Brazil's sights aim high. The visit of the president Dilma Rousseff to his colleague Raul Castro is the latest confirmation that the strategy of the green-gold country is to become the point of reference for the South American continent. In recent years, Brazil has offered several billion dollars in funding to the poorest nations in the area, which it seeks to bring under its influence. Yet none of these efforts have the same symbolic significance as relations with Cuba, an island that the United States has kept at a distance since 1959, the year of Fidel Castro's revolution.
The US does not appear to oppose the emergence of Brazil as a new power in Latin America and many analysts believe that the hour giant could become a source of stability and balance in the region known for its political and economic volatility. It may be that the United States sees Brazil as the mediator capable of reconciling them with the communist country.
However, Dilma Rousseff's speech and her refusal to meet with Cuban dissidents brought out many controversy, from both sides. "If we talk about human rights, we will start doing it from Brazil and the United States", declared the president, "which have a base here called Guantanamo. "
“It is not possible to make human rights politics an art of political-ideological combat”, continued Rousseff, “it must be talked about from a multilateral perspective and it cannot be a stone that is thrown only against one side and not against the other."
Cuba is desperate for economic initiatives. President Raul Castro has begun to open up the economy to more liberal reforms, in a country where citizens are still subject to the rationalization of basic food needs. Surely Brazil can offer the island a more moderate alternative to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who brings over 100 barrels of oil and refined products to Cuba every day in exchange for the service of Cuban doctors to poor Venezuelans living in difficult conditions. What is certainly not lacking in Cuba is education, art, music and joie de vivre, characteristics that certainly bring it closer to the Brazil of the Rio carnival than to the Venezuelan narco-traffickers.
Read the controversy in the Brazilian newspaper Stay
