Quietly, Brazil Eclipses an Ally

Mercosur will incorporate the Venezuelan market definitely under the Brazilian economic dependence sphere, or maybe not, if the Brazilian National Congress still “helping” the Venezuelans.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva distanced himself from Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez as he expands Brazil's regional power, the New York Times reported.

The shift underscores Lula's more pragmatic approach toward development and his ability to outmaneuver Chavez for the political leadership of South America, the newspaper said.

In contrast to Chavez, who nationalized foreign companies and tried to set up an anti-U.S. bloc, Lula opted for political coalitions and diversified Brazil's industries, while oil finds helped Brazil to blunt Venezuela's financial influence, the Times said.

Venezuela has come to depend more on Brazil economically, providing Brazilian companies with projects for bridges and subways and importing food to overcome shortages at home, the Times said. Brazil's trade surplus with the 11 other member- nations of the Latin American Integration Association has climbed to $16 billion, from $1.7 billion in 2002, further adding to Brazil's clout, the newspaper said.

President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil clasped hands here at a summit meeting late last month, as employees of Venezuela’s state oil company raised their fists and shouted Cuban-inspired socialist slogans before the cameras. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, left, publicly praises President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, whom he met with last month in Caracas, but works quietly to check his rival’s ambitions. It was an image of solidarity that might once have alarmed Washington, which has seen the United States’ standing steadily eroded by a shift toward left-leaning, populist leaders across the region in the last decade.

But the carefully orchestrated event disguised a more recent turn in Latin America that presents new opportunities for the United States: Mr. da Silva has steadily peeled himself away from Venezuela’s leader and quietly supplanted him as he nurtures Brazil into a regional powerhouse.

Today the two leaders, often partners but sometimes rivals, offer starkly different paths toward development, and it is Brazil’s milder and more pragmatic approach that appears ascendant. Amid the decline of American influence in the region, the Brazilian president is discreetly outflanking Mr. Chávez at almost every turn in the struggle for leadership in South America.