By MANUEL DOMINGOS NETO*
Brazil, you need South America as much as South America needs you. If you demand democracy from others, demonstrate the value of yours! Prove it false that the Brazilian general intimidates the Justice system.
Brazil, you will not have a promising future without South American integration. Without counting on your neighbors, you will have weak rhetoric. In the international arena, strength counts and yours is not enough to endorse your will. Distanced from the South Americans, your national defense will be unconvincing. Subcontinental partnerships are a basic condition for producing your own weapons and equipment on a viable scale.
By joining forces, South America could manufacture boats, aircraft, satellites, radars, missiles, drones, cybernetic systems and combat vehicles, breaking the shackles of those who have ruled the world for five hundred years.
Why don’t you embrace your neighbors? In times of trouble, they are essential. If your children are left without energy and oxygen in Amapá, who will save them? What if you are subject to sanctions or ruthless people block your navigation… Who will help you?
Without partnerships with your neighbors, your commitment to environmental protection will be inconsistent: shared biomes, basins and aquifers will not be effectively protected. The Amazon is not just yours!
It would be costly and ineffective to plan public security without the knowledge of neighboring countries. Unilateral surveillance of extensive land borders and sea coasts is unfeasible.
Without the cooperation of your neighbors, your health care will be limited. Viruses and bacteria ignore human-defined borders. Your family's health will be permanently exposed.
It is crazy to imagine yourself as industrialized, developed, democratic and sovereign, surrounded by poor, unhappy people who are dependent on extracontinental powers. You will be perceived as an imperialist.
You need South America as much as South America needs you. What I am telling you now is part of the strategic planning of Western powers since the 19th century. The hegemons believe that wherever you lean, our America will lean. Why has your political culture never absorbed this notion?
Why did you reject Venezuela's inclusion in BRICS?
You may not like Bolivarianism, but let our brothers follow their path!
Consider the difficulty of a country labeled by the United States as a member of the “axis of evil” existing with solid democratic institutions.
Can Venezuela, heavily sanctioned and permanently sabotaged, live in placid tranquility?
If you demand democracy from others, demonstrate the value of your own! Prove it false that a Brazilian general intimidates the Justice system. Say that no court would put a favorite candidate in jail so that a captain with bad instincts can be elected!
Show beings capable of arresting genocidal maniacs, torturers and corrupt judges.
Show the respectability of your parliament! Make sure that its members are not elected using public funds; that militiamen, neo-Pentecostals and bandits do not control territories; that your press is not factional and that lies on the internet do not deceive the people.
Show that your political parties are in tune with social dynamics and encourage the permanent renewal of frameworks, ideals and values.
And that you abhor the concentration of wealth that makes democracy unviable.
Show that you always defeat the enemies of freedom; that promoters of hatred and violence form minorities rejected at the polls!
Why are you weakening Venezuela at this time of global reorganization? By extension, you are weakening the BRICS. You are preventing this group, which inspires hope among the oppressed, from controlling the majority of global oil production. Does this benefit you? Is what is good for Washington good for you?
* Manuel Domingos Neto He is a retired UFC professor and former president of the Brazilian Association of Defense Studies (ABED). Author, among other books What to do with the military — Notes for a new National Defense (Reading Cabinet). [https://amzn.to/3URM7ai]
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