue developing, according to other
leaked cables.
Military and law enforcement agencies from both nations now work closely together on counternarcotics issues, intelligence sharing, human trafficking and shipping container security. While collaboration in technical and operational areas such as these have progressed well, public acknowledgement and cooperation by the Brazilian government of the U.S.’s strategic concerns, such as
Iran, nuclear proliferation and terrorism, has been lagging.
“Officially, Brazil does not have terrorism inside its borders,”
reads a cable from late 2009. “In reality, several
Islamic groups with known or suspected ties to extremist organizations have branches in
Brazil and are suspected of carrying out financing activities. Although there is good working-level law enforcement cooperation between the U.S. and Brazil on terrorism related activities, the official position of the government is to deny that Brazil has any terrorist activity.”
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| Mmm oil om nom nom |
Covering up potential links to terrorism might have links to what the
American embassy in Brasilia called an “
extreme sensitivity on sovereignty” on the part of Brazilian elite. New fears that the U.S. will prey on the
enormous oil reserves off Brazil’s coast prompted efforts to
increase federal control of
mineral resources and have mixed with old anxieties that
foreigners want to “internationalize the Amazon.” These fears pop up in Brazilian media and official statements, most strongly demonstrated when President Lula
asserted, “the world needs to understand that the Amazon has an owner, and that is the Brazilian people.”
The re-establishment of the
U.S. Fourth Fleet, mostly a peacekeeping and training force, also caused Brazilians anxiety,
prompting an official inquiry by the Brazilian government. While such concerns might be political theatre, they do have the potential
to disrupt future cooperation. In Brazil’s political culture these kinds of fears are not uncommon.
However,
a meeting between
U.S. Ambassador Sobel and the Chiefs of the three Brazilian Armed Services in early
2009 indicated that behind the scenes, sections of the Brazilian military are
willing to work extensively with the U.S. The fact that Boeing’s
F-18 Super Hornet is the Brazilian military’s favored choice for the
FX2 jet fighter competition despite
the virtual certainty that the French Rafale will win for
political reasons shows that ties between the U.S. and Brazilian militaries
will remain strong.
Yes I know it's easy to see through the black-outs, its just for fun, chill out.
