Why we spy on Brazil
by Carlos Alberto Montaner
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(Miami Herald) President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil canceled her visit to President Obama. She was offended because the United States was peeking into her electronic mail. You don’t do that to a friendly country. The information, probably reliable, was provided by Edward Snowden from his refuge in Moscow.
Intrigued, I asked a former U.S. ambassador, “Why did they do it?” His explanation was starkly frank:
“From Washington’s perspective, the Brazilian government is not exactly friendly. By definition and history, Brazil is a friendly country that sided with us during World War II and Korea, but its present government is not.”
The ambassador and I are old friends. “May I identify you by name?” I asked. “No,” he answered. “It would create a huge problem for me. But you may transcribe our conversation.” I shall do so here.
“All you have to do is read the records of the São Paulo Forum and observe the conduct of the Brazilian government,” he said. “The friends of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, of Dilma Rousseff and the Workers Party are the enemies of the United States: Chavist Venezuela, first with (Hugo) Chávez and now with (Nicolás) Maduro; Raúl Castro’s Cuba; Iran; Evo Morales’ Bolivia; Libya at the time of Gadhafi; Bashar Assad’s Syria.
“In almost all conflicts, the Brazilian government agrees with the political lines of Russia and China, as opposed to the perspective of the U.S. State Department and the White House. Its more akin ideological family is that of the BRICS, with whom it tries to conciliate its foreign policy. [The BRICS are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.]
“The huge South American nation neither has nor manifests the slightest desire to defend the democratic principles that are systematically violated in Cuba. On the contrary, former president Lula da Silva often takes investors to the island to fortify the Castros’ dictatorship. The money invested by the Brazilians in the development of the super-port of Mariel, near Havana, is estimated to be $1 billion.
“Cuban influence in Brazil is covert but very intense. José Dirceu, Lula da Silva’s former chief of staff and his most influential minister, had been an agent of the Cuban intelligence services. In exile in Cuba, he had his face surgically changed. He returned to Brazil with a new identity (Carlos Henrique Gouveia de Mello, a Jewish merchant) and functioned in that capacity until democracy was restored. Hand in hand with Lula, he placed Brazil among the major collaborators with the Cuban dictatorship. He fell into disgrace because he was corrupt but never retreated one inch from his ideological preferences and his complicity with Havana.
“Something similar is happening with Profesor Marco Aurelio Garcia, Dilma Rousseff’s current foreign policy adviser. He is a contumacious anti-Yankee, worse than Dirceu even, because he’s more intelligent and had better training. He will do everything he can to foil the United States.
“To Itamaraty — a foreign ministry renowned by the quality of its diplomats, generally multilingual and well educated — the Democratic Charter signed in Lima in 2001 is just a piece of paper without any importance. The government simply ignores the election swindles perpetrated in Venezuela or Nicaragua and is totally indifferent to any abuses against freedom of the press.
“But that’s not all. There are two other issues about which the United States wants to be informed about everything that happens in Brazil, because, in one way or another, they affect the security of the United States: corruption and drugs.
“Brazil is a notoriously corrupt country and those ugly practices affect the laws of the United States in two ways: when Brazilians utilize the American financial system and when they compete unfairly with U.S. companies by resorting to bribery or illegal commissions.
“The issue of drugs is different. The production of Bolivian coca has multiplied fivefold since Evo Morales became president, and the outlet for that substance is Brazil. Almost all of it ends up in Europe, and our allies have asked us for information. That information sometimes is in the hands of Brazilian politicians.”
My two final questions are inevitable. Will Washington support Brazil’s bid for permanent membership in the U.N. Security Council?
“If you ask me, no,” he says. “We already have two permanent adversaries: Russia and China. We don’t need a third one.”
Finally, will the United States continue to spy on Brazil?
“Of course,” he tells me. “It’s our responsibility to U.S. society.”
I think that Doña Dilma should change her e-mail addresses frequently.
Hello mr. Montaner,
I’m truelly disappoint with your remarks here. In Portuguese “doña” is written “dona”. Ah, about the whorl rest of your text, IT’S ALL TRUE, and several Brazilians have the same feeling about this rotten government of ours.
Thanks
Jason
DOCTORS OF “FORO DE SÃO PAULO”
What you see are two fronts of the same strategy : the orderly administration of chaos in public health and creating justifications for the import of Cuban doctors in droves.
No one will understand anything about the arrival of Cuban doctors just turn the discussion around the reasons reported by our Ministry of Health , ie , those qualities semi – angelic medicine in Cuba and the alleged lack of doctors in Brazil . To understand what is happening you need to look at who really rule in Latin American politics : the Sao Paulo Forum , which, as everyone knows , is a supranational organization created by Fidel Castro and Lula to promote socialism in Latin America .
