Newly re-elected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva offered warm words for Venezuela's Hugo Chavez on Monday, predicting the leftist leader would win elections next month on the strength of his measures to help the poor.
Silva, making his first foreign trip since winning a new four-year term last month, said it wouldn't be proper to endorse a candidate in Venezuela's Dec. 3 presidential vote, but added that Chavez's anti-poverty initiatives show his heart is in the right place.
"For many years here in Venezuela there wasn't a government that worried about the poor people as you have," Silva told Chavez in a speech. "It's the same people who elected me, who elected [Argentine President Nestor] Kirchner, who elected [Nicaraguan leader] Daniel Ortega, who elected [Bolivian President] Evo Morales. Surely, they will elect you president."
PHOTO: AFP
Silva and Chavez, both leading figures in the resurgent Latin American left, have built close ties despite differing approaches. While Chavez lashes out frequently at Washington, the more-subdued Silva maintains civil relations with the US government.
Nonetheless, the two have increasingly linked their countries through trade, infrastructure projects and deals to jointly explore for and refine oil.
On Monday, Silva and Chavez made an inaugural crossing of a new bridge near the city of Puerto Ordaz, calling it a key step toward South American integration.
The bridge -- the second to be built across the Orinoco River -- will cut the transport time for Brazilian exports entering Venezuela and reaching its Caribbean ports. It was built by Odebrecht, a Brazilian company, at a cost of US$1.2 billion.
Silva said he believes Chavez has shown "it's possible to grow economically while creating social justice."
Chavez said that he plans to reciprocate by visiting Brazil on Dec. 7, just days after he expects to be re-elected.
He said Silva's re-election was "vital for the future of all of us, for the unity of South America."
Chavez said both he and Silva have been wrongly "demonized" as leaders who oppose the private sector because their countries have been models of collaborative trade.
Trade between the two countries has also been swiftly growing -- it surpassed US$3.4 billion from January to last month, according to Brazilian statistics.
Last year, the two leaders laid the cornerstone for a US$2.5 billion refinery in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco that will process both Venezuelan and Brazilian oil.
Chavez and Lula attended a ceremony on Monday marking the start of drilling at an oil field in the Orinoco River basin.
Brazil's Petrobras is helping state-run Petroleos de Venezuela SA quantify Venezuela's massive heavy crude deposits. Petrobras also said negotiations were advancing with PDVSA to jointly develop five heavy oil fields and four offshore natural gas fields in Venezuela.
"It's a task that we have pending: a pipeline to bring gas to the people of the South," Chavez said.
The pipeline could cost about US$25 billion according to preliminary estimates by Petrobras.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
NASA on Thursday said that the long-delayed launch of Artemis 2, the first crewed flyby mission to the moon in more than 50 years, could come as soon as April 1. “We are on track for a launch as early as April 1, and we are working toward that date,” Lori Glaze, a senior NASA official, told a news conference, after technical difficulties delayed a launch originally expected last month. “It’s a test flight, and it is not without risk, but our team and our hardware are ready,” she said. “Just keep in mind we still have work” to do. The US space
RSS