US embassy cable - 04BRASILIA1975

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 001975 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, ECON, BR, External Relations 
SUBJECT: LULA IN AFRICA 
 
 
1.  (U) Summary: Brazilian President Lula da Silva visited 
the African countries of Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, and 
Cape Verde, July 26-29.  The principal rationale for the trip 
was to attend a summit meeting of Portuguese speaking 
countries (Communidades dos Paises de Lingua Portuguesa -- 
CPLP) in Sao Tome and Principe.  Lula also made a stop in 
Libreville, where he shared with Gabonese President Omar 
Bonga a 20 minute ride in a silver Rolls Royce before a 
throng of 3,000 people.  In Cape Verde, the President sought 
to highlight Brazil's long-standing social and economic ties 
and assistance programs with the island.  Although Lula 
intended to project Brazil's solidarity with Africa, the fact 
that Brazil's total annual commerce with the three countries 
visited totals only about USD 30 million perhaps underscores 
the trip's marginal significance.  End summary. 
 
2.  (SBU) Ministry of Foreign Relations (MRE) Africa Division 
Chief Joao Padilha told poloffs on August 2 that, as current 
head of the CPLP (Brazil had hosted the last summit meeting 
in Brasilia), President Lula had to go to Sao Tome and 
Principe, even though he had already visited the tiny island 
country during a previous Africa trip.  This time, Lula 
brought a senior Petrobras official and promised the 
assistance of Brazilian government energy regulators to 
address GOSTP interest in possible deepwater petroleum 
exploration.  The GOB also donated the equivalent of an 
internet cafe worth of computers; Padilha wryly doubted, 
however, that Brazil had included a power generator in the 
package. 
 
3.  (SBU) Lula,s stop in Gabon had nominally stronger 
political and economic motives.  Lula continued to press 
Brazil's long-standing case for UNSC reform -- and a 
permanent Security Council seat for Brazil -- to the country 
that will preside over the next UNGA.  According to Padilha, 
the GOB perceives Gabon as an influential regional player in 
Central/West Africa, particularly as a conflict mediator. 
However, when asked about press reports that cited agreement 
on international trade matters such as the WTO, Padilha 
dismissed the reports, affirming that there was no common 
ground between Brazil and Gabon for serious discussion.  The 
GOB's effort to promote investment in Gabon apparently fell 
flat as well.  Reportedly, only 10 businessmen escorted the 
President to Africa -- versus the hundreds who went to China 
in May. The only sector where significant commercial 
collaboration was possible, Padilha believed, is petroleum, 
but Petrobras, he lamented, was entering the oil game late in 
Gabon. 
 
4.  (SBU) In Cape Verde, Lula again announced, with much 
fanfare, that Brazil would provide debt relief -- he had 
promised similar largesse in his earlier stops. (Comment: 
Some Brazilian commentators noted that the debt was 
uncollectible in any case. End comment.)  He also pledged to 
make life easier for Cape Verdians who traveled to Brazil. 
Unfortunately for the President, getting out of Cape Verde 
was more difficult than getting in, as his 47-year old Boeing 
707 (affectionately known as the 'sucatao', or 'piece of 
junk') suffered mechanical problems.  An air force plane 
eventually rescued the President. 
 
5.  (SBU) Meanwhile, some Brazilian pundits roundly 
criticized Lula's most recent Africa foray, citing the 
irrelevance of the countries visited and ridiculing the 
President for promoting democracy and poverty eradication at 
the CPLP, then taking a Rolls Royce ride with a corrupt 
"dictator" in Gabon.  Popular columnist Diogo Mainardi in 
Veja, Brazil's version of Time magazine, acidly juxtaposed 
the Gabon spectacle with the President's failure to condemn, 
while on African soil, the genocide in Sudan. (Comment: 
Concurrent with Lula's trip to Africa, Brazil did support the 
UNSC Darfur resolution. End comment.) 
6.  (SBU)  Comment:  While Lula's most recent trip to Africa 
can be deemed neither clearly a success nor a failure, it was 
only marginally significant politically and even less so 
commercially.  The trip could have been an opportunity to 
further Brazil's South-South agenda and display Brazil as a 
leader and empathizer for the developing world.  But, Lula's 
latest travels may have been an opportunity lost for want of 
a substantive and coherent agenda and the President's 
continued penchant for unintentionally leaving in his wake 
inappropriate statements and images. 
 
DANILOVICH