Cuba is the darling of socialism on the continent and maintenance of what the sycophants of Fidel call ‘ conquests of the Revolution ” is one of the strategic priorities of the Forum of Sao Paulo . With the collapse of the USSR , Cuba had to find other ways to finance their dictatorship . No industry , no agriculture, no technical capacity to exploit natural resources , Havana made the export of health workers their main source of income. In 1999 , Castro founded ELAM , a school for the production of medical scale , whose first group received no less than 1900 students , an army that would be negotiated with the governments of the Forum members in a version “progressive ” of the slave trade .
Doctors trained by ELAM were prevented from working in many countries due to their bad qualification , which impeded the movement of higher commodity Cuban . The Foro de São Paulo came then bail Havana , determining XII during their meeting that party members do ” esfuerzos gestiones y en sus respective countries to ratify the revalidate them achieve titles con el goal reinsertar nuestros jóvenes en nuestros pueblos .”
In Brazil , the PT has made these esfuerzos at least since 1999 , when the party began to distribute scholarships to its members in ELAM . In 2003 , so assumed the presidency , Lula signed the ” Memorandum of Understanding in the field of health, education and labor between Brazil and Cuba ,” with the goal of establishing ” the necessary conditions for the mutual recognition of diplomas and post graduate -graduate studies in health ” , according to the guidelines of the Sao Paulo Forum . In the same year , the Workers sent Congress the bill 65-A/2003 , which prohibited the opening of new medical schools and expand enrollment in existing courses , claiming that in Brazil there were other doctors .
In 2006 , Lula signed another agreement with Fidel Castro to ensure validation of diplomas of doctors trained in Cuba , sending a message to Congress in which he sought the approval of the agreement on an emergency basis . In 2012 , the government announced a cut of £ 5.4 billion in the budget of the Ministry of Health , and a few months after Rousseff created the MP 568/12 , which provided a 50% reduction in the salaries of federal physicians . The measure, whose effect would be to empty the area of health at the federal level , affecting 48,000 servers . The medical community failed to prevent some of these maneuvers and has now become the scapegoat of the left , being blamed for the ” people’s commissars ” for all the ills national , international , natural , supernatural , past, present and future .
What you see are two fronts of the same strategy : the orderly administration of chaos in public health and creating justifications for the import of Cuban doctors in droves. This policy clearly harmful to national interests , has nothing to do with the health of Brazilians and only serves the political objectives of the Sao Paulo Forum , which our government is a member zealous and obedient .
More Doctors Project smile you are being robbed by dictators Castro
Many of us still can not digest the input 400 ” doctors ” Cubans in Brazil , since no one , absolutely no one was consulted for an opinion rested this spill : neither society nor the Congress , nor the medical associations , even those whom the government says it wants to ” watch ” . And they will be 4,000 in total.
The press reported that doctors hired on ” More Doctors ” that besides the Brazilians came from Portugal , Spain and Argentina have signed a contract with the Ministry of Health could bring their families and receive a monthly salary of $ 10,000 , 00 more housing, food and travel expenses paid by the Government to provide ” primary ” in the most remote corners of the country and underserved . They are staying in hotels and make three-week training on tropical diseases , characteristics of each region, and Portuguese , in the case of foreigners .
No one had access to these contracts , however, as the pressure on the Cuban was very large , the Ministry of Health made available through the ” Health Portal ” that you can read it in its entirety at this address : http://portalsaude.saude .gov.br/portalsaude/arquivos/pdf/2013/Ago/27/OPAS_27022013.pdf . It is striking that only Cubans there is a special contract made through the agreement between Brazil and the Pan American Health Organization ( PAHO ) , existing since 2000 , and not directly as professionals . Moreover , they are not staying in hotels like others, but accommodation barracks of the Armed Forces who were forced to receive them , although it is not known whether they will receive for hosting .
Despite having been put out to the public , not seen so far in the press any analysis of the terms of the agreement , where the parties are called only by: ” Organization ” – PAHO / WHO – ” Ministry ” – Ministries health and education – and the project , which is called ” Increased access of the population to basic health care ,” only ” program ” . I do not want here to discuss the legal issues because flee to my competence , although it is in the contract that Cubans will be governed by Brazilian law issues ” civil and criminal ” but not ” labor ” , but because it is beyond the purpose of which is to raise the points nebulous and unclear on what came to these professionals in Brazil , in what circumstances , but especially to highlight the exorbitant for Brazilians to be paid by all of us , unwittingly , not to those who will provide medical services but to dictators Castro .
The first questions arise from the ” Section Two : the parties ‘obligations ‘ , item I, it is for the Ministry .
In sub – item i , we read : ” Ensure , to Physicians Participants , supply and implementation of specialized course for Public Institution of Higher Education for a period of up to three years , renewable for the same period , which will involve teaching, research and extension , which will assistance component by integrating teaching and service . ” Now when medical associations and the Federal Council of Medicine questioned the validity of the diploma of those doctors who were exempted from examination revalidate , Minister of Health of Brazil and all who defend them , said their 10 , 20 years experience testified to their great capacity . So why stated in the contract that they have to do course ” teaching, research and extension” ? The project , as it was told to the public , was not to ” practice medicine ” in the places that Brazilians refused to go?
