The Ambassador From Ipanema

Wow! A Brazilian bombshell.

Brazil Could Help Cuba With Transition To Democracy -Envoy

BRASILIA, Brazil (AP)--Brazil's good relations with the U.S. and Cuba could help bring a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba if ailing President Fidel Castro dies, Brazil's newly appointed ambassador to the U.S. told the official government news agency.

In an interview published Monday, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota said he believed the U.S. could benefit from Brazil's analysis of the situation within the communist country.

"Cuba is geographically close and also an important country in the region, with which we have fairly close relations these days. I consider Brazil could possibly play a role in the search for a transition to democracy that could be more calm and without possible turbulence," Patriota said Monday in his first published interview as ambassador.

This is a shocking statement given Brazil’s leftist President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s, close ties to the Cuban tyranny.

Why would the Brazilian ambassador to the US mention Cuba, transition and democracy in the same sentence in his first interview to the official government news agency, you ask? And I don’t blame you; it’s baffling, but, ah there’s always but,

Patriota said Brazil also would continue to push for a permanent seat on the United Nation's Security Council, a goal that has long been a cornerstone of Silva's foreign policy.

I firmly believe that after Fidel Castro is buried, the United States is going to try to put international pressure on the only authoritarian government in the Americas using international governmental institutions such as the OAS, the UN, and the EU where the legitimacy of "Castro II’s" government is challenged.

I guess Brazil is letting Washington know that their price is a seat on the Security Council
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