BY FEDERICO FUENTES
CORDOBA, Argentina — The inauguration of Luis Ignacio "Lula" da Silva as Brazil's president on January 1 gained huge media coverage in Argentina. The massive celebrations in Brazil, in which somewhere between 200,000 and 500,000 people participated, made front page news in nearly every Argentinian newspaper.
Many pages were devoted to what the rise of Lula will mean not only for Brazil but for Argentina and the rest of South America. Enrique Lacolla, in an opinion piece titled "Flashes in the Darkness", in the December 29 La Voz Del Interior, echoed the sentiment of many Argentinians: "2002 has been a dismal year. But not everything is dark in the world: the crisis of the neoliberal system has opened up expectations in Latin America that can broaden the road to the future".
Lacolle wrote that Latin Americans hope that Lula can deliver a "qualitative and quantitative" step towards breaking the advance of the "global hegemonic project". Lacolle added in the January 6 La Voz Del Interior that "the coming to power of Lula is an event which could inaugurate a new era for Latin America. Argentina should not be absent from this change".
One of the issues which Lula has indicated is a key priority, which will directly affect Argentina, is building unity between the countries of Latin America. In his inauguration speech, Lula spoke of rebuilding Mercosur — an almost defunct economic bloc that involves Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, with Bolivia and Chile as associate members — as a way of constructing "a political stable, solid, united and democratic South America".
Two of the most talked about Latin American leaders were present at Lula's inauguration: Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Cuba's Fidel Castro. Ties between Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba have already been strengthened since January 1. Cuba has offered to collaborate on health and education issues and Lula has offered oil supplies and petroleum technicians to aid the Chavez government in its fight with Venezuela's elite.
Many Latin Americans see the strengthening of these ties and of Mercosur as being moves in direct opposition to Washington's push in favour of the neoliberal Free Trade of the Americas Agreement (FTAA). In talking about the FTAA, Lula reiterated that, if it goes ahead, it has to serve "the interests of all" or else "it would serve no-one". He also added that he believed that countries should join FTAA on bloc and not individually, to aid the position of the weaker nations in the region.
Lula promised that his government would devote a large amount of resources to the elimination of hunger and for land distribution. It was these issues, amongst others, which were key to more than 50 million Brazilians voting Lula into office.
In his inauguration speech, Lula launched his "Zero Hunger" program. Its goal is to make sure "every Brazilian can eat breakfast, lunch and dinner". On January 3, at his first cabinet meeting, Lula postponed buying 12 new planes for the air force and dedicated the US$760 million to the program. Lula plans to release the entire plan for "Zero Hunger" by January 30.
Agrarian reform is vital in a country which is second only to Paraguay in the unequal distribution of land: 2000 landowners occupy 56 million hectares, while 16 million peasants have no land. Lula has yet to announce definite land reform proposals.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, January 22, 2003.
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