In the sub – item , we read : ” Perform , based on the Action Plans of the Program, and transfer half anticipated to PAHO / WHO resources regarding :
i – the financing of technical cooperation ( … ) including cooperation through consultants and advisors in Primary Health Care ;
Regarding this ” cooperation ” cited above , it is also the Organization , as reads in item II , c : ” To form a set of Advisers in Primary Care which will follow the program at the national and state levels , which facilitate the dialogue Participants with Doctors .
The issue of prepayment commenting further . What draws attention to the questions above is : who are these ” consultants and advisors ” who will ” cooperate ” with these physicians , and serve as ” partners ” ? Interlocutors for and to whom? Still on this item , the letter , this control is most evident when he quotes himself a ” monthly monitoring of the implementation ” of the Plans . What ” plans ” are these ? Sounds strange to anyone who signs a contract of employment , with the most relevant professional competence , know that it will be ” monitored ” monthly and there will be an “interlocutor ” , unless vigilance is against the indoctrination that are required physicians who provide services in other countries !
The most spiteful and this agreement is aberrant with respect to resources , contained in Section Three and Annexes II and III .
In Section Three , we read :
” To the Work Plan approved , ( … ), the Ministry for appropriate a transfer to the Organization , in the current year , the amount of R $ 510,975,307.00 ( FIVE HUNDRED AND TEN MILLION , NINE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE THOUSAND , THREE HUNDRED AND SEVEN DOLLARS) .
And in sub – clause only , we read :
” Of all the features of this Clause , U.S. $ 24,331,301.00 ( TWENTY FOUR MILLION , THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND AND HUM , HUM AND THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS) corresponding to 5 % of the net , ( … ) refers to the indirect costs resulting from technical cooperation to be provided by the organization ( … ) .
In Annex II have a worksheet demonstrative of the allocation of resources :
DAILY 1,309,770.00
TICKETS 12,242,500.00
THIRD PARTY SERVICE – INDIVIDUAL 469,000,000.00
THIRD PARTY SERVICES – LEGAL ENTITY 4,073,736.00
INDIRECT COSTS – ( 5 % ) 24,331,301.00
In Annex III , the Disbursement Schedule announced that the payment is for the year 2013 ( a contract that runs until 2016 ) and that the amounts paid are:
August 100,000,000.00
September 300,000,000.00
November 110,957,307.00
Total 510,957,307.00
Occurs which was explained in Section Two , the sub – item , that would transfer half , and the spreadsheet in Annex III shows the value paid only in 2013 . In addition , we also see that the highest amount paid , steady as ” services” , is the part that goes to Cuba where dictators will pass on to their slaves the value that they please , without interfering NOBODY . And here comes the biggest freak : note that it is written that the amount of R $ 469,000,000.00 is paid INDIVIDUAL , ie the personal coffers of dictators Castro and the Cuban government not to ! If all this were not enough abominable , we have the end of one year dictators Castro will pocket R $ 938,000,000.00 ( NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY EIGHT MILLION ) until the expiration of the three years which may be extended R $ 2,814,000,000.00 ( TWO bILLION , EIGHT HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN MILLION ) !
Those who defend the legitimacy of such payment to the island , claiming investment in training these people , what about the Cuban State is not the recipient of this immense fortune to pay taxes we ALL ? Does R $ 3,065,743,842.00 ( THREE BILLION , AND SIXTY FIVE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED AND FORTY THREE THOUSAND , EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY TWO DOLLARS) would not give to the federal government to build these cities and municipalities , hospitals , clinics , outpatient , clinical analysis – all well equipped devices and drugs – as well as ambulances and hire doctors with a living wage ? Solve the problem of drought in the Northeast ?
Clearly the interest is not in the condition of life and health of the poor and marginalized of the ends of the world , especially in North and Northeast regions where the shortage is all but a project electioneering demagogic ideology , inhuman and criminal, where the cost we are enriching our taxes even more, two of the most miserable and bloody dictators in Latin America , who are the brothers Raul and Fidel Castro .
Dear Mr. Montaner,
This Cuban woman, Ramona Matos Rodriguez, MD, is in serious danger:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-05/cuban-doctor-to-seek-asylum-in-brazil-claiming-paycheck-unfair.html
The current Brazilian government grants political asylum only to their likes, such as the Italian terrorist Cesare Battisti, for instance. Notice Dilma Rousseff is herself a terrorist (there is no such thing as a former terrorist, I believe).
According to Globo TV news just one hour ago her request will be analyzed by our authorities only by late April. A similar request to the American Embassy, it appears, will take even longer to be given an answer — too much time, I fear. Perhaps it’s time someone interfered.