World

Lula's big moment

April 15, 2009
Latin America's new poster boy?
Latin America's new poster boy?

 With the summit of the Americas due to open in a couple of days, Bogota-based journalist Anastasia Moloney looks ahead to what we might expect from President Obama's first diplomatic visit to Latin America. In her article, free to read online this week, Moloney argues that Brazil's outspoken President Lula (who recently blamed the global economic crisis on “white and blue-eyed people”), will be the lychpin at the summit: a diplomatic bridge between the US and the radical leftist regimes of Venezuela, Ecuador’s and Bolivia. With Venezuela struggling with double-digit inflation and plummeting oil revenues, the regional influence of the combative of Hugo Chavez is waning. Instead, Washington is looking to Lula (the first Latin American leader to get an invite to the White House during the Obama administration) to help it forge a new policy towards the region. Afghanistan may be the US's top foreign policy priority: nonetheless, ending the 50-year standoff with Cuba is also crucial—and in this, as well as in global trade and climate change negotiations, Obama know that an alliance with Brazil, the world's tenth largest economy, will prove indispensible. Share your thoughts on Moloney's article, and the summit as it unfolds, here.