23/11/2009 - 16:33h Brazilian protests greet Ahmadinejad at start of South American tour
Thousands take to streets in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to denounce Iranian president’s record on rights and Israel
- Rory Carroll, Latin American correspondent
- guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 November 2009 17.44 GMT
- Article history

Protesting against the visit of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Brasilia. Photograph: Andre Penner/AP
Protests greeted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Brazil at the start of a South American tour intended to bolster the Iranian president’s legitimacy and ease his country’s international isolation.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on the eve of Ahmadinejad’s arrival to denounce his record on human rights, homosexuality and Israel.
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, was expected to welcome the visitor with red carpet pomp in the capital, Brasilia, before holding talks on economic and political co-operation. “It doesn’t help isolating Iran,” Lula said in his weekly radio address today.
Around 200 Iranian businessmen accompanied Ahmadinejad’s delegation, in a sign of their eagerness to tap opportunities in a continent that does not consider Tehran a pariah. Iran’s leader faces simmering discontent at home and hostility in the west, but in Latin America he has friends and allies among a leftist bloc led by Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and including Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua.
“This is the first time in Latin American history that an Islamic government has been so present in the US backyard,” Hamid Molana, an Ahmadinejad adviser, told the Irna state news agency.

Luis Inácio Lula da Silva and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Brasilia. Photograph: Fernando Bizerra Jr/EPA
Achieving a first head of state invitation to Brazil was a diplomatic coup for Tehran because the region’s heavyweight had previously kept its distance. Hobnobbing with Lula, one of the world’s most popular leaders, shows that Ahmadinejad has diplomatic cards to play even if Europe, the US and much of the Middle East are against him.
“New orders should be established in the world,” Ahmadinejad said before leaving Tehran. “Iran, Brazil and Venezuela in particular can have determining roles in designing and establishing these new orders.”
Israel made a pre-emptive diplomatic strike last week when the president, Shimon Peres, visited Argentina and Brazil to lobby for a tough line on Iran’s suspected quest for a nuclear bomb.
On Rio’s Ipanema beach, groups representing gay people, artists, Christians, Jews, and Holocaust survivors carried protest banners and a giant cage containing white balloons as a symbol of Iran’s “repressed values”.
Opposition politicians criticised the visit. “One thing is a diplomatic relationship with dictatorships, another is to welcome their leaders in your home,” Jose Serra, the Sao Paulo state governor, wrote in a newspaper article.
Ahmadinejad and Lula are expected to sign accords on biotechnology, energy and farming which, Tehran hopes, could boost bilateral trade from $2bn to $15bn. They may discuss co-operation on building nuclear plants. The Iranian president is due to address Brazil’s congress and speak to university students before heading on to Bolivia and Venezuela.
The visit will test Brazil’s ambition to be a serious diplomatic player by courting friendship with everyone. It has urged dialogue with Iran instead of cornering the regime with sanctions.
“If Brazil is somehow able to moderate Iran’s policies on the nuclear question, or its practice in support of terrorist groups, it would give the Lula government a tremendous boost and enhanced global stature,” said Michael Shifter, an analyst with the Inter-American Dialogue thinktank.
“But if Brazil doesn’t succeed in influencing Iran’s conduct, or is seen as indulging and legitimising such a questionable regime, then it risks alienating some in the US and Europe who expect Brazil to take a firm stand, and might even hurt its chances to get a seat on the UN security council.”
Brazil has reportedly asked Ahmadinejad to steer clear of homophobic comments, Holocaust denial and threats against Israel. Another delicate point will be Tehran’s crackdown on dissent after June’s presidential election.
The US has welcomed Brazil’s burgeoning diplomatic role but some members of Congress accused it of erring in “lending legitimacy” to Iran’s leader.








Para felicidade dos que apreciam a inteligência, o professor Antônio Barros de Castro, recém-saído de uma delicada sucessão de cirurgias, volta hoje ao debate público, numa participação de última hora no Fórum Nacional promovido pelo ex-ministro Reis Velloso. Barros de Castro apresentará a última revisão do estudo mostrado pela primeira vez durante a comemoração dos 200 anos do ministério da Fazenda, no ano passado. Ele garante que, apesar da crise financeira, inaugurou-se um novo grande ciclo na economia mundial, puxado pela China e favorável a países ricos em recursos naturais. Como o Brasil.





Haverá alguma possibilidade de a invasão militar de Israel na Faixa de Gaza “destroçar a infraestrutura terrorista” do Hamas – objetivo oficial da operação – e pôr fim ao disparo de foguetes artesanais dos integristas palestinos de Gaza contra as cidades israelenses da fronteira? Acho que nenhuma. Ao contrário, essa operação militar, que até este exato momento deixou milhares de feridos e já matou quase 900 palestinos, entre eles um grande número de crianças e de civis, terá o efeito de um massacre de parte da comunidade palestina, da qual o Hamas sairá fortalecido, e o setor moderado, ou seja, a Autoridade Nacional Palestina (ANP), liderada por Mahmud Abbas, será diminuída.

Depois de visitar Sderot, em abril, e observar os danos psicológicos causados pelos foguetes que caíram naquela área, minha mulher, Rosalynn, e eu concluímos que esses ataques com foguetes lançados de Gaza eram imperdoáveis, um ato de terrorismo. Embora as vítimas sejam raras (três mortes em sete anos), a cidade estava traumatizada pelas explosões. Cerca de 300 moradores mudaram para outras comunidades e as ruas, playgrounds e shopping centers estavam vazios. O prefeito Eli Moyal reuniu um grupo de cidadãos em seu gabinete para conversar conosco e eles se queixaram que o governo de Israel não conseguia pôr um fim a esses ataques, seja pela diplomacia ou por uma ação militar.

