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Judi Lynn

(160,527 posts)
Fri Feb 3, 2012, 01:49 AM Feb 2012

Brazil eases Cuba into free market economy

Brazil eases Cuba into free market economy
by Staff Writers
Rio De Janeiro (UPI) Feb 2, 2012

Brazil is easing Cuba into the free market economy with a generous package of aid in cash and kind and joint projects that give the Latin American country a pre-eminent position in Havana's heady mix of communism and experimental capitalism.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff appeared to be in the right place at the right time when she flew into Havana in a spirit of revolutionary camaraderie and clinched deals that secured Brazil's status as the senior partner in a long-term, multifaceted relationship.

Current bilateral trade exceeds $642 million a year.

In talks with Fidel Castro, his brother President Raul Castro and senior Communist Party leaders, Rousseff readily invoked her own revolutionary credentials as a former left-wing guerrilla fighter and chided the United States for continuing to operate its Guantanamo Bay prison.

More:
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Brazil_eases_Cuba_into_free_market_economy_999.html

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Judi Lynn

(160,527 posts)
1. Brazil Deepens Strategic Cooperation with Cuba
Fri Feb 3, 2012, 02:10 AM
Feb 2012

Brazil Deepens Strategic Cooperation with Cuba
By Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Feb 2, 2012 (IPS) - Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's visit to Cuba served to further strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries, leverage the South American giant's investments in the Caribbean island, and deepen political ties.

On Feb. 1, Rousseff travelled to Haiti, where she was set to meet with government officials to discuss a number of issues, including migration and the reconstruction efforts underway since the devastating January 2010 earthquake. Brazil and Cuba are backing the establishment of a healthcare system in that impoverished Caribbean nation.

~snip~

In what was her first trip to Cuba, Rousseff judged as wrong "a blockade that denies a people access to food," in reference to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, and said her government would be granting 350 million dollars in credit for food purchases from Brazil.

"We also agreed to finance the purchase of equipment, machinery, small tractors, and harvesters, with a 200 million (dollar) credit to boost food production in Cuba," Rousseff said, and insisted on a partnership between the two nations that will help the island's development and ensure better living conditions for its people.

More:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106635

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
3. What happened to all the money donated to the victims of the Earthquake?
Fri Feb 3, 2012, 02:21 AM
Feb 2012

Was it even used for the victims? It's good to see Cuba and Brazil helping with a HC system for them also.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
2. Good for them. This country is going to be left behind with its vindictive policies towards
Fri Feb 3, 2012, 02:16 AM
Feb 2012

all these countries. The world has moved on, we can move on from war crimes, but not from these ancient conflicts? Wake up America.

Edited to add, that is excellent news about Haiti too, helping to establish a Health Care system there.

What happened to all the money donated to the victims of the Earthquake? Did we ever get an accounting of that?

Doesn't look like much went to the victims, sadly.

Bacchus4.0

(6,837 posts)
4. hurricane, earthquake, Cuba, Haiti ??????? anyway, sounds like Brazil is unconcerned
Fri Feb 3, 2012, 03:18 AM
Feb 2012

with the embargo and Cuba can do its thing without the US.

sabrina 1

(62,325 posts)
5. Earthquake, Haiti. I tried to fix it as soon as I typed it, but the computer got hung up
Fri Feb 3, 2012, 04:42 AM
Feb 2012

and I had to leave and forgot to come back to it. Lol. My second major error today, doing too many things at one time. Need a break.

But yes, Brazil doesn't have our hangups with Cuba and hopefully the people of Cuba will benefit from their relationship.

flamingdem

(39,313 posts)
8. Good news. Brazil is strengthening it's position in Latin America
Fri Feb 3, 2012, 12:01 PM
Feb 2012

I can see Brazil brokering an opening between the US and Cuba. That is if La Loba can be caged.

Peace Patriot

(24,010 posts)
9. You gotta wonder about the insane grip over U.S. policy that the fascists here exercise...
Mon Feb 6, 2012, 01:10 PM
Feb 2012

...even to the clear and obvious disadvantage of U.S. transglobal corporate/war profiteer interests.

The Cuba embargo is INSANE. No other word for it. Not just blitheringly stupid, not just mindbogglingly hypocritical, not just very, very wrong. Madness, of the "Mad Hatter's Tea Party" variety. Non-rational.

I am reminded of the some of the more insane religious "doctrines" that I was taught in Catholic grammar school--for instance, that unbaptized infants who died would never "see God"--as if a few sprinkles of water on the baby's forehead and some whispered mumbo-jumbo was the determinant of God's mercy toward the ENTIRELY INNOCENT LITTLE BABY. Such a child was not consigned to Hell (such were the mercies of 5th Century theology) but rather to "Limbo" where it would spend ETERNITY in a cold crib cut off from God, Paradise, Love, Mercy, Family, Friends, Enlightenment and all those wonderful things they promise to the sprinkled.

Cuba suffers from a similar fate at the hands of the INSANE theologians of Ayn Randism. It is condemned from birth but, as it has somehow continued as the undead "baby" of communist sharing, free medical care for all, free university educations for all, food, a roof and a job for all--it has to be RE-condemned every hour of every day, week after week, decade after decade, so that the edifice of INSANE "individualism" and rule by billionaires will not fall.

Poor tiny Cuba, bearing the brunt of all that fear and loathing--just like all those unbaptized dead babies of the Pagan World!

And THAT is who is running U.S. policy on Latin America, lo these many decades, unto today.

But of course the Miami Mafia and fascist Bishops and Cardinals have always been in each other's pockets. Their brainwaves are attuned. And lurking beneath that unholy accord are mountains of dead babies and other innocents--notably including bishops, priests and nuns who dared to challenge their crimes against the poor.

Maybe the lesson is, wherever you find insane policy, "follow the money." And the more insane it becomes, the more money must you follow, even unto the murky subterranean realms of the non-stop cocaine traffic south to north, that are difficult to route, to say the least.

Something going on here we can't see, that Brazil sees clearly (as do the many other new leftist governments in Latin America, and even some of the few remaining rightwing governments). Why NOT trade with Cuba? Hm?

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