28/04/2010
Brasilia-Caracas axis main dynamizer of South-South integration process

Brasilia, Apr 26. ABN (Mariana Serrano, special correspondent).- The axis Brasilia-Caracas, the capitals of the sister republics of Brazil and Venezuela, respectively, has been the main dynamizer of the entire process of union and integration that have emerged in the continent in the last years.

This axis has boosted the development of diverse projects based on complementarity and integration, bringing benefits for the peoples, not only from an economic point of view, but mainly thanks to the social policy promoted by the governments of the presidents of Venezuela Hugo Chavez and Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

According to the Brazilian Senator Romero Juca, the most important element in the relation between Venezuela and Brazil is the recognition of each country potential to be able to complement each other in diverse areas.

“As brother countries, we have to recognize that we are different and we have different potentials, but those differences can complement each other (...) If we can take advantage of this unity, we can become a big homeland,” said the Senator in occasion of the next meeting between Chavez and Lula to take place in the next days.

Juca underscored that thanks to the relations between the governments of Venezuela and Brazil, they have executed joint actions bringing closer the people of the two countries. For instance, policies aimed at expanding the cultural aspect and “if we talk about economy, we should underscored that both countries are big oil producers. Thus, we only have to look for an economy that complement each other. Venezuela has products that Brazil does not produce and, within the process, we are looking for an equilibrium in the balance of payments.”

Likewise, the Brazilian journalist Beto Almeida, representative of a communitarian TV in Brazil, deems that the relations between Venezuela and Brazil will have a significant social impact.

In Almeida's opinion, the industrial integration, which is powered in Brazil and developed in Venezuela, allows the countries to compensate other nations in the region, which have not been able to develop themselves due to colonial impositions.

“All that potential from countries like Brazil and Argentina, with strong industries, and Venezuela, which is in the process thanks to the support of the first two, is important because it promotes that economic, political, social and cultural strengthening among the peoples of the Southern bloc,” he highlighted.

Furthermore, he said that the social progress promoted by the president Chavez and Lula not only links each other's governmental policies, but it also sets a difference with each country's previous governments.

Progressive and socialist governments that have emerged in South America, specifically in Venezuela with Hugo Chavez and in Brazil with Lula da Silva, have had a great influence in the region and have helped that the governments in the region have a social approach, with the progress of the peoples and full independence.

Chavez and Lula

In total, both presidents have held 18 bilateral meetings. Eight of them correspond to the three-monthly meetings agreed between both presidents in September, 2007, aimed at giving continuity to the monitoring and revision of agreements and accords reached between Venezuela and Brazil.

On September 20, 2007, in Manaos, Brazil, they discussed about energy issues, such as the Great Gas Pipeline of the South and the construction of the Refinery Abreu e Lima in Pernambuco, Brazil.