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REPORTS: LATIN AMERICA |
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Lula,
Fox Vie for Leadership in Visit to G8
Summit
Diego Cevallos and Mario Osava
MEXICO CITY/RIO DE JANEIRO, (IPS)
- The presidents of Brazil and Mexico
will ask, on behalf of Latin America,
for more free and just international
trade in their visit to the summit of
the Group of Eight (G8) richest
countries Sunday. But as the two promote
their own proposals, they are expected
reveal their muted dispute for regional
leadership.
There is no guarantee that their demands
will be met by the G8, made up of
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia, the United Kingdom and the
United States. But that has not dampened
the two leaders' enthusiasm in setting
forth their initiatives and vying for a
leadership role, say observers in both
countries.
Brazil's leftist President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva, and his conservative
counterpart in Mexico, Vicente Fox, were
invited to meet Sunday in Evian, France
with the heads of state of the G8, which
is holding its annual summit Sunday
through Tuesday.
The leaders of 10 other developing
countries will also take part in the
group's annual meeting and submit their
own requests to the G8 members.
According to an agreement that was
adopted at a meeting of Latin American
presidents in Peru, Lula and Fox will
ask, on behalf of the region, for the
elimination of farm subsidies and other
protectionist measures which they say
distort free trade.
They will also ask for support for
strengthening justice and democracy in
Latin America, a region that accounts
for around five percent of the world's
combined gross domestic product (GDP)
and where more than 220 million people
live in poverty.
That will be the main thrust of the
joint address by Lula and Fox, who are
quietly fighting for political and
diplomatic leadership in Latin America,
Rafael Fernández de Castro, a
researcher in international relations at
the Autonomous Technological Institute
of Mexico (ITAM), told IPS.
Lula will also suggest the creation of a
fund to combat hunger, which would be
financed by the world's wealthy nations,
a portion of the debt servicing payments
of developing countries, and a tax on
weapons sales.
In the name of the governments of South
America, he will also request that 20
percent of the interest owed by the
region to the Paris Club creditor
countries be converted into investment
in infrastructure aimed at enhancing
integration.
Fox, meanwhile, will ask for Mexico to
be admitted to the G8 as an associate or
permanent member, so that it can better
represent Latin America's interests, the
president told reporters.
Mexico is the ninth largest economy, in
terms of sheer size of GDP, in the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD), which groups the
world's industrialised nations.
However, Mexico's human development
level, like that of Brazil, is far from
the living standards of the G8 members,
as indicated by the United Nations
Development Programme human development
index.
Another of Mexico's proposals to the G8
will be to ask rich countries to bolster
their assistance for poor nations, but
also in new ways for those that have
achieved ”medium” levels of
development, like Mexico, Brazil and
most other Latin American nations.
The aim of that proposal is for
medium-development nations to make ''the
final leap to full development'' by
means of financing and the effective
opening of global markets, said Mexican
Secretary of Foreign Relations Ernesto
Derbez.
Marcelo Jardim, head of the Europe
department in Brazil's Ministry of
Foreign Relations, warned that the G8
meeting would not offer tangible answers
to the requests submitted there.
This is a gathering that ''is not
seeking results, is not negotiating. It
is assessing the international situation
and reviewing priorities, especially
economic ones,'' given the current
negative global outlook, Jardim said in
an interview with IPS.
The fact that Brazil has been invited to
the summit represents ''recognition of
its growing international role, and its
regional leadership based on cooperation
and integration,'' according to Jardim.
Along a similar line, Luiz Alberto Moniz
Bandeira, historian and international
relations expert, noted that even if
France does not produce major results,
”Lula's participation is important all
the same, because it calls attention to
the problems of South America, and to
hunger in particular.”
Furthermore, the Brazilian president's
attendance ”affirms his leadership in
the Southern Hemisphere, strengthens
Brazil's position in the international
context and could produce other
unforeseeable benefits.”
Theotonio dos Santos, professor of
international economy at the Federal
Fluminense University, in Rio de
Janeiro, supports that notion. The fact
that Lula is taking part in the G8
summit ”is of great political
importance for affirming Brazil's
international role,” he told IPS.
”It is a good moment for Lula, given
that everyone, including the United
States, in some way recognises the
brutal social crisis caused by the
economic policies applied in recent
times, which demand the new policies to
offset them” that the Lula
administration is promoting today, said
Santos.
It is clear that the creation of closer
ties between the Brazilian president and
his regional colleagues and the desire
to create a commercially and politically
integrated South America show that Lula
aims to establish himself as a beacon
for that continent, says Fernández de
Castro, of Mexico's ITAM.
Fox has also shown interest in
leadership, but of the entire Latin
American region. Based on Mexico's
proximity to the United States and the
high trade volumes it has with the
northern giant, the president offers to
serve as the spokesman in Washington of
the governments of the south.
In recent months, however, Fox has lost
support from the United States due to
his refusal to support the George W.
Bush administration's plans to invade
Iraq. Mexico currently holds a
non-permanent seat on the United Nations
Security Council.
The Mexican president reportedly
requested a brief meeting with Bush to
take place during the G8 summit, but as
of his departure for Evian, France, Fox
had not received an answer.
Brazil did not support the war against
Iraq either, but because the country is
not on the UN Security Council it was
not subject to the wave of Washington's
resentment and anger that Mexico was,
commented Fernández de Castro.
According to Argentine-born journalist
Andrés Oppenheimer, the Fox-Lula
dispute for Latin American leadership is
a reality, but he says, ”I don't think
we'll see any official declaration
recognising it Nevertheless, I believe
it will be an increasingly intense
fight.”
In any case, the presidents of Brazil
and Mexico will be the voice of Latin
America before the members of the G8,
which hold just 10 percent of the global
population, but concentrate 60 percent
of the world's financial wealth.
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