Brazil's President: 'Bush, my son, you ought to settle your crisis'

Brazil's President Lula da Silva declared at a press conference he had called President Bush twice to say Brazil might help him solve the US credit crisis. He called Mr. Bush while meeting with Venezuela's Chavez, who was on a state visit to Brazil.

Digital Journal -- Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva declared at a press conference Thursday he had just called President Bush twice to say Brazil might help him solve the US credit crisis. He called Mr. Bush while meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was visiting his Brazilian counterpart in the capital city of the northeastern state of Pernambuco. Most Brazilian TV and radio newscasters responded at once to Lula's jocose words. Local newspapers printed big-sized front-page headlines. "Bush, my son, you ought to settle your crisis", he told the press as saying on the phone. "Now that Brazil is beginning to grow, the US financial crisis must not be allowed to hold us back. We have bank rescuing know-how; we have PROER and we might even help you out of that", Lula said with a sneering voice pitch while telling a crowd of extended media microphones and hand-held voice recorders about his jeering, impolite tip to Mr. Bush. PROER is a federal program to rescue and save ruining banks in certain cases of national interest. Lula's call was made in a socializing atmosphere during the state visit of Venezuelan President Hugo Chaves to Recife, the capital of Pernambuco State, where both presidents made an agreement to build a joint oil refinery in the city. Upon disembarking in Recife's Air Force Base, Chavez anticipated the refinery was a nice project and he was willing to invest US$ 4 billion in it, especially because it was part of a strategic alliance, he said. The final agreement on the refinery, they said, is expected to be signed by Brazil and Venezuela in two years. The investment amount mentioned by Chavez corresponds to the total cost of the refinery. The state-run Brazilian oil company Petrobras has been so far in charge of ground filling and earth levelling works. Petrobras envisages a 60 per cent share, while PDVSA is due to hold 40 per cent of the enterprise. PDVSA is expected to invest US$ 1.7 billion in the joint venture and is allegedly going to make US$ 200 to 300 million available to the refinery this very year. "One cock-crow makes no dawn" Chavez and Lula flew over the refinery earth-moving work sites on Wednesday afternoon. The refinery is located at Suape's port facilities in the municipality of Ipojuca on the southern coast of Recife, where they posed for picture-taking beside earth-moving machines and workers. During the visit to the work site, Chavez and his presidential party were wearing red-coloured shirts, while Lula was wearing a blue shirt. Chaves quoted Manuel Bandeira, a Brazilian poet from Pernambuco: "One cock-crow makes no dawn". Regional security Chaves also defended the regional security project proposed by Nelson Jobim, the Brazilian Minister of Defense..."for us to defend ourselves and to secure independence from neo-imperialism", he claimed. Shipyard Lula and Chaves also visited Suape's South Atlantic Shipyard Training Center where 160 professionals are being trained to build ships. A group of 360 workers has already completed its training at Suape's premises. It is estimated that 4.7 thousand professionals will be properly trained and graduated by 2010. The shipyard will be prepared to process 10 thousand tons of steel in a year and offer five thousand job positions. Source: Estado news agency and newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo, March 27,2008.