The Itaipu Dam on the Brazil-Paraguay border has been a source of tension between the two countries.

In November, the Worldfocus signature series on “Brazil Today” explored Brazil’s emerging power, touching on growth of the oil industry and the state-controlled company Petrobras: Brazil emerges as an oil giant.

But Brazil’s rise has not been entirely smooth, and the country has had run-ins with its South American neighbors. Bolivia and Petrobras have had disputes over gas exports. There have also been land disputes between Paraguayans and Brazilians, during which peasant farmers burned the Brazilian flag.

Raúl Zibechi is an international analyst, lecturer and researcher on social movements at the Multiversidad Franciscana de América Latina. He writes at “Upside Down World” about Brazil’s emerging power and its impact on smaller neighboring countries.

Is Brazil creating its own “backyard” in Latin America?

In past months a number of conflicts have occurred between the emerging global power of Brazil and its smaller neighbors, in particular Ecuador and Paraguay. This has led Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government to defend Brazil’s multinationals and to mobilize troops to protect the nation’s interests.

The power vacuum left by waning U.S. influence in South America has been filled by new global world powers as well as a local power with the ambition of becoming a global player . As recent as the 1990s it was European capital—Spanish and French—that was most dynamic in South America, buying up privatized state-owned enterprises. More recently, China has tried to move into the economic void, importing oil and gas and investing in mining.

For some time Brazil has set out to expand its influence using the South American region as its springboard, a fact that has been the subject of various analyses and studies. However, lately this expansionist policy has generated serious conflicts such as that between Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa and Lula da Silva. In some of these disputes Brazil has deployed troops to reinforce its national interests, as happened recently on the Paraguayan border.

It is possible that the growing resentment toward Brazilian companies is the price to be paid for Brazil’s commercial and economic expansion. Recently Brazilians began hearing complaints about the country’s “imperialism.” In 2004, Brazil’s Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) began to experience spectacular growth. That year Brazilian companies invested US$10 billion dollars abroad, as compared with just $250 million the year before. By 2005, the sum total of Brazilian FDI reached $71 billion, as compared with Mexico’s $28 billion (Mexico is Latin America’s second largest FDI investor). A significant proportion of this recent business expansion is taking place in countries that border on Brazil.

[...]On Oct. 2, Lula enacted Decree 6.952, which regulates the National Mobilization System dedicated to confronting “foreign aggression.” The decree defines “foreign aggression” as “threats or injurious acts that harm national sovereignty, territorial integrity, the Brazilian people, or national institutions, even when they do not constitute an invasion of national territory.”

An editorial column of Defesanet states that the approval of the decree constitutes a clear message to neighboring countries: “Any act of aggression or persecution of Brazilian citizens residing in Paraguay (brasiguayos), in the Pando region of Bolivia, as well as new threats to cut gas lines and take over Brazilian installations and companies operating in other countries are now characterized as external aggressions and a military response from Brazil will be legally sanctioned.”

The issue transcends the Lula government. It is basically the affirmation of an emerging power that its borders extend to wherever its national interests are. All great powers were built up in this way, with an attitude that has always been known as “imperialism.” Maybe that’s why many South Americans feel that Brazil is creating its own “backyard.”

To read more, see the original post.

The views expressed by contributing bloggers do not reflect the views of Worldfocus or its partners.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user World Resources Institute under a Creative Commons license.

Flooding in Itajai has left much of the Brazilian city underwater.

Floods in Brazil have killed at least 117 and driven more than 100,000 from their homes. Now, victims are beginning to return home, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has pledged to help rebuild the worst-hit areas.

Several months’ worth of rain fell on Brazil in under a week, leaving parts of the southern state of Santa Catarina underwater.

Global Voices Online posts accounts of Portuguese-language bloggers in affected areas — some forced to leave their homes – here and here.

The “Luz e Estilo” blog posts photos from Itajai, a city in Santa Catarina that witnessed some of the worst flooding.

The Itajai city government set up an information blog in the wake of the floods.

Blogger “Gschineider” visits Itajai and writes that people are trying to return to normal, though wary of continuing rain.

Blogger “Gringa in Rio” calls the floods the “Brazilian Katrina” and suggests that global warming is at fault.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user emarquetti under a Creative Commons license.

An overturned bus alongside the BR 101 in Brazil.

Bryan Myers reported with Megan Thompson from Brazil on a story about roads and infrastructure.

Read Bryan’s other blog posts from the field: Truckin’ through Brazil and Brazil plans to improve highways.

As part of its plan to enlist private companies, the Brazilian government has leased several of its major highways to private companies, making those companies responsible for maintenance and repairs and, in return, allowing them to collect tolls. Currently, seven stretches of Brazilian highway are in private hands, and that number is expected to grow.

The tolls aren’t cheap. We took a drive on a highway that has already been privatized, the Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo highway. We paid $20 (U.S.) for the privilege of driving about 175 miles. That amounts to the daily take-home pay of the average Brazilian.

