|
 Latin America former political leaders and security experts, several of them, expressed concern over the consequences of an arms race in South America and in Central America's Nicaragua, happening right now. Brazil, the biggest country, is also the most conspicuous spender.
The area's investment in military hardware in the last five years has almost doubled from US$ 24 billion in 2003 to 47 billion last year according to Colombian political analyst Javier Loaiza.
According to figures presented by Loaiza, Brazil has most invested in military hardware, with US$ 27.5 billion equivalent to 3.44% of GDP, and a 50% increase since President Lula da Silva took office.
During a forum in Prague, Loaiza pointed out that while Colombia and Mexico invest in arms to combat domestic problems generated by drug cartels and paramilitary forces "other countries with no major internal problems" are launched in a race to acquire offensive weapons.
Former Bolivian president Jorge Quiroga said that the region is facing "a process of rearmament in South America and not in Latin America" and accused Venezuela of going ahead with "the most dangerous project of our history" in reference to the so called Bolivarian revolution promoted by Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Former Guatemalan Defense minister General Francisco Bermudez said he was surprised that the Inter-American Security Junta from the Organization of American States has remained silent "about the arms race in three or four countries, when it should be promoting confidence building measures".
Bermudez also remarked that the Central American Armed Forces Conference should also be involved in the issue because "it interferes directly with a 20 year process to ensure peace and distension in the region, thus avoiding conflicts".
He insisted that the military cooperation requested by Nicaragua to Russia is contrary to the letter and spirit of the Democratic Security Framework Treaty for Central America, subscribed in 1995.
"The activities of Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega generate mistrust when he is involved in the rearming of the Sandinista army that is in flagrant opposition to the Central American Democratic Security treaty, of which we are all members and was specifically agreed to prevent conflicts", said Bermudez.
"Latin America needs development investments not an arms race".
Mercopress
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.