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Water cascading from Peru's Andes mountains toward the Amazon could be harnessed into electricity for power-hungry Brazil, freeing Latin America's largest nation from natural gas producers like Bolivia and Venezuela, Peruvian President Alan García said yesterday, November 10.
Addressing some of São Paulo's most influential business and industry executives, García said Brazil and Peru should boost bilateral energy and economic ties even though the two nations are members of separate South American economic blocs. Without mentioning Bolivia and Venezuela by name, García suggested the far-left governments of both nations represent a threat to Brazil's future economic growth because of their tight state-imposed control over vast natural gas resources that will eventually go dry anyway. "The gas can run out or they can turn off the tap," García said in a speech to members of the São Paulo Federation of Industries. But, he added, "water never stops flowing." Brazil meets 50 percent of its natural gas needs for power generation from Bolivia, but Bolivian President Evo Morales is nationalizing the industry, pushing for higher prices from Brazil and Bolivian control of natural gas installations owned by Brazil's state-owned oil company. While Brazil doesn't get any natural gas now from Venezuela, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez wants to supply Brazil through the construction of a US$ 20 billion pipeline through the Amazon that experts say could cost much more. Environmentalists also call it a potential ecological disaster. Venezuela has South America's largest petroleum and natural gas reserves, while Bolivia is second on the continent for natural gas reserves. García didn't outline any specific projects, but said it makes economic and political sense for Brazil to think about using Peru to meet some of its long-term energy needs. With Brazilian investment for new hydroelectric plants near the Andes, García said, "I could light up all of northwestern Brazil and give (the jungle industrial center of) Manaus all the energy it needs, instead of building a strange US$ 20 billion natural gas pipeline." A Brazilian firm is already a key player in the construction of an US$ 810 million paved highway that will link Peru's Pacific coast to Brazil's Amazon, making it logical for Brazil to invest more in Peru, García said. García also announced that Peru will soon sign a memorandum of understanding with Petróleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil's state petroleum company, for Peruvian oil and gas drilling projects and the construction of a petrochemical plant in Peru. And in a dig at Bolivia without saying that country's name, García said Petrobras operations in Peru would never suffer a sudden nationalization similar to what happened to the company in Bolivia. "I extend my hand to Petrobras and give my word that things won't change," García told reporters after his speech. Peru belongs to the Andean Community of Nations while Brazil is a member of the Mercosur trade bloc. Venezuela recently dropped out of the Andean Community in favor of Mercosur because Chávez opposed trade deals signed by Peru and Colombia with the United States. Some analysts have expressed concern that Chávez will use membership in Mercosur as a political platform to criticize US trade policies. With the possible entry of Bolivia into Mercosur, the group could tilt even further to the left. While the center-left Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has friendly relations with Chávez, he also gets along with US President George W. Bush. Chávez, meanwhile, openly opposed García's campaign for the Peruvian presidency this year. Without naming Chávez, García insisted the Andean Community is still a strong trade player and joked that "it might be better for Brazil to switch to the Andean Community before it's too late." García told reporters he doesn't need to reconcile with Chávez because he has nothing against him or Venezuela. "We navigate independently, and think differently - thankfully," he said with a smile. Mercopress
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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. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
- still, one day he will die, eventually ! Laugh ! Previous Venezuelians Presidents also said things wont change....with America !
- if water never stops flowing, doesnt Garcia know that electricity can still be turned...OFF....just as oil or gas production can be increased or reduced at the production level ?