"The debate over the environmental credentials of ethanol has become increasingly sensitive in Brazil, raising tensions among ministers, says the BBC's Gary Duffy in Sao Paulo.
But our correspondent says that as next year's presidential election approaches, the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been stressing its green credentials with renewed vigour.
President Lula, who enjoys high approval ratings, cannot stand for a third term but is keen to see his chief of staff Dilma Rousseff succeed him.
Complicating the electoral scene, however, is the likely candidacy for the Green Party of Marina Silva, the former environment minister, who left the president's Workers Party (PT) earlier this year.
Ms Silva, a stanch defender of the Amazon rainforest, is highly unlikely to win but with her green background she could help to splinter the PT base and take some votes from Ms Rousseff."http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8262381.stm----------------
If Lula da Silva's handpicked successor Dilma Rousseff wins, which seems likely--and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner survives in Argentina (she has some political problems)--there will be THREE WOMEN in charge of the three biggest South American countries--Chile, Brazil, Argentina. All are leftists. All are committed to peace, cooperation and regional development--and, importantly--to fending off US corpo/fascist domination. Chile's Batchelet and Argentina's Fernandez have been particularly strong in fending off the US-backed white separatist insurrection in Bolivia, in helping to de-fuse the war that the US was trying to instigate between Colombia and Ecuador/Venezuela, and in formalizing the new South American "common market," UNASUR. Rousseff, following in Lulu da Silva's footsteps, will likely adhere to similar policies. Brazil, with Lulu as president, has been more on the capital-development end of the Leftist political spectrum in South America, but has been a true-blue ally of the more socialist leftists.
The BBC says that the Green candidate Marina Silva in Brazil might take votes from Rouseff, but they don't even mention who the rightwing candidate is (or who the potentials are), so that tells you something about how Brazilians are feeling these days. If the BBC could, they would give the right some publicity--no matter how stupid, bizarre and unpopular their views are. The BBC is sometimes almost as bad as our corpo/fascist press on the South American Left. So the da Silva candidate is going to win in Bolivia; it's just a question of by how much. My environmental views are more aligned with Marina Silva's. I thought Lula da Silva's biofuels deal with the Bushwhacks was a big mistake. Short-term thinking (jobs); long term loss of forest, campesino (organic) farming, and food production land, with no impact on, or negative impact on, global warming.
But I do understand "where Lula da Silva is coming from." He's a former steelworker and union leader. He feels that his first responsibility is alleviating poverty and he is very sincere in that goal. For instance, he has been very careful and very adamant about retaining Brazilian control of the huge new oil finds off Brazil's coast, to insure that a big percentage of the profits go to alleviating poverty and bootstrapping the poor. And he is very much in solidarity with Chavez, Morales, Correa, Fernandez, Lugo (in Paraguay) and other leftists on social justice goals.
It is an excruciating dilemma for Leftists--the environment (the fate of the planet) vs. poverty & jobs. For the right, it is no dilemma at all. 'Fuck both'' is their motto, there and here.
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