We also visited a highway that was being repaired in anticipation of being privatized — a highway running north from Rio de Janeiro to the town of Campos. A road crew was busy repaving the roadway with a soupy mixture of oil and stone, not the dense macadam Americans are accustomed to seeing on their highways.  The crew’s foreman told us that once his bosses put their toll booths in place, some members of his crew probably wouldn’t be able to afford to drive the very road they were helping to fix.

The debate about turning highways over to private hands mirrors one happening in America. Here too, some state and local governments are trying to privatize roads. A recent effort by officials in Pennsylvania to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike — the first major road ever built in America — to a consortium led by banking giant Citigroup has been met with stiff resistance.

In America, at least, many believe the push to privatize flies in the face of the concept of “public works.”  Last year, a poll of Pennsylvania drivers showed the majority opposed to the idea. Many of them seem to agree with Adam Smith, the man who first articulated the concept of free market capitalism, when he wrote that governments should provide some things to all its citizens — public works like roads being one of them.

Back in Brazil, we asked a contractor in charge of work on the BR 101 near the port of Sepetiba about all of this. He told us that even if the poor can’t afford to pay tolls, they would still benefit. The poor, he said, don’t even own cars, so for them, the issue of tolls was moot.  However, he said they do take buses and that bus accidents are a big problem in Brazil.  So, he said, anything that makes the roads safer will also help the poor.

After we finished our interview, we hopped into our car and drove off. About five miles up the road we saw a bus overturned, lying in a ditch on the side of a road. The passengers had already been evacuated and the bus didn’t appear to be heavily damaged, but it served as an eerie reminder of the contractor’s words.

- Bryan Myers

Brazilian workers pave a road.

Bryan Myers reported with Megan Thompson from Brazil on an upcoming story on roads and infrastructure.

Read Bryan’s first blog post from the field: Truckin’ through Brazil.

According to Pedro Bastos, an HSBC investment officer based in Brazil, “We need to invest in highways, rail networks, and airports. We need to improve our infrastructure to take our harvests to ports or processing centers. And frankly, we didn’t invest when we needed to.”

Many truckers couldn’t agree more. One trucker we spoke with has been driving along the same shoddy road for 34 years. He delivers eucalyptus wood from Brazil’s central coast to brick kilns near Rio de Janeiro. He said it was about time the government did something, and told us he’s looking forward to the day his trip goes a little smoother and a little faster.

However, we did meet one trucker who said he thought the government was “lying,” saying that officials have a long history of announcing ambitious plans, only for them to result in nothing. He’ll believe it when he sees it, he said.

One of the roads high on the government’s priority list for improvement is the BR 101. The BR 101 is a two-lane road that leads into the important port of Sepetiba, just south of Rio de Janeiro. As it is, the road has trouble handling all the trucks trying to get into the port. The sight of trucks lined up idling alongside the road is common. The 101 is now being widened to four lanes and appears to be close to completion.

Eventually, the government hopes to connect the 101 with another road on the opposite side of Rio de Janeiro, the BR 493. The 493 is also a narrow two-lane, full of bumps and swales, and it too is slated for improvement.

What is the goal of connecting the 101 and 493? To eventually form a bypass around Rio de Janeiro, solving another problem — that of trucks having to pass through the city.

Some of the $250 billion dollars President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wants to spend on Brazil’s infrastructure will come from public coffers. But the rest is expected to come from private investment. This effort to enlist private companies has some wondering if Brazil’s poorer citizens will literally be relegated to the slow lane.

- Bryan Myers

Trucks along BR 493 near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Ask Americans what come to mind when they hear the words “road trip,” and they are likely to mention things like “adventure” and “freedom.”

Mention these words to a Brazilian, and you’re more likely to hear things like “ordeal” and “frustration.”  Simply put, driving long distances in Brazil can be a trying experience.

Along with several reporters from the Worldfocus team, I spent several days traveling Brazil’s highways, talking with motorists and truckers.

Although Brazil is almost the size of the United States, it doesn’t have nearly as many major highways. Apart from areas around São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, most roads labeled as “highways” are actually two-lane roads. Many of them are in poor shape.  Adding to Brazil’s highway headaches are the large number of 18-wheelers on the road—in Brazil, most goods are shipped by truck.

But if Brazil’s president has his way, that’s all about to change. Last year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the most ambitious plan to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure in Brazilian history. Lula’s plan calls for spending over $250 billion on infrastructure projects by the year 2010 — $17 billion of that will go toward fixing roads.

Lula’s plan couldn’t come at a more crucial time. Along with China and India, Brazil is one of the world’s hottest economies. Much of its newfound wealth is the result of exporting commodities like iron ore, coffee and soybeans. In turn, a newly prosperous middle class is hungry for imports of consumer goods. Timely shipments are essential to keeping the wheels of commerce turning.

- Bryan Myers

Read Bryan’s second blog post from the field: Brazil plans to improve highways.