Brazil and the U.S.: Diplomatic Allies?

 In spite of all the talk about the "historic friendship" between the two biggest countries in the Americas, the US is having large military drills with Brazil and almost every other country in South America to try to regain control of the area's important resources. This includes constant pressure on Brazil to make a deal with the US so that the US can use Brazil's important materials. US imperialism is pushing for both military and commercial projects in the area as a way to fight its "strategic competitors," including Iran, Russia, and most of all, China, which passed the US as the top trade partner of the major South American countries in the late 2000s. The aggressive way that US imperialism saw this anniversary was shown by the speeches made by the US officials that the Biden administration picked to represent the US at the celebrations in Brazil. In an official statement on May 27, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised the "bicentennial partnership" between the US and Brazil. He said, "We were allies in World War II, when US and Brazilian forces fought side by side in the Italian Campaign, showing courage and sacrifice that helped us win."

The most important American person in Brazil for the celebrations was Gen

Laura Richardson, who is in charge of the US Southern Command (SouthCom). SouthCom wrote on its X/Twitter account on May 20, the day Richardson arrived, that her trip was to "explore ways to deepen defense cooperation" with Brazil. The main hub of Brazil's arms industry is in São José dos Campos. Richardson and other US military officials went there to take part in a roundtable at a Boeing technology center and to visit the plant of the aerospace company Embraer, which also makes military aircraft, where they "discussed aerospace and defense partnerships." Brazil and the US celebrated their "bicentennial partnership" on May 22 on the USS George Washington, a nuclear aircraft carrier that was docked in Rio de Janeiro for the Southern Seas 2024 military exercise. this was the official event. The event took place on an American warship, and Richardson and Elisabeth Bagley, who is the US ambassador to Brazil, met with military leaders and government officials from Brazil to praise "the long-standing partnership between the two countries." The USS George Washington continued its trip to other South American coastal countries for military engagements and port visits meant "to enhance capability, improve interoperability, and strengthen maritime partnerships," according to SouthCom. These engagements and visits were planned after military exercises with the Brazilian Navy from May 17–19 off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. The aircraft carrier is now on its way to Peru, where the Resolute Sentinel 2024 military drill is taking place. About 1,500 soldiers from the US, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, and Peru are taking part.

General Richardson has made it harder for South American countries to form any kind of partnership with China, Iran, and Russia

Which, as she said in March at a US congressional hearing, have "authoritarian regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela" as their main partners. Richardson praised the US's relationships with "like-minded democracies" in the region that respect "sovereignty" and "the people" in an interview with the daily Valor Econômico on May 24. He said, "This is not the case with a communist country [referring to China], because they don't respect the rights of their own people." She also didn't like the idea of Brazil joining Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, which already has 21 of the 31 Latin American countries it wants to include. "This initiative looks very good at first," said General Richardson. "But sovereignty is taken away over time if the loans are not paid back." Instead, she pushed Brazil to join Washington's Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity. This was made up of the US and 10 Latin American countries in 2022 with the goal of integrating their supply chains. One of the things they wanted to do was look for important minerals that would be needed for the "energetic transition" in industry. On May 26, the spokeswoman for the Chinese Embassy in Brazil said that China would not stand for these actions. According to him, General Richardson told "complete political lies" about China. He also said that the US "adopts a typical Cold War mentality and follows a hegemonistic logic." It was also brought up that the US has a "dirty record" in the area and that it "has used 'democracy' and 'human rights' as a pretext to attack, sanction, and interfere in the countries of the region, bringing chaos and tragedy to many nations."

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers Party - PT) hid the history of Washington's military coups and other imperialist actions in Brazil and Latin America 

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers Party - PT) hid the history of Washington's military coups and other imperialist actions in Brazil and Latin America while they celebrated the friendship between their countries 200 years ago. The most important event on this list is the CIA-backed coup in Brazil in 1964. This started a bloody military regime that ruled the country for 21 years and crushed the working class and the political opposition. The country was also used as a staging area for US imperialism's actions in other parts of the region. Lula is trying to hide this "dark chapter" in the history of ties between the US and Brazil. This is part of his government's larger plan to "turn the page" on the history of the military coup, which happened 60 years ago this month. The PT has been doing these things to make the Brazilian military happy. The military was directly involved in the recent plot to stage a coup d'état led by the Nazi former president Jair Bolsonaro. Since then, Brazil's generals have grown their links with the US military, either through official partnerships backed by Lula or through channels that clearly violate the constitution but are not questioned by the PT.