LULA IN AFRICA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 001975

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL ECON BR
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