Arab News (Middle East)
22 September, 2003

Lula Faces Possible Pitfalls in Cuba

Angus MacSwan • Reuters —
 
SAO PAULO, Brazil, 22 September 2003 — Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s visit to his old friend Cuban leader Fidel Castro in Havana this week will bring together Latin America’s old and new political left.

Comradely nostalgia for the days of struggle and solidarity will permeate the festivities but just how much times have changed will be quite apparent.

How Lula approaches the issue of democracy and human rights with the unbending revolutionary — if he broaches it at all — will test his delicate relationship with Washington and his ambitions to play a role as an international statesman.

“The trip to Cuba is prompted by friendship, old loyalties and commercial opportunities,” said Mauricio Font, an expert in Cuba and Brazil at the City University of New York. “But it’s a little bit dangerous and there are potential pitfalls.”

Castro, Cuba’s sole ruler since the 1959 revolution, runs a tightly controlled, one-party state where private enterprise is stifled. He has lost friends and frustrated trade partners this year over a new round of repression against dissidents.

Lula, a one-time shoeshine boy and factory worker, has emerged as the toast of the global financial community and such capitalist icons as the International Monetary Fund. He won the presidency last year in his fourth try at the ballot box.

Castro, 77, rails unceasingly against the United States as an “Evil Empire.” Lula’s government has a more nuanced relationship with the superpower. Despite bitter disputes over trade, he has been praised by US officials and visited the White House.

Bearded and burly like Castro in his heyday, Lula, 57, has become one of Latin America’s most recognizable leaders. He belongs to a new wave of elected leftists who came of age in the era of military dictatorships, often backed by Washington, and guerrilla insurgencies, often backed by Cuba. His Cuba trip Sept. 26-27 may fan the indignation of some US conservatives, concerned about the links between Lula and Castro and fellow leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

“On the contrary, this visit could be a good thing,” said Mario Marconini, executive director of the Brazilian Center for International Relations in Rio de Janeiro.

“It might be useful for the United States to have someone like Lula playing a role” in nudging Cuba toward democracy, Marconini said.

Lula could also be a great mediator in Cuba. “Brazil has a lot to offer a Cuba in transition,” added Font.

But Lula is also performing a tricky balancing act with the Cuba trip as he seeks to enhance his new moderate image and to handle Brazil’s relationship with Washington, analysts said.

The collapse of global trade talks in Cancun last week injected new tension between the United States and Brazil.

His ambitions to carve out a role as a world statesman and champion of the oppressed could be affected by whether he chooses to raise human rights with Castro or meet any dissidents, as have former US President Jimmy Carter and other prominent visitors in recent years.

The two men are old friends. Castro visited Lula’s home in the industrial suburb of Sao Bernardo do Campo during a trip to Brazil in 1995, publicly praising his wife’s home cooking.

Lula took paying guests to Havana last year to raise funds for his presidential campaign. He and Castro dined together after his inauguration in Brasilia in January.

His Chief of Staff Jose Dirceu was exiled to Cuba under Brazil’s military regime and trained as a guerrilla.

Castro can count on Brazil’s opposition to the US embargo on Cuba, though few countries support the policy anyway.

Trade expansion will figure high on the agenda and Brazil’s National Development Bank is considering opening a credit line of up to $400 million to finance Brazilian exports to Cuba, a bank spokesman said.

Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, asked if Lula would tackle the trickier issues, said only: “Our policy with regard to Cuba has always been to show that isolation is not the best way to contribute to human rights and democracy.”

On the flip side, Kennedy Alencar of the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper said Brazilian diplomats were worried that a welcome rally Castro plans would turn into an anti-American rant. “The biggest concern for Brazilian diplomacy is called Fidel Castro,” Alencar wrote.