Economics
Lula Avoids Using Brazil’s Backyard Clout to Confront Chavez
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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has used his stature to play peacemaker on Iran. Closer to home, he has shown little appetite for wielding his clout with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez to repair a rupture with Colombia.
Lula travels today to Caracas and Bogota in a bid to ease tensions over accusations Chavez, 56, is harboring Marxist rebels from Colombia. He is unlikely to end the row and whoever succeeds Lula in October elections will have a tougher time confronting Chavez, said Michael Shifter, president of the policy group Inter-American Dialogue.