MEDIA REACTION: WESTERN HEMISPHERE: BRAZIL, LULA'S SECOND

UNCLAS SAO PAULO 001268 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD DEPT PASS USTR USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: WESTERN HEMISPHERE: BRAZIL, LULA'S SECOND TERM; SAO PAULO "Personal Diplomacy" The lead editorial in center-right O Estado de S. Paulo (12/15) maintained: "Personal diplomacy, when directly conducted by the President in contact with other chiefs of state and government, may be a powerful and worthwhile foreign policy tool.... When the presidential diplomacy only reflects the chief of the government's interests or idiosyncrasies or those of the group advising him, then the result is almost always disastrous. President Lula had the best conditions to perform an efficient personal diplomacy.... But after four years, what we have is a foreign policy tied to old fashioned concepts. They are remnants of old misconceptions and formulas that remind one to the climate of confrontation between blocs that was typical of the cold War and has no justification in the globalization era. Such a foreign policy was drafted in accordance with the peculiar way President Lula and his close advisors - concerned in carrying out a foreign policy independent from the US and the EU - see the world.... President Lula is too reverent and subject to humiliations imposed by Colonel Hugo Chvez, who is the self-proclaimed successor of Fidel Castro as the leader in the fight against American imperialism.... Last week, the wish of not displeasing African nations and not giving the impression of alignment with the European nations led Brazilian diplomacy to assume a shameful posture at the UN Human Rights Council examining the situation in Darfur.... Looking for reciprocity, which in this case is expected to become trade in the areas of oil and sugar, the GOB not only separated from the Western nations, but got distanced itself from decency." Wolfe