Klaus Hart Brasilientexte

 On July 12 the USA decided to reinstate their Fourth Fleet –  the one that guards the Southern seas and was active between 1943 and 1950 due to World War II but had since been demobilized. The fleet is made up of 22 ships: four missile carrying cruisers, four missile carrying destroyers, 13 missile carrying frigates and a hospital ship. According to US authorities, the objective is to ”put into effect humanitarian actions. If that is so, why so many missiles? If that is the objective, why not start by allowing Puerto Rico to regain its sovereignty, suspending the Cuban blockade, returning the naval base of Guantanamo (removing the prisoners from there and from the judicial limbo to which they are condemned) and reduce the agricultural subsidies which strangle free trade?According to Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, the Fourth Fleet aims at fighting the trafficking of drugs, arms and persons, as well as the pirating which threatens the flow of free trade in Caribbean and South Atlantic waters.

Would it not make more sense to fight drug and arms trafficking within the USA which, according to the United Nations report published in June figures amongst the major consumers of these two lethal commodities?

It™s the old story of the big bad wolf trying to deceive Little Red Riding Hood. Who believes that such a big nose is only for smelling the little granddaughter? Isn™t it a ”coincidence that the Fourth Fleet is being reinstated at a time when Cuba is strengthening their socialist line, Daniel Ortega returns as president of Nicaragua, Brazil discovers petroleum reserves under the sea and South America is governed by people like Chavez, Lula, Correa, Kirchner, Morales and, very soon, Lugo, who have no love for Uncle Sam and try to reduce their countries™ dependence on the US?

The commander of the Fourth Fleet is rear admiral Joseph Kernan, 53. He is not a career man in the conventional navy; his career has been in SEAL, the elite force geared to special operations in non-conventional combat and repression of terrorism. Very humanitarian¦    

The US feels uncomfortable with the present Latin American conjuncture. Particularly with the fact that President Lula is working on the creation of UNASUL (Union of South American Nations) and on the South American Council of Defense (now also supported by Colombia), two organizations which, like the Mercosul and ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas) exclude the participation of the US and render innocuous the Inter American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance and the Joint Interamerican Defense, which have always been controlled by the White House.

Like the European Union, the UNASUL will integrate the Mercosul and the Community of Andean Nations which includes Guyana and Surinam. The complete integration of these two blocks was put into effect in Brasilia in May 2008 during the meeting of the South American presidents. The UNASUL will have its headquarters in Quito, its Banco do Sul in Caracas, and the parliament will be in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

Returning to the granny story, Uncle Sam wants to stop China from taking over the South Seas. Today 90% of world trade depends on ships and Beijing is intent on increasing and protecting its routes, including those that lead to our continent.

The Brazilian government has already shown its mistrust for the White House.  Recent discoveries of petroleum off the Brazilian coast when the barrel has passed the US$140 mark will surely raise the US™s envy because their suppliers, like Venezuela, are not to be trusted.With so many ships on our seas equipped with high technology and firing power the Americans will be able to research the submarine platforms and control navigation from our countries towards Africa and Asia.

Zoology teaches that every cornered animal ferociously defends itself. This is the case with Uncle Sam whose currency is losing buying power, its economy has dived into a long term crisis, the Iraq mess shows no light at the end of the tunnel and the white Republicans see themselves imminently having to transfer power to a black Democrat.

*Frei Betto is a writer, author of ”A arte de semear estrelas (The Art of Sowing Stars) (Rocco). Â

ABOUT THE AUTOR

He is a Brazilian Dominican with an international reputation as a liberation theologian.
Within Brazil he is equally famous as a writer, with over 52 books to his name.  In 1985 he won Brazil™s most important literary prize, the Jabuti, and was elected Intellectual of the Year by the members of the Brazilian Writers™ Union.Frei Betto has always been active in Brazilian social movements, and has been an adviser to the Church™s ministry to workers in Sáo Paulo™s industrial belt, to the Church base communities, and to the Landless Rural Workers™ Movement (MST).