Daily newspaper (TAZ) Ibama is back (02/13)
Dense clouds of gray smoke rise into the sky against the lush green of the Amazon rainforest. The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Resources (Ibama) has published photos and videos on its website showing recent successes in the fight against illegal miners. For example, the images show an airplane on fire with the words “Ibama has return” written above it.
Since the change of government on January 1, the authorities have stepped up action against illegal prospectors in the Amazon. Often the equipment used by the invaders, such as airplanes or bulldozers, is burned and rendered useless. Working in tandem with the army and police, agents operate primarily in the indigenous Yanomami lands on Brazil’s border with Venezuela. The reserve, located deep in the rainforest and the size of Switzerland, is under strict constitutional protection around 35,000 indigenous people are said to live in the region.
Dramatic images have been circulating around the world in recent weeks. They show starving children and elderly people in advanced states of malnutrition. Many tribal peoples are malnourished and hundreds of children have died from preventable diseases, often brought by miners. Up to 20,000 of them are said to have entered Yanomami territory, some with heavy weapons and close ties to organized crime, which uses the area as a drug trafficking route. Violent conflicts with indigenous peoples are common.
(…) Another problem: Prospectors use mercury to bind the gold dust during extraction. The remains of the heavy metal end up in the river and poison the native fish. The highly toxic metal can cause lasting damage to the nervous system. Tens of thousands of indigenous people are being silently poisoned.
The fact that the situation has gotten this far has to do with one man: ExPresident Jair Messias Bolsonaro. His government has ignored more than 20 requests for help from the Yanomami. On the other hand, he wanted to open protected areas for economic activities and legalize illegal mining. (…) Illegal mining literally exploded after his inauguration.
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In addition, the gold trade is a multibillion dollar business with influential patrons also abroad. The gold rush in Brazil is also related to the growing demand on the world market. While the international community is increasingly interested in the origin of Brazilian agricultural products and considering boycotts, the yellow metal is rarely the center of attention. In Brazil, however, calls for the international community to take binding action against “blood gold” are mounting.
Die Welt: Podcast Power Change Instructive journey through Latin America (02/12)
In the weekly podcast with Dagmar Rosenfeld, Robin Alexander reports what he observed on the trip of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
Dagmar Rosenfeld: Olaf Scholz’s trip to Brazil was not easy. Although he sees President Lula as a comrade or even a friend, the Brazilian representative was by no means chivalrous. [Lula] does not want to join the Chancellor’s climate club. She does not want to support the western coalition with ammunition. On the other hand, Lula declared China to be a peacemaker, although Scholz had said shortly before: “We are all happy that Brazil has returned to the world stage and is striving for greater regional integration in Latin America. You were missed!” Was it proximity or strategy because the federal government needed the Latin American country as a partner?
Robin Alexander: I think it’s both. It is a stylistic device, perhaps also a structural element of Olaf Scholz’s foreign policy, who is trying to establish contact with people of a similar political orientation. (…) He traveled to Argentina, Chile and Brazil and met leftwing heads of state and government and emphasized that.
And he also understood that a traffic light Germany he would say a progressive Germany is a particularly attractive partner for these countries. And that is something unusual in foreign policy, since party colors tend not to have much meaning in this context. (…) This idea of thinking foreign policy in party colors is unusual. I think that worked well in Argentina and Chile, but Scholz failed in Brazil.
Rosenfeld: “It’s time for China to get its hands dirty and contribute to peace between Russia and Ukraine,” said Lula during the Chancellor’s visit. Did Scholz rely on such a statement?
Robin Alexander: I don’t think so, he seemed very stoic during the press conference. Something went wrong. Perhaps it’s important to know the context — it was Putin’s great hope that the war in Ukraine would be a conflict between Russia and the West, and that the rest of the world would either watch or side with him. That has to do with the experience that Putin has had.
There was the concept of the Brics, the group of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa that could act as a bloc of emerging countries that now have a lot of power that would become actors in world politics. They helped the West a lot, like the global financial crisis, they needed them. But the other Brics did not side with Putin. Brazil itself voted to condemn the Russian invasion at the United Nations.
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Why doesn’t Lula want to help Ukraine with guns?
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There was a very long confidential conversation between Lula and Scholz. In this dialogue there must have been a position on China.
The fundamental problem isn’t that Lula says we need to talk to China. Scholz does that too. The problem: Lula seems to be flirting with the idea that there could be an antithesis to the West. Lula himself is not young, and his main adviser is 80 years old. The two and other members of the circle wear this sign of a very old Latin American left.
You don’t see that in the West. Federal President FrankWalter Steinmeier had come to Lula’s inauguration and three days before Scholz, the Federal Minister for Cooperation and Development, Svenja Schulze, was in Brazil. She took 200 million euros in her pocket, so to speak, as stimulus financing. Because Bolsonaro was sort of a southern version of Trump and did so much evil, his successor is considered a hero. And that often doesn’t work in politics.
Handelsblatt Brazil already sees itself as a trading unit with the EU (09/02)
For Brussels, the pact, which has been negotiated for more than 20 years, is gaining in relevance due to the new global political situation. In the context of the crises surrounding Russia and China, Europe is looking for new suppliers of raw materials and energy. Mercosur countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay are expected to be alternatives. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is promoting an “ambitious trade agenda” that should give Europe access to coveted raw materials. (…)
Overcoming isolation, strengthening cooperation within Latin America, expanding international trade relations: This is how Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira defines his agenda. ExPresident Jair Bolsonaro isolated the country with his environmental and human rights policies, and hardly any western government wanted to welcome the rightwing populists. His exminister Ernesto Araújo was even proud that Brazil was a pariah in the world.
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In talks last week, Scholz and Lula emphasized that they want to speed up negotiations on the Mercosur free trade agreement with the EU. According to the Brazilian minister, the European Union must clearly state which supplements it wants to add to the mechanism of a free trade zone, such as environmental standards. “So far we don’t know what Brussels wants,” says Vieira. “We hope that the EU will not use provisions to introduce protectionist measures.”
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But as the deal progresses, there are also sticking points with the West in Russia policy.
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The Brazilian minister says he doesn’t understand the anger Lula’s words sparked in Europe. According to him, the statement unequivocally condemned Russian aggression on the territory of Ukraine. By refusing supplies of ammunition to German tanks, Brazil would also be following traditional foreign policy assumptions of not interfering in international conflicts.
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[Segundo Vieira] Multilateralism, regional integration, the priority search for peaceful solutions to conflicts that would be the preamble to diplomacy in the constitution. (…) Lula had proposed the creation of an international body to settle the conflict in Ukraine including Brazil as a possible participant. According to the ministry, if Brazil wants to mediate credibly, it cannot take sides.
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